The script (written by Takaaki Ezura) is mostly a rip-off of "House On Haunted Hill" and "The St. Francisville Experiment" only with an eye-rolling M. Night Shyalaman type ending. The story follows 5 youngins who hear about an opportunity to make 50 million yen. Naturally, they jump at the chance, but there's a catch. The group has to solve a past murder case that took place inside the house. But wait...there's more! Bizarre things begin to happen, which may be connected to one of the five people. As an added bonus, we are treated to about 16 flashbacks (of the same event) of a character's past that will obviously come into play in the end.

Where do I even begin? The script's dialogue rivals Ed Wood, only there are no classic lines such as "Pull the Strings!" To give you an understanding of exactly how atrocious the dialogue is, here are a few samples:

The scene: After freaking out about the creepy house, a character exclaims "There's really something going on here!"

The scene: A character finds a cell phone in the house. One character remarks "Do you think it was from someone before us?" Directly after, another character replies "Maybe it was from someone before us." With such brilliant reasoning as this, I have to wonder how anyone in this movie could possibly solve a crime that the police could not.

The script (and movie itself) also contains zero suspense. The extent of the scares include a ghost like woman appearing randomly and a cupboard door falling off- oh no! Killer Tomatoes are scarier than anything here.

I don't usually mention film scores unless they blow me away or cause my ears to bleed. "Ghost Gate" falls into the latter. Yuri Hiranuma's score can best be described as drain pipe noises with a hint of "Looney Tunes" sound effects. If there ever was a score that was ill-fitting, this would be it.

The DVD

Video:
The video specifications were not given on the box or on the disk, but the film is presented in a fuzzy fullscreen format. Certainly not a treat for the eyes.

Sound: The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound is somewhat of a blessing and a curse. The good news: The sound mix is solid all around. All of the creaking noises from the house, the dubbed dialogue, and score are perfectly audible. The bad news: The score is ear-piercing and will drive you insane plus the dubbed dialogue (like 90% of all dubbed dialogue) is laughably bad.

Extras: Trailers are included, but I could not access them (see the end of the review for further details). The biggest omission: No option to get rid of the English dub and play the film in Japanese with English subtitles.

Final Thoughts:
"Ghost Gate" is a horror film so laughably bad, you'll begin to wonder why it wasn't titled "Scary Movie 5" instead. Save your money and buy a REAL horror DVD.

Note: I encountered 2 glitches. Before chapter 10, the movie stops playing and goes straight to the main menu. I tried playing the movie on two different DVD players and both wouldn't play the movie after chapter 9. However, I was successful in playing the movie via DVD-ROM. Additionally, I attempted to play the trailers, but those wouldn't work on my two players or on DVD-ROM. These glitches may or may not be present on all DVD players, but I thought I'd warn fellow readers.

Film and television enthusiast Nick Lyons recently had his first book published titled "Attack of the Sci-Fi Trivia." It is available on Amazon.com.