Written by Ronnie Gorham
A guy’s night out is supposed to end with bad decisions and greasy fast food, not murder. But one GPS short cut later, three friends find themselves trapped inside a gated community where the only thing more dangerous than the HOA payments is the lunatic pastor running the place. In his final performance, James Van Der Beek teams up with Mason Gooding for writer-director John Burr’s tense new thriller, The Gates. But is it worth walking through?
I’m happy to report, yes. The second Derek, (Mason Gooding) Tyon, (Keith Powers) and Kevin (Algee Smith) step through The Gates, the movie shifts into a cat and mouse game that takes their innocent guys’ night and flips it into a pulse-pounding, “how did we end up here?” nightmare. All thanks to Jacob (James Van Der Beek), who murders a woman right in front of them, kicking this venomous tale into motion.
One nerdy tidbit I couldn’t help noticing: Mason Gooding starring in The Gates feels ironic when you remember that his dad, Cuba Gooding Jr., costarred in Judgment Night 33 years ago, a film with a nearly identical setup. Four friends get lost, witness a murder and suddenly they’re running for their lives. The only real difference is that back then, it was a gang chasing them, not a pastor with a bible and a body count.
Irony aside, Mason Gooding brings a solid, believable performance as the film’s steady center, the kind that doesn’t make you yell at the screen. The rest of the cast leans into the thriller tone too, especially Van Der Beek, who, in his final role, knocks it out of the park as Pastor Jacob, a man on a mission to cover up his own crime by hunting down Derek and his friends. Van Der Beek’s career has always been more versatile than people gave him credit for and Pastor Jacob is another sharp reminder of that. He plays the holy man with a body count with a calm, unnerving delivery and confidence that makes every moment he’s on screen awesome.
What also makes The Gates so engaging is the tension it builds right from the jump. The film opens with Derek in a bloody, standoff style moment with someone off camera, it’s the kind of scene that makes you lean forward in your seat. From there, the film back tracks eight hours earlier to show how Derek and his friends end up in this mess in the first place. The gated community becomes a character itself, with nosy neighbors, sketchy side glances and a house party that you just know will lead into trouble. Burr squeezes every awkward encounter and every “we should not be here” moment to keep the pressure on the trio.
For all the tension The Gates build, it isn’t without a few hiccups. One of the biggest problems is how three characters are struggling to stay alive in dangerous situations and yet none of them has a cell phone. Now, I know there are plot devices and situations created to make them conveniently lose their phones, but it’s a little too convenient. It doesn’t kill the vibe, but you definitely feel like most people nowadays don’t even go to the bathroom without their phones.
In the end, The Gates works for what it is, a thrill ride where audiences will be rooting for our three main protagonists to gain the uphanded over Jacob and make it home safely. The film never pretends to be anything other than a solid late-night thriller that’s worth seeing in theaters. It’s not trying to reinvent the genre of survival movies, it just wants to put you in a bad situation with these characters and let the tension begin. Cell phone shenanigans aside, the story hits, the vibe is great and the performances are great too.
