The Gate

Though I consistently disapprove of Jonathan Morgan's familiar sentiment expressed in the video's "Making of" short subject that he's aiming for award nominations with this project (even reciting which categories will deserve the accolades), if that's what it took to inspire him to do a great job, then hooray! This is one of his best movies, even better than his similar earlier classic "Crazed" starring Serenity.

Alexa Rae plays an accused murderess stuck in a strait jacket and padded cell at a mental hospital, where unscrupulous Dr. Archer (Mike Horner, smooth in NonSex role) is experimenting on her. Story attributed to Morgan and his talented partner Martin Brimmer/Rodger Jacobs (there is no screenplay credit) has elements of both thriller and mystery, with an excellent surprise plot twist and sudden ending.

A large cast of extras fills out the loony bin with patients, and Wicked Pictures lists all of them in an unusually fulsome end credits crawl. Chief male lead is Joel Lawrence, giving a technically brilliant, over-the-top performance as fellow inmate, reciting at Howard Hawks- speed complicated monologues and like the rest of the cast encouraged by Morgan to go through as many tics and twitches as possible. If you thought Sam Fuller's unique "Shock Corridor" was out there, you haven't seen the entertaining exaggeration Jonathan achieves here with his cast.

(Coincidentally, I had recently watched Lawrence debunk the need for any acting or dialog scenes in porn in his interview in the BTS for the DVD of Jerome Tanner's 1999 release "Of Love & Passion". He claims the usual "conventional wisdom" that the fans only want sex and skip the rest, yet here he is two years later replete with a personal acting coach on set delivering a complex, powerhouse acting turn with mucho dialog. Go figure.)

I won't spoil the story with detail, but significantly the cast stays true to their characters even during the sex scenes, unusual for "anything goes" porn production. Kylie Ireland is styled plain as the head nurse and delivers a torrid sex scene with orderly Lee Stone, and Bridgette Kerkove definitely lives up to her predicted AVN Best Supporting Actress nomination with the best acting I've ever seen from the gonzo icon, well-cast as a wise-cracking, cigarette-smoking fellow inmate.

In the "Making of" short, Morgan takes us through the five-day shooting schedule around Columbus Day of 2000, and his frequently consulted daily call sheet listing scenes to be shot lists the project's shooting title as "Voices". Plot premise has our not Joan of Arc heroine Alexa hearing voices in her head, and the release title "The Gate" stems from her imagining a gate to the next life (I thought a gate to Hell but that's not exact) that set the morbid story into motion. Given the clear and present emphasis on anal sex scenes here, they might well have retitled the show "The Back Door".

Wow. I am not usually a fan of hard core porn, or any porn for that matter. :) But this was my first porn that I decided to ever rent and I saw the shiny box and glanced at the plot line, and was immediately drawn to it. It takes place in an insane asylum. Granted, though there definitely is a lot of flop taking place, there actually IS a storyline, and not a bad one at that!! Being a psych major, I could psychoanalyze this film for hours on end and try to see what the title "The Gate," has to do with patients trying to escape their sex-crazed captors (ahh who knows, they probably love it) if not physically, at least in their own minds. They can open their own personal "gate" and put themselves somewhere else besides in a padded room. But ANYWAYS, now that I have delved too far into psychological meanings, when the majority of people watching porn have a LOT else in mind, ;) I will speak of other things. From what I recall, it's all hetero flop (no lesbian action, guy-on-guy action, etc) and though sometimes the male characters are overused (they could get a bigger cast), it still is QUITE entertaining to watch (Just don't make my mistake by sitting 3 feet in front of the tv.. :) ). With Wicked Pictures movies, you can expect REAL people. I mean, sure there is a fake breast thrown in there somewhere, but not everyone is a fake, barely 18, copy of EVERY model you have ever seen. There are definitely some pretty faces, however. Alexa, rrrowwwl... I am quite the straight and narrow pole :) but she sure is a pretty gal (and for those who like the barely 18 gals, she is only a couple years older). The men aren't too bad looking either. One downfall (or not), do NOT expect a lot of variety, sexually, thrown into the mix. You get used to the same sequence over and over again, and when it switches up on you, you kinda miss the routine. :) But either way, I highly recommend "The Gate" if you want a damn GOOD porn, with REAL people, fantasy-style SEX, and a PLOT LINE. ENJOY!!!! :)

No pun intended - if you like to mix a bit of horror in your adult entertainment I reckon you could do worse. 2 audio commentaries and multiple angles - you may find that Alexa Is criticizing certain rules or rather cliches of the business (like no oral pleasure for the female in the very first scene) ... that may be of importance to you or not.

While Alexa (main actress) is beautiful, the question is if she is convincing enough in the lead - I think not as much as she needs to be. But I don't know if you even care - like with the commentary or generally speaking the story. But if you don't why even watch or read what I have to say? For me it is always about the story - the other stuff - you'll find more than enough of on the internet anyway.