PRODUCER NIK VS. THE HELLGATE

In this misadventure, Nik lets two 20-something podcasters lead him on a journey terminating in a literal gate to Hell. Was the journey worthwhile? You’re about to find out in THE HELLGATE!

Stacey and Lilian are unsuccessful You-Tubers. One day, after drunkenly trespassing in a graveyard, the girls capture footage of a ghost. This is their ticket to fame and fortune, but their real problems have only begun.

The Hellgate (2026)

Directed by D. J. Remark

Written by D. J. Remark and Jason Orr

Starring: Summer Brunelle, Madison Grace, Brayden Noble, Matthew Brown, Jason Wallace, Paul Bridges Thompson, and Jas Abramowitz.

Last Saturday night, I settled in to watch a screener of a new independent movie, The Hellgate. I avoided looking into it ahead of time, preferring to even avoid reading the description of the movie’s plot that I provided above. I wanted to go in fresh, without any knowledge or expectations. That’s how I prefer to go into any new movies, whenever possible. The most that can be said is that I assumed the story would have something to do with Hell, and presumably there would be a gate of some kind that opened into that realm. I know, that’s a huge stretch. But I was correct in my assumption.

The movie starts out slow. We’re given a brief tour of Chekhov’s Cemetery as a groundskeeper toils away as the opening credits appear on screen.

After that, Stacey (Brunelle) and Lilian (Grace) are introduced, as they record the newest installment of their podcast, focused on heavy metal and horror. Some early exposition lets us know the roommates/friends aren’t making a mark with their podcast, and they’re struggling to figure out what it’s going to take to set them apart from the saturated olive ecosystem. Working what (to them) are dead end jobs—at a music store and bar, respectively—they’re desperate to find their niche and leave their increasingly tedious lives behind.

As one might expect—from real-world experience—Stacey and Lilian dress and make themselves up in the heavy metal iteration of scene girl chic. But it takes more than a pretty face and a particular aesthetic to gain traction. A drunken stop in the cemetery at night might provide precisely what they need, when a picture Lilian takes of Stacey appears to include a ghost.

What follows is a fairly straightforward narrative focused on investigation into the nature and identity of the supernatural presence the girls believe they’ve discovered. Ghost hunters, paranormal investigators, a grieving widower, and the girls’ friends all get swept up in a plot that involves far more than a single ghost wandering the cemetery grounds.

And yes, it involves a gate to Hell, as the title might imply.

The performances are solid to the extent that no one in the cast left me feeling like I’d just spent my time sitting through a community theater production. The director’s use of lighting incorporated some visual flourishes that elicited nostalgia for 1980s horror films like Creepshow. There was some gratuitous use of minimal nudity (breasts), which is hardly surprising in a horror flick with two pretty 20-something women as protagonists. The soundtrack—as you might expect—consisted exclusively of lesser-known heavy metal artists, but it avoided sounding like a particularly angsty high school’s battle of the bands.

All said, I’m going to say the true stars of this movie were Hillary Warren and Brad Shier—credited for Special Effects Makeup and Creature Design. As the movie reaches its climax, the practical effects get a chance to shine, and they’re far better than what I’ve witnessed in other independent horror flicks. As the movie tiptoes along the boundary between supernatural horror and cosmic horror, it’s the effects that really stand out.

In the end, while it lacks the stylistic aesthetic of The Beyond (1981) and City of the Living Dead (1980), the intensity of Baskin (2015), or the surreal atmospheric feel of The Sentinel (1977), The Hellgate is not one of those movies that made me feel like I’d just sacrificed a chunk of my life that I’ll never recover.

Nikolas P. Robinson is an avid consumer of books, movies, and television, especially where horror, science fiction, and fantasy are concerned. When he isn’t consuming media, he’s creating it as an author, photographer, videographer, and news producer in Portland, Oregon.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing. Thank you for understanding.