Hellgate (1989) User Reviews

Live Nude Horschak!

[stmichaeldet · 4/10 · 17 June 2006]

Please, don't ask me what this movie's about, 'cause I've seen it a couple of times now, and I'm still not sure. I know it's about strange goings-on in a tourist-attraction ghost town called Hellgate. And there's this blue crystal that can raise the dead (kinda), make the living swell up and burst, and shoot a blue beam that makes things 'splode real good. And there's a motorcycle gang in the 'fifties who kidnap a girl from Hellgate, take her up there, and end up killing her after her dad(? I think.) attacks them with his awesome axe- and knife-throwing skills. And there's a group of modern-day teens (well, modern for 1989, anyway) who get mixed up in the whole mess, 'cause the dead girl, Josie, likes to seduce random men by wandering in the road playing Phantom Hitchhiker. But no one involved in this film seems to know how all these pieces fit together, so there's no way the poor, defenseless viewer is gonna make heads or tails of it.

But a confusing plot, terrible dialog, and crappy acting are the least of this movie's crimes. The worst offense is the casting of Ron Palillo (TV's Horschak, from Welcome Back, Kotter) as a leading man. Who is apparently irresistibly attractive to women. And has a gorgeous, but insanely jealous and possessive girlfriend. With whom he has a sex scene where we see nearly every possible nude-Horschak camera angle with the exception of a full-frontal. (And it's a good thing they don't go there; I like my eyes, and it'd be a shame if I had to claw them out in horror at the memory.)

Hmmm... Hellgate Becomes Hell To watch

[CMRKeyboadist · 4/10 · 6 June 2006]

It is always hard to review a movie that is just so bad. Hellgate proves to be one of those movies. Starring Ron Palillo of "Welcome Back Cotter" and playing a smaller part in "Friday the 13th Part 6", this is absolutely the best this movie can muster, other than some nudity of the co-star Abigail Wolcott as Josie.

The story unfolds in classic manner: we start with a flashback of a biker gang coming into the town of Hellgate. They kidnap Josie and murder her in front of her father. Her father, distraught over the death of his daughter, finds away to bring her back from the dead using a mysterious stone that was found in a mine. Unfortuanitly, he goes mad with power and turns the town of Hellgate into a ghost town. 30 years later, two couples end up exploring into Hellgate to find out about the mystery and get more than they bargained for.

I saw this film about 10 years ago and couldn't remember whether it was any good or not to watch over. So, with a little bit of searching, I found a fairly decent copy of this flick. I will put it this way, this is a hard film to sit through. It starts off kind of interesting with its back story but just goes on a tangent of hopeless boredom, bad acting, and horrendous script writing. Most of the movie seems to be torn from a bad comedy or an old fashioned horror film and not melding together with pretty results. And the worst part is the ending just falls flat on its face with absolutely NO real climax. The only part I really liked was Josie's crazy father in the movie, who apparently can't speak a word of English.

Altogether, if you have a very high tolerance for movies such as this, go ahead and check it out. Otherwise, stay very VERY far away. 4/10

Really bad.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 4/10 · 8 December 2004]

A group of college kids travel to the ghost town of Hellgate to find out the truth about a young woman who was murdered by a motorcycle gang in the 1950's.There,they are greeted by ghosts and walking dead."Hellgate" is a cheesy horror flick that will satisfy only the most undemanding fans of horror genre.The acting is terrible and the script is cheesy beyond belief.There is a fair amount of blood and gore including a nice decapitation scene,unfortunately the special effects are lame.The only reasons to see this stinker are a fish on steroids and re-animated turtle plus Abigail Wolcott as a hot zombie girl.4 out of 10.Only for fans of truly mindless zombie flicks.

Welcome Back...

[BaronBl00d · 22 November 2004]

Master thespian Ron Palillo, who you might remember far more as none other than Arnold Horshack from Welcome Back Kotter fame, stars as a young man embroiled in an urban legend about a ghost town where a man brings back those he kills with a rock crystal. Sure this is a cheapie. Was it a direct to video release? The story is absolute dreck and the performances are just as bad, but the film is not without some bright spots. I really thought the idea of the ghost town was interesting and even enjoyed the expository flashback in the beginning. What really goes wrong in this film is the use of that aforementioned crystal. It is just plain silly, especially when you see it used on a bat with obvious strings, a goldfish in a bowl, and a dead turtle. The acting is so preposterous as a girl, having just seen a horde of dead walk toward her and seeing her boyfriend lose his head, sits calmly in a saloon watching cabaret dancers. Who makes this stuff up? The dialogue is uttered with no conviction at all and is stupid to begin with. The budget may not have been plentiful, but the sets do look rather decent. Lead actor Palillo tries his level best to be affable, but let's face it - it is way beyond his means as an actor. The actress Abigail Wolcott is visually stunning, and it is no coincidence we see lots of her unclad. She is definitely the brightest spot...OK, spots, the film has to offer.

Give The People What They Want; - Nude Horseshack!

[mamamiasweetpeaches · 2/10 · 3 December 2007]

I really have to ask myself what I expected from a movie that has Ron Pallilio from Welcome Back Kotter as the male lead sex symbol. Not much, I guess and that's exactly what I got! Not much! When I popped the DVD of Hellgate on I realized less than five minutes into it that I had seen this movie over ten years ago. You don't forget acting this bad! So the movie starts with three friends waiting for their fourth friend Matt (Horseshack!) to show up at their vacation spot. They while away the time telling ghost stories. One girl deadpans the tale of The Legend Of Hellgate, which is apparently the next town over. In a flashback we see an attempted rape gone bad that happened in Hellgate in the '50s. A bunch of no-good-nick bikers are at the malt shop and they decide to grab the big cheese mayor of Hellgate's daughter Josie and drive away with her. None of the town folk try to stop them. They drive Josie to a secluded area and rip her skirt off and Josie runs around in black underwear, bobby socks and sneakers looking like she should be doing an 80s aerobics video. (I swear they hired Abigail Wolcott to play "Josie" because she had nice legs...She even "strikes poses" while being carried away and raped! ) Well, her father - who is a dead ringer for Gomez Addams- comes to rescue her and in the process Josie gets iced.

Later on a guy in a mine finds a strange crystal that has the power to reanimate dead things. Here is where the cheesy special effects ("done by the people who did the effects in Hellraiser and Hellbound " the box trumpets!) debut as we see a very fake looking bat, a very fake looking fish and a very fake looking turtle spring back to murderous mutant life. (The turtle scene is actually pretty funny). Josie's papa goes to Josie's shrine (even her headstone has breast implants!) and reserrects Josie so she can lure people to the ghost town for him to kill. Why? I don't know why! Josie picks up Horseshack on the side of the road and seduces him. The seduction scene is a laugh riot! the music is insane! And I had never realized what a bad actor Horseshack is until I saw this: Even his sex scenes are unconvincing! And he's a pretty small guy. When he's lying in bed with Josie naked he's so small compared to her that he looks like a doll! Hahaha! Matt meets up with his friends and drags THEM to Hellgate . Why? I don't know. But they go. And of course they run afoul some zombie ghost town people who chase them around and try to kill them. Josie falls in love with Matt for reasons unknown and Matt's girlfriend is not amused.

Will Matt stay with the living dead girl or go home with his plain Jane girlfriend? Or will the zombies and John Astin's doppelganger kill him? Hellgate is a terrible film all the way around with bad acting, bad script, bad special effects, etc. but there was something FUNNY about it that kept me watching so if you like bad movies like I do you might actually find some entertainment in watching HELLGATE. I will watch it again one day just to watch Josie strike strange Vogue-like poses, a dead turtle bite someones face off and to see Horseshack in the raw again. Comic gold all three!

Speaking of bad movies, if you are lucky you will get the two disc set that not only has Hellgate but also has The Pit. The Pit is even funnier than Hellgate, a real laugh riot! So check that one out! Peace!

"Do you know the difference between a woman from gay Paris & the Eiffel tower? Not everyone's been up the Eiffel tower." Rubbishy horror.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 8 January 2006]

Hellgate starts late one night in a isolated log cabin where three friends Chuck (Even J. Klisser), Bobby (Joanne Ward) & Pam (Petrea Curran) are telling scary urban legend stories to each other. Bobby starts hers, she tells a tale set in the 50's about a nearby public attraction the authentic replica Ghost Town of Hellgate owned by Lucas Carlyle (Carel Trichardt). A gang of bikers known as the 'Strangers' kidnap & kill his daughter Josie (Abigail Wolcott), Lucas is obviously devastated. Soon after a guy named Jonas (Victor Melleney) is attacked by a bat in a mine which he kills, he then notices a strange blue crystal which shoots a blue laser-beam at the bat which returns to life. Jonas tells Lucas who decides to use the crystal to bring his daughter back to life who then lures unsuspecting travellers to Hellgate for reasons I don't really know so Lucas can kill them for reasons that are never satisfactorily explained. As Bobby tells the somewhat lame story they have a fourth friend named Matt (Ron Pilillo) on his way to join them, however while driving he stops to offer a pretty young woman a lift home...

Directed by William A. Levey, who also appears in the film as the severed head in the fridge, I though Hellgate was crap. The script by Michael O'Rourke is really silly & lame. While it tries to be different the whole thing is so absurd that it falls flat on it's face. It moves along at a fair pace but doesn't really interest, grip or entertain. Things are never explained properly & it doesn't seem to have any rules, why does the crystal mutate somethings & make them explode? What the hell is this crystal & why does it have magical powers? Why does it re-animate Josie perfectly without any side effects? Why does it melt Jonas? Why does Lucas kill everyone? He has his daughter back so what does he get out of it? Why do everyone else who are killed come back as zombies? Is it the crystal again, if so why are they rotten & not perfect? The climax is lame & underwhelming to say the least, lets hope the suggested sequel never materialises. This is pretty awful stuff from start to finish with horrible character's that are dumb & unlikable & deserve everything that comes to them.

Director Levey messes everything up, there is no style, tension, atmosphere or scares & the best he can muster is blue neon lighting & lots of fake fog swirling around. The special effects are pretty cheap looking & tacky, that mutant goldfish for instance. The gore is tame, an axe in the head, a knife in a leg, a decapitation, someone face melting & a few zombies that don't do anything. There's a bit of nudity & sex but not enough to save it.

Technically Hellgate is pretty poor, it was filmed in South Africa apparently not that you'd notice. The entire production is cheap, the ghost town itself is one street, the special effects are unimpressive especially that laser beam effect & as a whole no-one seemed to put much effort in it. The acting is predictably bad, Trichardt as the villain has some silly plates on his face & for some reason never says anything during the film.

Hellgate is a really bad 80's horror film that has little to recommend it, it's different & that's the only positive thing I can say about it. A stupid mess of a film & one to avoid.

Useless, irritating cheeseball n°16.269 ...

[Coventry · 4/10 · 7 October 2003]

I admit it...I made a terrible rookie mistake when I bought this VHS ten years ago. I was a young enthusiastic horror fan and the cover showed a nasty, aggressive skull. Above that, written in bloody letters was the title : HELLGATE !! This must be sooooo cool, I thought and I bought it. OK, now I'm a bit grown up ( physical, that is )and I know now that these kinds of covers are an indicator that the movie will be a terrible 80's cheesefest without a plot, laughable terror and annoying characters. And Hellgate fits right in to this category ! We're talking bats on strings, flashy blue stones of mystery and that sort of stuff...That's the whole basic idea, by the way. In an old ghost town ( called Hellgate...duh!) a rich guy discovers a blue stone. This stone can make the dead come to live again but if you aim it towards a creature that already lives...it dies in a gruesome way. This is found out because they test the ray on a goldfish ! I tell you, that's one of the cheesiest scenes ever. Anyway, the story goes on a couple of teenagers bla bla bla bla...the usual stuff which you already know and have seen many times before only better. The acting is hilariously bad, the tension is nowhere to detect and the opening scene ( which is some sort of flashback ) looks like an evil version of Grease. In conclusion : You'd rather visit you're mother in law and give her a foot-massage instead of watching this...

So bad it IS good. **HERE BE SPOILERS**

[Liquid-Snake · 1/10 · 12 October 2005]

It's become a classic. The film has a recurring catchphrase that I don't know whether I like or loathe:

"You're an asshole" "You really are" "I mean it"

I'm guessing that this was the filmmakers secret weapon.

But the BEST bit about this film was the big guy that was working in the diner and decided to follow the "baddies" to the ghost town.

We only see him in three very short, but very, very crucial scenes from here on in.

Scene I: He is seen modifying his hammer

Scene II: Some time later, he is sharpening a sickle or something (I don't know, maybe he was a commie)

I mean these two scenes would not be included if he had a minor role to play, right?

So here is his big moment in scene III...

Scene III: The guy turns up in the heat of the battle between good and evil. With his hammer in one hand and the sickle in the other he is about to deliver the final blow.....

But is wiped out by one of the zombie cronies that was hanging about.

All that suspense built up... and for what?

And to cap it off, watch the credits roll, with names like The Priest and Animal guy going on and on.

where were THESE people?

Seriously, though. This is one film you HAVE to watch.

Coulda used more Sweathogs.

[Hey_Sweden · 5/10 · 27 April 2013]

"Hellgate" is a definite curio. It's not exactly a good movie, far from it, but it's an odd enough one to keep viewers watching out of pure bafflement. It's short on sense, plodding, and awkward, but also pours on the weird atmosphere, especially in its final third.

Its oddest touch may either turn people off or intrigue them: the casting of the late Ron Palillo, always to be best known as Horshack from 'Welcome Back, Kotter', in the main role. Adding to that is the fact that we see far more of Palillo than most of us probably ever wanted to see, as he doffs his duds for a sex scene.

Palillo plays Matt, one of four college students who get caught up in an urban legend. It seems that back in the 1950s a degenerate biker gang had abducted the daughter of a ghost town operator and caused her death. *Then* a strange crystal is discovered that can either mutate the living or reanimate the dead. So the dad uses it to bring back his girl so she can seduce unlucky travellers and he can kill them. Josie (Abigail Wolcott), the gal in question, falls for Matt, while the now insane dad (Carel Trichardt), looking like a cyborg, tries to get rid of Matt and his friends.

Overall this is extremely cheesy and silly stuff, with lots of bad dialogue and performances that, to put it charitably, aren't the best you'll ever see. For the most part, it's a dull, uneventful movie that can't even come up with a decent conclusion. Still, like lots of bad movies, it has enough W.T.F. moments that just might give the viewer some mild chuckles. Still, mildly amusing is all it can claim to be. Tolerant and forgiving horror lovers who enjoy discovering obscure B movies may derive entertainment from the settings, not so special effects, and Wolcotts' very nice body, but slogging through "Hellgate" is still a bit of a challenge.

Directed by William A. Levey, who'd previously directed Palillo in "Skatetown, U.S.A." and who has a cameo as the man in the fridge.

Five out of 10.

hey Mister Kotter

[movieman_kev · 2/10 · 2 June 2008]

Three teens are sitting around in a cabin telling spooky stories when one tells the back-story of the Hellgate hitch-hiker, a girl, living in the '50's whom a motorcycle gang kidnaps and kills. Her father resurrects her with a magic stone to lure men to his house and kill them. After the story is finished the three are joined by a forth, the hero of the film (it says so on his license plate) Mattt (yup Ron Palillo, Horshack himself) who had a run-in with the fabled girl on his way there.

This movie strives to be a horror-comedy but sadly falls on it's face in both those genres. It's not funny as the humor is way too cornball, and it's most certainly not scary in the least. In fact it teeters between the boring and banal side of the spectrum. I don't even think I'd have watched this movie if it wasn't on the same disc as "the Pit" (a much better 'bad' film that's actually enjoyable in it's awfulness)

Eye Candy: Joanne Warde goes topless, Abigail Wolcott shows T&A multiple times

My Grade: D

Anchor Bay DVD Extras: nada, zilch (on a double-bill with "the Pit" on this flip-side DVD)

Hell for your eyes, ears and soul.

[capkronos · 2/10 · 31 August 2014]

In 1958, a motorcycle gang terrorize a diner and then kidnap a teenage girl named Josie (Abigail Wolcott) after ripping off her poodle skirt to reveal a sheer black body stocking underneath, which would naturally be the undergarment of choice for all young, virginal girls in the conservative 50s. They then drag Josie to "Lucas Carlyle's Hellgate;" one of those tourist trap mock amusement park reenactments of a 1890s western town. Owner Lucas (Carel Trichardt) sees what they're up to and, since he also happens to be Josie's father, he gets mad and flings a hatchet into the biker leader's head, who then crashes his bike into Josie and then crashes through a brick wall, killing them both. Later, an old guy working at the park finds a chunk of glowing crystal and takes it to Lucas. Blue beams shoot out of it which cause a goldfish to grow, mutate and then explode, a stuffed turtle to spring to life, bite Lucas' face and then explode and finally the old man who found it to melt down and then explode. Since it worked so well the first few times, Lucas then uses it to resurrect his dead daughter.

The above story has gone on to become a local legend in the area and one that's about to become more than just a tall tale for UCLA grad student Matt Coleman (Ron Palillo, of "Welcome Back, Kotter" fame). While running late to meet up with his girlfriend Pam (Petrea Curran) and their friends Chuck (Evan J. Klisser) and Bobby (Joanne Warde), Matt encounters a young woman clad in white wandering the road in a daze. The girl is, of course, Josie, who is now some kind of evil seductress desperate for someone to love her. She takes him to her home and attempts to seduce him before daddy Lucas - who now has pieces of metal bolted onto his face (?!) - chases him off. Now determined to prove the legend is true to his buddies, Matt drags Pam, Chuck and Bobby along to explore a cemetery - where the deaths of those buried are conveniently etched directly onto their tombstones! - and then the ghost town. Ghosts and zombies or ghosts that look like zombies (it's hard to tell) show up, as do Lucas and his daughter.

Inept, absurd, senseless, irritating and moronic are just a few of the adjectives that aptly describe this train wreck of a film. The screenplay from Michael O'Rourke is quite possibly the worst script ever committed to film. Not only does the plot make very little sense, but it contains some of the most mind-numbingly stupid dialogue I've ever heard in my entire life. The cast is also terrible; so terrible that miscast 'name value' star Palillo (who is at least 10 years too old to be convincing as even a graduate student and even less convincing playing the 'stud' every woman in this film lusts after) seems like a master thespian by comparison. No that he's good in this mind you, but he's slightly less awful than most of the others.

The girl who plays the ghost may have the body to play a seductress (and gets naked several times) but she speaks her lines like she just suffered from a massive stroke five minutes prior to filming. Minutes after seeing her boyfriend decapitated, the girl playing Bobby calmly sits in a saloon drinking and smoking and barely registers a change in facial expression when ghostly can-can girls suddenly appear on a stage in front of her and start dancing. Hell, she doesn't even seem all that bothered when someone then sneaks up behind her and starts strangling her with a rope. Another girl finds a severed, talking head in the refrigerator and responds to that by just rolling her eyes and slamming the door shut. And though the girl playing Pam is a better actress than most of the others, she's stuck playing one of the most irritating and insufferable nags ever seen in one of these things and spends half her screen time having insecure jealousy fits over everything 'Horshak' does and says.

Of course, the bad acting and bad everything else falls pretty much into the director's lap since he was in charge of the horrors that went down before the cameras. Considering Mr. Levey is also responsible for such useless gutter trash as BLACKENSTEIN (1973), WHAM BAM! THANK YOU, SPACEMAN! (1975) and several other horrible films, and yet no one even knows who he is, I'd say he's never quite been given his due in bad movie circles.

THIS is IT!!!!

[shark-43 · 9/10 · 9 February 2008]

Yes, fellow lovers of bad cheesy films - HELLGATE is one of the masters. Wow - where to begin - this movie has everything and everything is done badly. First, let's cast washed-up sitcom actor Ron Palillo (famous as the nerdy annoying Horshak on Welcome Back, Kotter - which made Travolta famous as the sexy Vinnie Barbarino). OK, so let's take this weird looking nebbish and cast his as the hero - OK, fine - go against type - but the script was written for an obvious stud because ALL the women in the movie flirt and gush over him. He even does a nude scene - yes, that's right - he is totally nude and straddling the actress who play his steady girl - she is also nude and she is hideous to look at as well - she kind of has a MacKenzie Phillips look only harsher. They try and show scenes supposedly taking place back in 50's but the hair and the clothes and lingo screams late 1980's. There's a 1890's ghost town full of actual ghosts - at one point a magic potion creates a large turtle - who is taunted by someone and the turtle bites a huge chunk of flesh out of the guy's face. The special effects are bad, the fight scenes look like two little brothers fighting over the remote, the thing just swerves off into other scenes that makes you go "WTF???" An absolute trainwreck of a film - but a fun trainwreck - one of those horrid movies that you cant stop watching cause it keeps on surprising you with it's incompetence. Wowee!

As the 1980s Died Out, This One Caught the Tail

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 4 June 2013]

A motorcycle gang kidnaps a young woman, Josie, from a diner and brutally kills her. Many years later, the girl's father finds a magic crystal that can bring the life back to dead objects. He uses it to re-animate his daughter.

This film has a low rating and has generally been forgotten. And yeah, I can see why. It is no masterpiece and is definitely not a horror gem. I like the reanimation aspect, and the 1950s bit... and we have zombies, ax murders, and more...

If nothing else, the film is good for the very, very corny humor and the slow motion shot of a topless woman getting blown through a window by a shotgun blast. That is an incredible stunt, and by going in slow motion it is even more spectacular.

WTF? cinema defined

[udar55 · 3/10 · 18 September 2010]

Saw this as a kid and the only things I remembered were the ghost town setting and the constant cut away shots to the villain with the metal in his face. This is one weird flick. How weird? They cast Ron Palillo as the romantic lead AND gave him a full nude scene. Horshack fans rejoice!

A group of college kids sit around and tell the tale of the ghost town Hellgate and the legend of Josie (Abigail Wolcott), a 1950s waitress who - deep breath - haunts the highways after she was kidnapped by a motorcycle gang, accidentally killed during her fathers rescue attempt and then resurrected after pops found a life giving blue crystal in a mine. Still with me? Her prey this evening is Matt (Palillo), who picks her up outside a cemetery and takes her home to be seduced before dad gets angry and fires up the blue crystal that makes a surfboard explode. For some reason this doesn't scare off Matt and he and his friends head to Hellgate to find her but find zombies instead.

Like I said, this is a really odd flick. Nothing sums the film up better than the scene where dad is trying out this new magic crystal. He fires it at a live goldfish and it expands into a mutant form and then explodes. He then fires it at a stuffed turtle, which comes to life, bites him on the face and then explodes. He finally fires it at his handyman, who turns into a pile of goo but, sadly, doesn't explode. Director William A. Levey started his career with BLACKENSTEIN (1973) and actually has a good sense of style. He just uses it so oddly. For example, take note of the nice slo-mo shots but then wonder "why did he choose that to focus on?" And marvel at Josie's seduction of Matt set to Tchaikosky's "Romeo and Juliet." Thankfully, Wolcott walks around nude a lot. Again, Singh stomping grounds of South Africa stand in for the US.

So bad it's almost good.

[raveneye-2 · 7 May 2000]

Yes, this is a horrible movie. But look at all of the *good* things. Gratuitous sex. Random psychopaths. Gratuitous slow-motion action sequences. Similar visual effects as Hellraiser (the really cheesy Hellraiser effects, granted...). Gratuitous exploding things for no particular reason. It's b-horror at its best. Laughed the whole way through it! Though, I have to admit, the final body count was a bit of a disappointment...

Trashy fun if you're on the mood for it

[Stevieboy666 · 5/10 · 9 October 2022]

Hellgate is an old Californian mining town that is now populated by ghosts, zombies and a creepy looking guy that owns a glowing magical crystal. He uses this for things such as reanimating the dead, causing living things to drastically change physically, create explosions, etc. Four college friends (two couples) find themselves trapped there. Hellgate was filmed in South Africa and the first thing that becomes apparent is the bad acting, the "American" accents are terribly fake. Another thing that is obvious is that the "kids" are played by actors older than their characters, the leading guy was 40 when he appeared in this! The movie has plenty of special effects some of which are quite gory, for example an axe in a head kill, another sees fingers being cut off, etc. We get plenty of sex and nudity plus for atmosphere the fog machine works overtime. This movie obviously wasn't intended to be taken seriously, a goldfish expands into a large hideous fish that bursts its glass bowl before exploding, there is a talking decapitated head in a fridge, and so on. Best looking chick award goes to Abigail Wolcott for playing the sexy blonde ghost Josie, at one point she goes for a nude stroll across a ballroom dance floor. Part of the plot is set in the 1950's so we are treated to some old rock and roll records, the soundtrack also features classical music, a ghostly performance of the Can Can being a "highlight". I first watched Hellgate in VHS many years ago and recall being disappointed, however having just watched it again, this time on DVD, I found it entertaining but in the trashy sense. Booze helped!

Corny 80s horror

[matthewstanton123-857-954811 · 5/10 · 31 January 2020]

No budget ,Bad acting ,Bad plot , badly made but still fun to watch The thing i like about this film is everything that is bad about it . I grew up in the 80s and a lot of the films are like hellgate I like it because it reminds me of this cheap cheesy era of horror Head being cut off , sexy girls with bare boobs , bad jokes etc. But honestly if you want to watch something with a bit of depth dont watch this

Hellgate

[Scarecrow-88 · 2/10 · 30 January 2010]

The daughter of a tourist attraction ghost town is humiliated and murdered by sleazy biker scum. One of the bikers get away, while the other two are sent to an early grave. An employee for Lucus Carlyle finds a glowing crystal with strange and dangerous power..it can send beams which explode buildings and turn animal life into mutated forms which implode after enlarging. Somehow, Lucus is able to resurrect his voluptuous daughter, using her as a beacon to lure future victims into his ghost town which serves as a type of purgatory where ghouls and zombies thrive. Four college students(..including Ron Palillo, Welcome Back Kotter's Arnold Horshack), on vacation find themselves there, inheriting terror.

What a mess of a movie which is pretty much a screenplay hurling a bunch of assembled gags together, along with flat, groan-inducing jokes and abysmal performances. The make-up effects aren't that special and the characters' decisions and choices become more than a bit questionable. I guess those who put together the script thought their brand of bizarre ideas and comedy would appeal to a wider audience, I imagine it will to those who enjoy witless, braindead hunks of rancid cheese. It does have a cult following so there is a viable audience who likes a movie like Hellgate, I'm not sure what the appeal is other than Horshack headlining a movie(..has there ever been a more dweeby hero?). I have no idea why Lucus carries a grudge against all outsiders when three punk bikers were the ones solely responsible for the death of his girl. I will say that Abigail Wolcott, as Josie, Lucus' daughter, is quite a tasty dish, very appealing in a night gown summoning Palillo to become her undead lover for all eternity. You have a gold fish and turtle hit by a beam of light from the crystal, turning into grotesque monsters before exploding all over the place. Palillo and pal Evan J Klisser(Chuck)having the viewer to endure a "a$$hole" joke that is dead on arrival. Palillo naked(..the horror, the horror). Petrea Curran(..as Pam, Palillo's love interest)always begrudging her boyfriend when he talks about Josie, pouting but nevertheless returning to his side. A burlesque dance featuring ghouls. A rope strangling causing blood to squirt from all the orifices of a victim. A turtle attacking Lucus' face. Slow motion assault sequences(..even when they are not required). The remaining biker sharpening his tools and never getting to use them. And, last but not least, Palillo's Matt, despite what he had previously seen when alone in Lucus' ghost town, decides to convince his pals to return there. Isn't it amazing that the crystal laser beam can blast through windows, yet reflect from Matt's rear-view mirror. You enter in, beware. You have been warned.

Weird slasher flick. Or ghost flick?

[insomniac_rod · 4/10 · 10 October 2004]

I have mixed feelings about "Hellgate". I can't decide if it's a really bad cheap slasher flick with ghost movies' elements, or if it's a weird slasher flick with no pretensions.

*SPOILERS* The opening scene where Josie is chased and later killed by a motorcycle gang is good and made me think that the movie had potential. Later the movie slowly started to decline and that's when it got boring.

Abigail Wolcott was the best thing about "Hellgate", she's super hot even as a ghoul. I'd like to be in Palillo's situation anytime! She also gave a decent performance but it was totally blackened by her sexiness.

I wonder why she didn't make more movies. Palillo gives a geeky performance but his character asked for it.

There's an actor that has identical looks to John Astin and he may be the scariest thing of the flick.

The ending gives me more mixed feelings. I was really interested in the way Josie was naked seducing Palillo's character but at the same time I was anxious to see how could the jealous girlfriend could get in time before the ghost "bitch" could kill her boyfriend.

The ending at least worked.

5/10. Boring slasher flick with elements of ghost movies. I think that's the best way I can describe "Hellgate". Avoid it. Abigail Wolcott is the best thing around here.

A bad film with bad actors

[lucifer · 5/10 · 3 March 1999]

Don't get me wrong. I like bad films, but they have to be enjoyably bad. This isn't. From the bad script to the bad sets to the bad directing, this is a poor excuse for a horror movie. There aren't even any of the standard jolts. Even the aesthetically pleasing Abigail Wolcott can't redeem her part as she's as wooden as the rest of the cast.

"Those people are real. That girl is real."

[lost-in-limbo · 4/10 · 20 June 2010]

What a strange one. It had me compelled throughout, but I wouldn't call it great or even good... maybe not average. Still you must give credit to something that holds your attention, even if you're in a state bemusement. One thing that will keep your eyes glued to the screen would be that of radiantly breathtaking actress Abigail Wolcott (who goes topless at times) in her one and only role so far. The low-budget b-grade horror "Hellgate" is a muddle of a film, blending in a whole range of horror staples (ghosts? Zombies? Psychos? Supernatural slasher?) and comedic touches. The humour was kind of odd and stale, as after starting off serious (though it can be unintentionally funny) it seemed to mock itself, especially with the dim-witted dialogues. Some things were just randomly insane and nasty, but while the sets looked low-rent and the special effects sloppily executed it still managed to create a polish look from its crisp cinematography and eerie atmospheric visuals. I didn't feel it to be a complete botch, as I seemed to expect by its reputation (although the use of a dangling rubber bat could be inexcusable). Another draw-card would be that of "Welcome back, Kotter" TV star Ron Palillo who looks rather bewildered at first and then warms up to the part with a smug attitude. So when he's not baring his naked ass, he's trying to figure what he had just experienced after picking up a strange young lady on his way to meet up with his friends and girlfriend. So he takes the traumatised girl back home, in which he drives through a ghostly town and then encounters her father who bestows a crystal which shoots laser beams. You're probably thinking huh… but the movie kind of moves through the past and present where it explains about the legend of the hellgate hitchhiker in flashbacks. The teenagers tell us of the story like some sort of campfire tale and then encounter the legend for themselves. This is where we get the full story about the girl Josie and her father Lucas who likes to kill strangers that venture into his town. The nightmarish concept is somewhat imaginative, but it's messily plotted with its ever changing tone and sluggishly directed. Some questionable story arches, pointless padding or decisions are delivered with a variable bunch of gaudy or banal performances. A weird, if poorly conceived low-grade shocker.

Mostly dull and confusing

[Tikkin · 2/10 · 22 April 2006]

Hellgate started off looking quite promising with an easy-to-follow plot. Three young people are reading stories about a girl who was killed, and her father brings her back to life using a crystal. The story starts to get confusing at this point. It involves the group visiting Hellgate, where the re-animated girl seduces men for her father to kill. I fell asleep at some point during the film (not something I usually do) and woke up near the end. The ending actually wasn't too bad, but nothing to wet yourself over.

The scene where the fish grows and bursts out of its tank, and when the tortoise becomes a monster are cool. Watch this if you collect 80's horror films, but be warned: it has nothing going for it and is extremely dull.

A Classic Horror Film

[dianerpessler-46164 · 10/10 · 16 July 2015]

Unrelenting in its intensity and breathtakingly overwhelming in its terror, William Levy's Hellgate is a horror film that has magnificently stood the test of time. Michael O'Rourke penned a screenplay that is unusually intelligent, suspenseful, and horrific indeed. The atmosphere of fear and dread is almost too much to bear and there is a surrealistic environment created by the director that defies description. The characterizations are rich and well developed, resulting in much more than the stick figures that routinely run for their lives in these sort of films. As the story progresses, we realize these are real people about whom we care deeply and we find ourselves fearful for their safety. Ron Palillo gives what is nothing less than the performance of a lifetime as Matt, a young man that must garner the courage he never knew he add in order to protect those he loves and defeat the evil of a town possessed. An extraordinary horror film that remains one of the most frightening ever made, there is no denying the powerful imagery and devastating terror that is Hellgate. (This review pertains to the much superior Director's Cut that truly fulfilled Levy's artistic vision)

Late '80s Campy Fun...

[EVOL666 · 7/10 · 11 February 2010]

HELLGATE is one of the few films that defy a proper synopsis. There are so many strange goings-on that I really have to wonder how much acid must've been taken by everyone involved in conceiving this film to actually bring it to life. Short of giving a play- by-play that would take three pages to fully explain the plot of this super strange film-I'll try to sum up the very basics of the storyline as simply as possible:   

The plot surrounds four friends who try to solve the mystery surrounding a local ghost- story about a resurrected dead girl who was originally killed by a biker-gang in a ghost- town called (appropriately enough...) Hellgate; a glowing blue crystal that can melt, mutate, or bring things back to life; and the bizarro, zombie-like residents of Hellgate itself...

Understand that the above is the barest-bones (so to speak...) outline of the basic plot of this uber-weird film. That said-i'm sorta surprised at all the extremely negative reviews of this one. Granted-it's definitely not a 'good' film by any means. The acting is mostly laughable, the majority of the special FX are pretty weak, and the plot is very strange to say the least.  But despite-or possibly because of these facts-I found HELLGATE to be oddly enjoyable. As weird as the storyline is, it does make sense in the overall context of the film. The silly dialogue and goofy acting fit the tone, and the FX-though ranging from ridiculous to mediocre-are effective enough for this type of B-movie oddity. There's a few decent titty-shots from a couple of the attractive female leads as well which doesn't hurt things either-especially from the resurrected-ghost-girl who's pretty f!ckin smokin'. Not much to speak of in the way of gore-but there's a bit of the red-stuff thrown around.   

For those that hate HELLGATE-I guess I can't blame 'em-but I can't see how anyone that can enjoy a bit of B-grade popcorn schlock wouldn't at least be entertained by this one. My copy of HELLGATE is on a stand-alone disc-but I understand that there's a double-feature version that has this and THE PIT on it. Personally, I also enjoyed THE PIT quite a bit (perhaps also against popular opinion...)and definitely feel that THE PIT is the stronger of the two-so if you can find the double-disc for cheap and enjoy campy films-I'd recommend picking it up. 7/10

a hell to watch

[trashgang · 4/10 · 19 April 2012]

This flick was for a long time only available on VHS but Anchor Bay tried to pick in on the success of so many releases on DVD as a grindhouse or drive-in compilation. They released this one together with The Pit (1981). But Anchor was so wrong with releasing flicks that weren't that good at all. So they stopped the release really fast and it is now an OOP.

The flick started rather well with some nice effects with a fish and ones head being transformed into a monster. The fish transforming and exploding really looked cheesy so I thought, yes, this will be fun. But once that was done they movie collapsed into a real hellgate. It was indeed a hell to watch, but only Abigail Wolcott (Josie) made it worth watching. This is her one and only performance into Hollywood but she's walking around mostly naked or with a nightgown that transparent showing it all. The acting was mediocre. Most actors went further to B-flicks and some did their one and only performance in hellgate. Ron Palillo (Matt) is maybe the most recognizable face coming from Friday The 13th part VI Jason Lives (1986) as Allen Hawes and is still busy nowadays.

There are here and then a few nudity shots that had in fact nothing to do with the story, guess they liked to attract the geeks out there. But the story itself is as week as it could be with some rare things going on. From zombies to a crystal stone giving weird powers. But hey, it's 1990 and it looks like an early eighties flick.

I can't mention any gore, there's a decapitation but it doesn't deliver what you think it should do. Can't even say that there is a lot of red stuff in it.

Really, you must see it to believe it, for example one guy makes love with Josie, afterwards he's laying with his girlfriend in bed making out and she's just asking if she was beautiful, really? Or the one smoking a fag while having sex. Why Josie walks naked isn't explained either. Pure trash with cheesy effects.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 1,5/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 1/5