Director: Harley Wallen
Writer: Harley Wallen (Screenplay)
Starring: Laurene Landon, Calhoun Koenig, Yan Birch, Kaiti Wallen, Harley Wallen, Kayla Kelly, Jennifer Jelsema, Colleen Gentry, Aphrodite Nikolovski, Kris Reilly
Plot: A psychic reader and Medium are invited to a party. Something goes very wrong and something comes over from the other side to haunt the people from the party. They must solve the mystery before it’s too late. Agramon will not be easy to stop.
Runtime: 1 Hour 50 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Never Hits the Scares
Story: Agramon’s Gate starts when Cassidy (Kaiti Wallen) and Richie (Reilly) host a party, they bringing in a psychic reader Vesna (Nikolovski) for some added entertainment, which leads them to hold a séance, which goes wrong, leading to a spirit coming into the world, one that puts pressure on Richie to explore his past, with his estranged parents Sharon (Landon) and Carter (Birch).
With the appearance of the spirit in the world, Vesna must turn to Zeb (Harley Wallen) to help rid the world of the demon that has come into the world Agramon (Koenig) who is toying with its victims, waiting for a chance to take them.
Thoughts on Agramon’s Gate
Characters – Richie is the husband that reluctantly agrees to be part of a séance with his wife, which sees his past coming back to haunt him, he needs to address his past to save his future, when he starts becoming one of the main target of a demon. Sharon is Richie’s mother that has been in an institute for years after the incident from Richie’s youth, she is know for being uneasy and blames Richie for what happened. Carter the father that has returned once the demon comes back, haunting Richie, using the memories to make sure he get to come into the world. Cassidy is the wife that invites Vesna to the party and stands by Richie as they look to find the answers to what is happening.
Performances – When it comes to the performances, we do have a close knit cast that often work together and show that they can get more out of each other, this time nobody is bad, but nobody is setting the world alight with their performances.
Story – The story here follows the aftermath of a séance which sees a group of friend summon a demon that goes on to torment the party goers, as it looks to get what it wants from the real world, as one of the members needs to confront his past to stop the demon. This does fall into the lets try a séance and not worry about the consequences, until it becomes too serious idea, it starts of looking like some fun, before taking the darker turn, only it does end up filling the story with too many characters, to let the true levels of fear happen. This story does suffer by trying to crossover too many genres instead of committing on going fully into the horror genre, to give us a more intense story.
Horror/Mystery – The horror isn’t committed to long enough to make the scare scenes have any fear around them, leading us to try and get into the mystery, which then get caught up trying to wait for a scare, with a couple of side characters appearing to over-saturate the mystery going on.
Settings – The film does use the house settings to show us how the hauntings would follow the characters, rather than be set in a singular location.
Special Effects – The effects in the film are within the budget you would expect to see, they show us how the demon will appear to the characters.
Scene of the Movie – The showdown.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Too many characters not getting enough time to develop.
Final Thoughts – This is a horror mystery that just gets caught up in the middle of too many genres and characters to reach the heights of what it wants to achieve.
Overall: Over-saturated Horror.
