Dread Central relayed some news from JoBlo.com this morning that one of my early horror favorites, The Gate is being remade in 3-D by the effects team responsible for the original movie. Randall William Cook, who worked for WETA on projects like King Kong and Lord of the Rings is gearing up to direct the remake.
If you’re just joining us, The Gate was a late 80′s entry into soft horror for the teen crowd where a pair of kids fight off stop-motion demons in their back yard when the perfect storm of satanic elements descend on their home. It’s goofy, it’s tons of fun and really capitalized on the satanic panic of the time where an evil heavy metal album helps bring armageddon to the suburbs. It’s definitely worth looking up if you haven’t seen it.
You know me. I have no vested interest in remakes and I’m baffled by the enduring gimmick of 3-D which I have never seen used to any great effect. This 3-D remake, no doubt, owes some kind of debt to the recent 3-D remake of Night of the Living Dead.
December 5, 2007 9:50 am
if you’ve never seen 3D used to any great effect, that means you have not seen Polar Express in 3D. You should check out the comments online about this version. Every aspect of the film leaps out at you. It’s phenomenal.
December 5, 2007 10:47 am
I actually have not. Nothing about Polar Express suggested to me that I needed to see it.
December 6, 2007 12:58 am
I’ve never really understood the whole 3-D craze, either. Captain EO — Disney’s old Michael Jackson 3-D attraction directed by Francis Ford Coppola — was interesting, but I was ready for the headache to end long before it finally concluded. Maybe I just need to see this technique used within a feature I genuinely care about.
December 7, 2007 10:28 pm
We saw Beouwolf in 3D at the IMax Theater. and the new digital 3D is amazing. Far superior to what was out 10-15 years ago. You actually wear these glasses that resemble just fancy sunglasses. The depth of field is stunning. You can actually see volume of an object not just some shilouette in front of another object. Now take that in stride because the movie storyline itself sucked. I also didn’t get a headache like I usually did from 3D. Unfortunately Beouwolf was a pretty dull movie but watching it for the visuals alone was well worth admission price. Angela Joline in 3D anyone?
Oh back to the Gate. I loved that movie when I was a kid. It truly was an exciting fun horror film that represented the golden age of horror in the 80′s up there with night of the creeps and others that stuck in my brain. I saw it a few years back again and it didn’t really stand up to the test of time the way I remembered it as a kid. Oh well I’m getting old.