The Entrance – DVD Review

The phrase “inspired by true events” is often a red flag when it comes to movies. Both the truth of the events and the connection to the film are often dubious, at best. Not to mention, movies that feel compelled to boast about how they are “inspired by true events” often suck. So when I saw that claim prominently displayed on the cover of The Entrance, my expectations were low. And when I read the back of the DVD and saw the “true events” had to do with a possessed nun, my expectations fell even further. So I was quite pleasantly surprised to find out that The Entrance didn’t suck.

The inspiration for The Entrance is a book written by Father Sebastien Michaelis called Adminarible History back in 1612. Supposedly Michaelis wrote the book after talking with nuns that had been possessed by demons. In the book, he talks about the hierarchy of demons, including one named, Balberith. Balberith is the demon in The Entrance and thus a tenuous link to “true events.” I wouldn’t call the writings of a priest from four centuries back about alleged demonic possessions “true,” but then I’m not the one marketing the movie.

In The Entrance, people are taken through a parking garage and into a mysterious complex. Once inside the people are forced to compete against each other in games. One by one, the losers have their sin revealed and their lives are forfeit. Rather than games that reward athletic prowess or quick wits, they face off in games like musical chairs or bingo. There was even a foosball table though sadly we never get to see any life-or-death foosball.

One of the competitors, a drug dealer named Ryan James, escapes from the complex and goes to the police station to see Detective Porhowski. He tells her what happened and warns her that others will die. Porhowski is sceptical so he employs more forceful methods to gain her assistance.

The atmosphere of the movie is appropriately creepy. Everything is darkly lit, there’s very little in the way of color and the music does a great job of upping the creepy factor as well. The convulsing people do when they are being taken comes off as kind of silly, but otherwise this is a genuinely sinister film.

The first hour or so of The Entrance is really good. There are a lot of questions to answer. What’s the deal with the parking garage? What is the up with the home movies? How is the janitor involved in all this? Does Porhowski have a hidden sin in her past? As it answers these questions, the movie draws you in.

Unfortunately, once you have most of the answers, the movie loses a bit of steam. From the moment the taxi shows up until (though not including) the film’s climax, there’s definitely something missing.

The movie concludes in a very open-ended fashion. At first I wondered if they had always intended to end that way or if the ending had been changed after the fact. My main reason for wondering is that there’s a subplot involving two police officers that Porhowski works with that goes nowhere. After Porhowski leaves the police station, these two have no more impact, or even contact with, the film’s other characters or the plot. They try to find the parking garage, and one of them digs up some dirt on the demon but then they just disappear.

The open-ended nature of the ending works, it’s just odd that there was such a meaningless subplot. While watching the credits, I noticed that The Entrance is supposed to be part 1 of a trilogy so perhaps they intend(ed) to do more with the officers in the rest of the trilogy. Of course, if that was their intent, it’s seems unlikely that anything will come of it. The movie was finished in 2006 and it took 2 years to get distributed on DVD, the special features make no mention of a trilogy, nor does the film’s Web site. Unless The Entrance does surprisingly well on DVD, I wouldn’t count on seeing a sequel.

While the film falters a bit near the end, and the “true event” it is inspired by is laughable at best, The Entrance is a surprisingly well made and enthralling movie.

The video is presented in 1.78:1 and looks amazing for a low-budget independent film. The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1.

Previews – Trailers for The Eye, The Chair, Sight, TKO (from the director of Prison Warz! Yes, they actually use that as a selling point in the trailer), Seance, Knock Knock, Horrorfest and Fearnet.com. There’s also a trailer for The Entrance.

Making of The Entrance – A fifteen minute behind-the-scenes featurette. It’s fairly standard as far as these kinds of featurettes go. The discussion about the ending is probably the most interesting part.

The extras are a bit lacking but if you’re looking for a decent horror film that’s low on gore and high on suspense, The Entrance is a good choice.

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Lions Gate presents The Entrance. Directed by: Damon Vignale. Starring: Sarah-Jane Redmond, Michael Eklund, Ron Sauvé, Jerry Wasserman, and Frank Cassini. Running time: 81 minutes. Rating: NR. Released on DVD: May 20, 2008. Available at Amazon.com