Well it’s that time of year again, when Dion Baia and J. Blake sit down and up their output to one-episode-a-week for the Halloween season. And for the 2017 Horror-extravaganza the boys are kicking the month off with an often-requested film by SNMS listeners, the absolute cult classic, The Gate, from 1987.

The lads start off by reminiscing about their first childhood sleepovers in which they had friends attending; watching certain movies at a young age that they only learn the names of much years later in life; and the old idea from when we were all kids, that if you dig a hole deep enough, you’d make it to China– (remember that old myth?!) Blake and Dion then get down to business, discussing this horror classic. They chat about how the script got off the ground, shooting up in Canada, and how very early on it was decided to make this a horror movie specifically geared toward kids. They get into the occultism phenomenon that swept the country and world in the 1970s and 80s, giving us subgenres of horror films (like this one), music, and even things aimed at children, like Ouija Board‘s that are still mass-produced by companies like Hasbro. The fellas also talk about the excellent Special Effects in the film, particularly the amazing use of Forced Perspective, which really helped sell the Minions’ interaction with the human cast. So, what film did SFX man Randall William Cook screen for the filmmakers to sell them on this ideas for the SFX in The Gate ? How do those Effects hold up today? In what direction does the sequel go? And what’s the story with the film’s costar, Louis Tripp, and his journey from moving to Austrialia and changing his name from “Twelve Twenty“, to now Baph Tripp and releasing music under the name x.a.o.s? Well, make sure you don’t accidently read any dubious LP cover art or crudely dispose of any recently deceased family pets in any bottomless pits in the backyard, cause the guys are back with an all new, Halloween edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!

Extras!

Check out the original trailer for The Gate !

Have a watch of a documentary called The GateKeepers, about the making-of The Gate!

Check out this making-of  about the SFX called, From Hell- The Creatures and Demons from the Gate !

Take a listen to Louis Tripp, aka Baphomet Tripp, aka x.a.o.s, and his song Big Daddy which was just released on YouTube.

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