The Gatekeeper

Written by El Bicho
Published March 19, 2004
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The driver of the truck, Peter, hates Mexicans so he drives like a maniac, jerking the car side to side to scare the people jammed in the back. His antics unintentionally reveal what the mystery bottles contain: acid. We discover this because in the commotion some of the contents spills out and starts to burn a man's shirt and chest. The fumes are horrible and everyone bangs on the truck, getting Peter to stop. He drags the burning man out, shoots him and leaves him behind. Why the immigrants needed to bring bottles of acid from Mexico is never explained. It's a good thing no one got thirsty along the way. There wasn't even a warning to be careful.

Everyone is brought to the farm where they are going to sleep at in little sheds. Adam is picked to learn how to make methamphetamine. This scene is filled with enough foreshadowing to make an audience member feel like Nostradamus. Jose shows Adam the ropes and Adam picks it up pretty quick. He is shown that the building is rigged to explode in case something goes wrong, but Jose disconnects the wires whenever he's inside. Jose found a secret room under the building where he relaxes and somehow has set it up so the guard can ring the room whenever someone is coming. We also learn that if the heat is set too high the room will explode.

Eva, who has crossed the border with her young son, has to work in the house, so you know the inevitable rape scene by Vance, the boss, is coming. Unfortunately, the tragedy of the scene is completely lost when it plays out because it is shot in such an odd manner. With my apologies to Joel Brooks, the last thing I saw him in was playing a homosexual in Six Feet Under and I couldn't get that out of my mind. Plus, he doesn't come across as menacing and when he finally makes his move, he wrestles Eva to the ground and then starts to pump her. He never made any movement to take off her clothes or take out his unit, so I thought maybe I had missed something. The filmmaking decisions in this sequence were so bad I had trouble believing a rape had taken place.

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This writer is a member of The Masked Movie Snobs, a collective that fights a never-ending battle against bad entertainment.
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The Gatekeeper
Published: March 19, 2004
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Section: Video
Writer: El Bicho
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