|
|
It really started out as a party gag when psychic Vesna (Aphrodite
Nikolovski) showed up at Richie (Kris Reilly) and Cassidy's (Kaiti Wallen)
party to do some readings, and then did a séance with some of the guests,
just for a laugh. Now Richie was against it from the beginning, as he
doesn't believe in such mumbo-jumbo, but then at the séance some spirit
or something is set free that might just be Richie's father Carter (Yan
Birch) - and Carter wasn't a good man, so bad in fact that Richie had to
shoot him dead at age 12 protecting his mother Sharon (Laurene Landon)
from being strangled. Sharon has been in an asylum ever since.
Thing is, what has been released by Vesna won't go back where it came
from, and now terrorizes not only Richie and Cassidy but also their
friends Madelyn (Jessica Johnson) and Cameron (Francisco Posada) as well
as sisters Natalie (Stacey Saunders) and Tiffany (Angelina Danielle Cama),
whose father it eventually kills. Things get bad enough for even Richie
agreeing to call Vesna for help, and Vesna brings in demon killer Zeb
(Harley Wallen), and soon enough they camp at Richie and Cassidy's place
together with Madelyn, Cameron, Natalie and Tiffany, to set up a trap for
what they believe to be demon Agramon (Calhoun Koenig), who desperately
tries to cross over into our world. Unfortunately, Agramon has an ace up
his sleeve, Richie's mother, whom he tortures and eventually kills just to
lure Richie out into the open - and it's more than doubtful that our
heroes combined force will be strong enough to defeat the demon for good
...
Ok, so the premise for Agramon's Gate might be far fetched and
confusing, even within the horror realm - but that doesn't matter one bit,
because this is a movie that definitely gets it right: It might use a slow
build-up, but it's never boring, always putting a focus on suspense when
doing so, it's populated by fleshed-out characters who are so damn
relatable because they're flawed, it uses plenty of tried-and-true
scare tactics but sparingly for maximum effect, and places its jump scares
only where they need to be. And add to that a strong cast, and you've got
yourself a very solid piece of genre entertainment that's well worth a
watch (or two).
|
|
|