Distributed by 101 Films and streaming on digital platforms, ‘The Gates’ is a new horror film by Irish director Stephen Hall. It's a 19th-century set Gothic horror, that harks back to Hammer Films as a medium-budget production rather than the micro-budgeted indies and the occasional more expensive movies with starrier casts which now dominate the British horror market.

The film concerns an English prison tormented by the unruly spirit of executed Satanist, serial killer and would-be Necromancer William Colcott and the efforts to lay that spirit to rest by medium Lucian Abberton and postmortem photographer turned paranormal investigator Frederick Ladbroke and his niece Emma Wickes.

Given its limited budget, ‘The Gates (as in ‘of Hell’ as well as the prison variety) looks good and marshals its resources well.  The film is well-designed and lit and makes intelligent use of locations and exteriors.  As Ladbroke, star John Rhys-Davies, most famous as the dwarf Gimli in Peter Jackson’s Tolkein adaptations is here in familiar plummy mode (think Professor Arturo in ‘Sliders’).  Rhys-Davies stays on the right side of ham but only one or two other actors give solid performances.  As Colcott, the film’s other ‘name’, Richard Brake, best known to general audiences as The Night King in ‘Game of Thrones’ and was recently seen as the sinister Frank in Zach Cregger’s acclaimed ‘Barbarian’ adds another cadaverous grotesque to his roster.  Raised in the States but British-born, Brake provides his villain with an authentic Cockney accent and has been outfitted with particularly horrible prosthetic teeth.  In the film’s most sustained and scary set piece Claire J Loy as a jailer’s shrewish wife possessed by Colcott and going on a murderous rampage makes for a disconcerting apparition.

The film suffers from some serious problems.  Some of these arise from details of writing and performance.  Others are more structural.

A major problem is the heroine.  As Emma American actress Elena Delia makes a decent fist of an English accent and even looks sort of British.  However, her performance is otherwise unfocused and lacking in charisma.  This is particularly unfortunate as the script keeps telling us how “special” and “fascinating” she is.  What is worse is that these details seem to imply that the final battle will be between Emma and Colcott and when that battle only involves Colcott and Abberton (Michael Yare) the viewer feels misled.

Structurally the movie suffers from disastrous pacing.  After its grisly opening ‘The Gates’ proceeds with little incident until its admittedly lively final act.  A horror movie can make a relatively uneventful stretch effective by means of understated horrors and evocative details.  What we have here though is mostly unvarnished exposition.

I haven’t seen Hall’s debut, ‘Night Shift’ (2018) but on the evidence here, with a better-paced and generally better script, he may do something impressive.  I also respect the hell out of anyone who attempts to do something other than a contemporary set story with teenage protagonists.  I’d be interested to see what Hall does in the future but ‘The Gates’ has to be judged something of a misfire.