Hell's Gate also features some good lighting, sets, and camera work (thanks, largely, to the expertise of veteran horror director John Hough). And Patsy Kensit acquits herself quite nicely in her portrayal of this psychotic female slasher.
THE BAD: Okay... There's just a lot of bad acting in this film. Not the worst I've ever seen, but pretty bad nonetheless. Amy Locane is just dreadful as Trey's wife Carly, except when she plays anger (an emotion that Amy does pretty well). The rest of the time, though, her acting is about on par with an understudy in the High School play! The police investigator--who actually gets a good bit of screen time--is even more poorly portrayed (which makes you kind of wonder if that's why his name doesn't show up in the credits... and can't be found even on the Internet Movie Database!).
Hand-in-hand with the lousy acting is a good bit of sloppy scripting--much of it centering around the detective. He's a mainland cop, but for some reason he also has a desk (with nameplate) on the island, which is presumably out of his jurisdiction. And when he asks for a DNA test on a burn victim suspected of being the escaped psychotic, he gets the results back within hours!!! Of course, none of that is as blatantly ridiculous as having the New England island that the family is vacationing on just happen to be the site for a ruined Spanish monastery with a name that translates "Whitechapel." I mean, seriously???
Still, on the less-than-bad end of things, the ruined monastery does look pretty cool...
THE UGLY: Nearly every minor male character in the film is portrayed as a sex-starved sleazeball just dying to get into Agnes' pants. Given how many guys seem incapable of keeping their hands off "Agnes" (before she whacks them), Hell's Gate looks like it just couldn't decide whether it wanted to restrain itself to the t&a slasher/gore gig, or go all the way into porn. It didn't, but the atmosphere of sleaze permeates practically every scene containing a minor male character in proximity to "Agnes."
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