Hells Gate 11:11 (2004)

       Hello and welcome to Wednesday!  I trust you all have been staying spooky this week, and we’ve made it to yet another glorious ‘hump day.’  But it’s always spooky day for this girl.  Anyway, I was drawn to the next film of this week because of the title: Hells Gate: 11:11.  Created in 2004 by director Michael Bafaro, this film’s title recognizes the eleven-eleven phenomena that my friends and I have been pretty much obsessed with since we heard of it so many years ago (the number is supposed to be magical or supernatural in nature).  I always notice the clock when its 11:11, and sometimes (ok more often than not when I notice…) I make a wish.  Anyway, I digress. The film begins with a young girl facing her parents murders, and then watching as the men who murdered her mother and father are killed by thin air (though it has already been alluded to that the girl can see spirits).  As the movie progresses, we realize that the girl (Sarah) is seeing her dead mother in spirit form, and her mother is trying to warn her about the coming apocalypse.  I have to admit that they sort of lose me with the very idea of an apocalypse all fire and brimstone, but the ghost angle of the plot is definitely intriguing.  Sarah’s ESP also draws you in and makes you want to know what is going on. 

What is going on is that a very angry spirit has been hanging around Sarah in the guise of a friend, and killing everyone around her (or making them kill themselves).  Sarah strikes a deal with the spirit to avoid it killing off her lover, though the way the scene ends it is actually unclear as to whether or not he lives.  And to be honest, that was sort of how I felt about the entirety of this film – a little confused.  It seemed to have all the right elements to draw viewers in, only the plot itself doesn’t come full circle or even make sense.  The guise was that all this had to do with some portend of a new dawn of man or the end of the world – but in the end the girls go off together as children to play.  What that had to do with 11:11 or the apocalypse, I’m not sure. 

This is definitely a lower-budget film, or at least the cinematography and unknown cast makes it feel that way.  The soundtrack was not memorable either, so when one tops that off with a plot that doesn’t seem to have a complete thought one gets…this film.  Probably the worst aspect of the film was Laura Mennell’s acting.  Just because her character Sarah is troubled and has some wickedly strong ESP doesn’t mean she should constantly look like someone let loose a really rank fart all the time.  She was constantly looking furtive, worried, and disgusted, and the acting ruined the character for me completely.  But hey…my reviews can’t all be good, now can they?  Here are the stats:  Body count?  Seven or so.  Number of killers?  Three.  Boob count?  Zero.  Cheap thrills?  Two.  Actual spooks endured?  Zero.  Raven’s Scream Meter says: 1 out of 5 screams.  This isn’t one I’ll be adding to my collection any time soon, but if you can make some sense of it please feel free to explain it to me!