Devil's Gate (2017)
Set in the small town of Devil's Gate, North Dakota,
the film examines the disappearance of a local woman (Regan) and her
young son. Schull plays an FBI agent who helps the local sheriff (...
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Director:
Clay StaubStars:
Set in the small town of Devil's Gate, North Dakota, the film examines
the disappearance of a local woman (Regan) and her young son. Schull
plays an FBI agent who helps the local sheriff (Frakes) search for
answers. Partnering with a deputy (Ashmore), they track down the missing
woman's husband (Ventimiglia) and find that nothing is as it seems.
Language:
EnglishRelease Date:
5 January 2018 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
Devil's Gate See more »Company Credits
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Trivia
Shawn Ashmore (Conrad 'Colt' Salter) and Amanda Schull (FBI Special
Agent Daria Francis) have both worked with actor Aaron Stanford: Shawn
and Aaron appeared together in both the movies 'X-Men 2' and 'X-Men:
Last Stand', playing Bobby Drake/Ice Man and John Allerdyce/Pyro
respectively, while Amanda and Aaron appeared in the TV show '12
Monkeys', playing Dr. Cassandra Railly and James Cole respectability.
A farmer's fringe-y religious beliefs prove oddly rooted in reality in Devil's Gate, the first feature by director Clay Staub and his co-screenwriter Peter Aperlo. The fact that the pic is titled Abduction in
other territories more than hints at the fact that what this troubled
man sees as angels or demons may in fact be old-fashioned
extra-terrestrials. But his confusion and zeal add little texture to
this unmoving genre exercise. A cast with plenty of exposure on TV
series may help with the film's commercial prospects, but only the least
critical genre auds are likely to enjoy it much.
Milo Ventimiglia (This Is Us) plays Jackson Pritchard, whose family has owned this plot of land for several generations, barely scraping by but believing angels will some day make the ground fertile. Though he's known to be unkind to his wife and son, local good-ol-boy lawmen don't want to question him when they disappear. It takes an out-of-town FBI agent, Amanda Schull's Daria Francis, to force the issue, insisting that sheriff's deputy Colt Salter (Shawn Ashmore) accompany her out to the family compound.
In addition to creaky, booby-trapped buildings that scream "hillbilly serial killer," the two encounter some phenomena they can't easily explain; with Pritchard trying to threaten them off his land and sabotage their attempts to search his home, they have little chance to protect themselves before they realize what the man has trapped in his basement.
Suffice to say that the icky thing down there is not only connected to Pritchard's family's disappearance, but it has friends. Soon, the humans are in a siege situation, trying to fend off beasts until they can find a way back to safety.
Though the FX and photography are competent for a film of this scale, the screenwriters appear to have put much less effort into dialogue and pacing. That, plus hit-and-miss acting, means viewers may have a hard time sticking with the film until the real action starts. Even then, they won't be rewarded with much in terms of mystery: Though Aperlo and Staub allude not just to religious faith but to real-world themes of colonialism and conquest, what's onscreen isn't persuasive enough to give those themes the appropriate weight.
Milo Ventimiglia (This Is Us) plays Jackson Pritchard, whose family has owned this plot of land for several generations, barely scraping by but believing angels will some day make the ground fertile. Though he's known to be unkind to his wife and son, local good-ol-boy lawmen don't want to question him when they disappear. It takes an out-of-town FBI agent, Amanda Schull's Daria Francis, to force the issue, insisting that sheriff's deputy Colt Salter (Shawn Ashmore) accompany her out to the family compound.
In addition to creaky, booby-trapped buildings that scream "hillbilly serial killer," the two encounter some phenomena they can't easily explain; with Pritchard trying to threaten them off his land and sabotage their attempts to search his home, they have little chance to protect themselves before they realize what the man has trapped in his basement.
Suffice to say that the icky thing down there is not only connected to Pritchard's family's disappearance, but it has friends. Soon, the humans are in a siege situation, trying to fend off beasts until they can find a way back to safety.
Though the FX and photography are competent for a film of this scale, the screenwriters appear to have put much less effort into dialogue and pacing. That, plus hit-and-miss acting, means viewers may have a hard time sticking with the film until the real action starts. Even then, they won't be rewarded with much in terms of mystery: Though Aperlo and Staub allude not just to religious faith but to real-world themes of colonialism and conquest, what's onscreen isn't persuasive enough to give those themes the appropriate weight.
The movie is extremly brutal and bloody and some of sequences do not make any sense. It gets lots in its own brutality.
Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.
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