The Gateway Meat (2009)
Review by the Fiend of Grue
In 2006, the president of the United States is assassinated and while most of the population eventually settles back into their everyday life and routines, a small group of Satanists take the assassination as a sign. The leader of this satanic group, Marcus (writer/ director/producer Ron DeCaro) moves into his father’s old house along with his wife and daughter (Ron’s real life wife and daughter) who are as equally demented and murderous as he is. Marcus and his friend Roland (D. Whitney) commit a series of brutal and grisly murders in an attempt to do what Marcus’ father failed to do years ago: open the ultimate portal to hell and unleash its infernal evil upon the entire world!
The Gateway Meat begins with serving your senses a fit of chaos to feast upon; butterflies, flowers and a scenic ocean view give way to a barrage of nasty images of knives being plunged into a skull, a sharp looking razor blade splitting a tongue in two and blood being flung in every direction. Soon we see Roland wake up, snort a line of coke and then he rolls over and has a one sided conversation with a rotting corpse of a pregnant woman lying in his bed next to him! Then of course to round out this sensual assault there’s Buddy, a mentally challenged man who likes to paint and ride his bike, which he often wrecks on.
It takes a little while to figure out where things are exactly going in this film but once the blood begins to flow, it rarely, if ever, lets up. Aaron and Ben LaBonte – who were responsible for the ultra-real effects in Fred Vogel’s infamous first August Underground film (review) – take up the duties of makeup effects here and it quickly becomes apparent that they have only further honed their skills at making some of the most disturbing and eye-popping gore with a next-to-nothing budget. Impressively sick and perversely putrid, the gore is ultimately the star of the film. Richard Terassi’s Am I Evil (review) or Brian Paulin’s two outings, Bone Sickness or his new film Fetus come to mind when thinking of other recent no-budget shockers you might have seen to compare this to.
The Gateway Meat is chock full of disturbing imagery and scenes that will stick with you. One of the more shocking scenes is when the little girl (Sophie Flynn) of this satanic family goes into the bathroom where a dismembered woman is sprawled out in the bathtub. The girl goes up to her, swipes her finger in the blood, tastes it and exclaims “Yum!” Later, the girl tells her dad, “Let’s kill lots of people Daddy!” The shocks don’t stop there as later her Dad assists her in pulling the trigger of a gun, shooting a man in the head (!) and, beware all of you door-to-door religion peddlers, you will want to stay away from this household because this family takes time out of their daily satanic routines to blasphemously mock and then kill a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Once again, the effects shine here, giving the film a realistic look and in the process disturbing the viewing audience. Job well done!
Even though the gore might be the star, it’s not the only good aspect to this film at all. While there are some narrative issues that could be cleared up and the pacing is slightly off at times, Ron DeCaro pulls off some very creative and ambitious camera work throughout the films short 69 minute running time. Using mirrors to pull off a scene and peculiar camera angles for others, Mr. DeCaro certainly seems to have a future in film making.
Elsewhere, the film employs an effective original score by Trevor Toscano that has vintage horror theme elements to it at times and helps ratchet up the tension in certain other scenes. It’s a shame that more DVD’s don’t have as great of a “Making of” featurette as this movie does. Very thorough and complete, you see all of the behind-the-scenes action as effects are built and tried out before filming. Ron shows you how they pulled off the scenes with little Sophie, to ensure she never once saw any gore or twisted sets, but through clever editing it makes it look like she does.
The Gateway Meat will definitely have an audience and is a fine addition to the growing underground extreme horror/gore indie scene. If you like your horror ultra gory, pummeling to the senses and unrelenting in what it shows you, then this is one to definitely check out.
Visit The Gateway Meat and For the Better of Mankind Productions online!
Watch the trailer:
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