Beyond the Gates

Low-budget flicks like Phantasm, House and The Gate are the inspiration for this slice of retro-horror from director Jackson Stewart. Here, estranged brothers - one stuffy, the other slovenly - are drawn into playing an old VHS board game they discover while clearing out dad's deserted video store, their old man having disappeared months before. Synth music, ghoulish apparitions, a misty depiction of the gates of hell and scrabbling around for keys in odd places certainly demonstrate Stewart's love for cult movies from the late 1970s and 80s. And admittedly, there are attention-grabbing moments of schlock carnage. But they are too few and far between, and not even horror diva Barbara Crampton as the alluring televisual gatekeeper can obscure how glacial an experience it is.