Sometimes low-budget horror can be good and while there are a lot of negatives to be found within this one, Hollow Gate turns out to be surprisingly entertaining and weirdly humourous in a dark sort of way.

The film concerns a young boy who is traumatized by his father almost drowning him when he was a boy on Halloween. He grows up to hate that very day and even more, turns out to be a killer that has no qualms about taking out anyone that crosses his path including family. So it is that four teenagers enter the picture, thinking that they are heading to a party as they drop off some decorations but it is a party unlike any they have attended before and one from which they might never return from.

When one thinks of a movie made with very little money, they often think it cannot be any good and most of the time they would be right. There are far too many examples that prove that to be the case and Hollow Gate is among that number but again, as previously mentioned, there is enough here that makes it a fun watch, in a terrible sort of way. The acting by all involved is not very good, nor is the writing which could have used a bit of a polish but it conveyed what it needed to which is the pure insanity which is the killer as he goes about murdering his grandmother and the teens who arrive upon his doorstep. He hates Halloween, and that much is evident, but somewhere inside of his twisted brain, he somewhat enjoys it too as he dresses up in various costumes to play out the role through which he kills his victims.

The killings are sometimes brutal in nature but at the same time, they are also quite ridiculous as at least a few of them were completely avoidable. The worst offender is the woman who is run over by the lawn mower. All she had to do was run away and yet, she just hung around while the killer started it up and lowered the blades and made a big show about it. It was laughable, to say the least, and added to the cheese that was present throughout but it was that very ludicrousness that made it enjoyable.

Some might not be able to ignore the bad over the good, what little there was, and that is understandable but if giving Hollow Gate a shot, there is a chance that finding a little entertainment is quite possible, if only in how silly some of it ends up being.

2 out of 5