You may have been there for Milo Ventimiglia during Heroes. You were there for him during Gilmore Girls, and you are definitely there for him during This Is Us, but were you there for him during Kiss of the Damned, The Divide, an extraordinarily bad handful of episodes as a serial killer in Gotham? I was, but maybe you don’t know how bad it got for Milo in those in between years. I was fully prepared that Devil’s Gate was one of those crappy jobs that he took to pay the rent, but they waited to release it for home viewing once fortune shined on his face again hoping to trick audiences into watching it. I came to this mess with my eyes wide open, and while it is better than most of the garbage that I previously mentioned, it isn’t good. I’m going to spoil the whole thing. If you watch it even with my warnings, ask yourself why you don’t believe that you deserve better.
Devil’s Gate sounds like one thing, but is actually another, and neither option is too appealing based on the execution. Based on the title and the description of the movie, it sounds like something supernatural is going on, specifically demonic, but the twist is that it is actually aliens, and because the abductees view everything through the Bible, they initially believe that they are angels then demons when the historic relationship between the family and aliens goes south. Believe it or not, this aspect of the movie could have worked and surprised me. I was raised fundamentalist, and a favorite theory among fundamentalist Christians is that aliens are actually fallen angels and can be classified as Nephillim. I was actually hopeful when I realized this twist fairly early on because I adore any mash ups between Christian fundamentalism and sci-fi plus a good bad movie is a treasure, but alas, it is not that kind of movie.
Apparently the movie did not think that one shell game was sufficient that they created another, which was instantaneously obvious to me. Devil’s Gate tries to set viewers up to believe that Milo’s character, the patriarch, is a completely sadistic nut job who killed his family—a cross between the family from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Deliverance. I have no idea why I didn’t buy it, but they were laying it on too thick from the beginning plus when Riker, I mean Jonathan Frakes, and Bobby from X-Men, Shawn Ashmore, act like this dude is normal, I knew that I was being set up for the okie doke. He is simply freaked out and driven mad by all the alien experimentation. Plot twist: he also is not aware that he may not be him anymore, which I didn’t necessarily guess, but with movie aliens, always expect an invasion of the body snatchers. It is kind of their thing. I think that they should have played the whole thing straight because it makes the one likeable character seem stupid when she begins to let her guard down.
The best aspect of this dreadful movie was the FBI agent. She actually takes psycho dad down and equips herself well during the alien invasion, which is in line with what I would like to believe about women FBI agents—that they are prepared to throw down with anyone in any situation. Unfortunately because there is a rational explanation for every one’s nutty explanation, she begins to trust the family. Um, lady, you can’t trust them, and you shouldn’t. Aliens literally experimented on them! Forget PTSD, this experience literally changed them. Trust no one. She gets knocked out near the end so we can have a trite moment.
I love Bridget Regan, but it is obvious that other than Marvel’s Agent Carter, no one knows what to do with this actor. She is great and deserves way better than playing Rosemary in a sci-fi twist on a recent Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode, The Book of Esther, and season 3 of The Killing. Basically she has a choice: save the world and get revenge on the aliens who ruined her life and destroyed her family or follow a mother’s instinct, save her alien hybrid baby and shoot her husband, who has the right idea, and he isn’t even human anymore. Regan can act so well that she could have pulled off either one, but she was under utilized, and the movie chose the easy route. Ugh, it was so trite and disappointing. I would have killed the kid. New mother, who dis? Movies and TV shows never show the mother rejecting her kid except eventually Gabrielle in Xena: The Warrior Princess, and it took her way too long to come around. People don’t like the kids that are fully their choice and never got experimented on by nefarious, mysterious forces. This concept should not be unimaginable.
Devil’s Gate felt longer than it was. Whenever it revealed something interesting, it suddenly got abbreviated and hinky with the details. The majority of the film was super clear then it would hope for you to make implied connections, which was annoying, when it revealed something interesting about the aliens. The accent choices needed to be agreed upon because the cops and the family are supposed to be from the same region, but some are more exaggerated than others. Milo overacted his butt off, and not in a good way. I feel as if the filmmakers toyed with the idea that the cops and the entire region knew more than they were pretending to the FBI agent, especially the way that they discussed the family’s relationship with the land, but at the eleventh hour, they drop it in favor of, “No one will believe you so don’t tell anyone. Oh well, we’re going to be colonized by aliens. Have a nice day.” Surely we can do better, right? No? A dude got his head crushed psychically, which was actually a nice feature in the movie, and we are not even going to try to destroy the kid and his now complicit mother. If you’re covering up an alien invasion, why not cover up a couple of mysterious deaths. You were already cool with doing that earlier.
Side note: the basement door was locked and barricaded then suddenly the dog is down there. Sloppy, lazy editing. If you’re going to make a bad movie, take some pride in it. Honestly I lost all suspension of disbelief fairly early when the FBI agent revealed that she was driven because she did not solve a case involving a missing black girl. I wish. Please don’t make a sequel.
Devil’s Gate could have worked with more discipline, consistency and vision. It isn’t even so good that it is bad. It is just a movie that relies on plot twists instead of a more organic narrative trajectory to grab our attention, which ended up having the opposite effect and becoming predictable. The major plot twist would have been enough, but it chooses to pick a little bit of everything from the trope buffet and is so derivative that it makes you yearn for the original movies that created those tropes. Skip it and see The Endless instead!