VHS-heads like myself are getting all unnecessary about Jackson Stewart’s Beyond the Gates, which centres around a video board game in the mould of Atmosfear (or Nightmare, depending where you were in the world in the late-80s). Ahead of upcoming screenings at both the Bruce Campbell Horror Film Festival in Chicago and London’s Horror Channel Frightfest, the nostalgia-drenched spooker has been picked up for distribution by horror specialists IFC Midnight.
The deal was struck following Beyond the Gates’ premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June, which saw it garnering some very favourable reviews. Described as something of a throwback to the likes of Re-Animator, The Gate and Poltergeist, Beyond the Gates stars horror icon Barbara Crampton alongside Graham Skipper (Carnage Park, The Mind’s Eye), Chase Williamson (The Guest, Siren), and Brea Grant (Halloween 2, Dexter).
In Beyond the Gates, two estranged brothers reunite seven months after their father’s disappearance to liquidate his anemic video store. While there, they unearth an old VCR board game that acts as an inter-dimensional hub to a nightmare world where their Father’s soul is trapped and can only be saved by playing the game. The film is an adventure horror that pays loving tribute to the VHS format, video stores, and board games of the era.
Words: Kevan Farrow (@KevanX)
