The Doorway (2000) User Reviews

How Many Plot Holes Can Fit Into 90 Minutes?

[w00f · 4/10 · 27 September 2003]

A rather mild horror movie; if not for a couple of sex scenes, it could easily have been a TV movie. Plot holes abound (one example: why would there be a secret passage from the 18th century leading from the upper floor of a house that was burned to the ground and a new building put ther 200 years later?), cardboard acting, characters doing things that anyone with an IQ bigger than their shoe size wouldn't do...

It's got a few fun moments, but overall it's a sub-par film that managed to get Roy Scheider because his bills were due. If you're looking for an extremely formulaic, predictable film that might provide a few laughs, it might be worth watching. If not, then this one's not for you.

NO SELF RESPECTING GHOST WOULD LIVE HERE

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 24 April 2019]

A bumbling electrician accidentally knocks down a loosely placed shield and allows a demon to escape. Four college kids opt to make some money by cleaning the place, become annoyed by the poorly manicured demon who is clearly sexual and liked the hand from "Evil Dead 2." Suzanne Bridgman showers, dirty Lauren Woodland does not.

Minor camp value. Sex and nudity.

Knocking at hell's door.

[lost-in-limbo · 5/10 · 7 May 2010]

Roger Corman's New Concorde produced this reasonable little straight-to-video low-budget demon feature that wears its b-grade quality proudly. Usually these films know what their target is and keeps to its strength, and "The Doorway" does that. Honestly the thing that caught my eye in the first place other than Corman's name; was the name of a establish actor Roy Scheider. He might not make an appearance to about 30 minutes in, but when he does it's dependably good even if it's nothing more than merely a small, but important role to the scheme of things.

Four college students looking to make some money, head out to an old abandon Georgian mansion to make some renovation repairs. However after just settling in weird things begin to happen, and one of them finds a book explaining the original occupants curiously demented past involving devil worshiping cults involving orgies and death. Soon they realise they're not alone as there's a demonic force at work.

You want blood… you got it. Cheap jumps… that's a tick. Nudity… yes plenty to go around. Sex… of course with depraved passions let out. And how about creepy dolls… oh yes it's a win-win situation. Well that's what happens when the mansion you're working in has a carnal past and a doorway to hell in its cellar, expect you soul to be corrupted by the evil. One sequence involving the group dancing away to a song while they clean… was just the start of it and nobody had been possessed yet. How to combat it in a logically sense is to get in a professor of the superstitious field and maybe a descendant (a smoking Teresa DePriest) with a physic link, who luckily enough knows the professor and is there on the spot. What are the odds? What they came up against is a ghostly succubus and hideous looking demon. For its obvious budget restrictions the make-up FX and visual effects are decently executed by Robert Hall / Almost Human. Sometimes cheesy, but not terrible. Low rent sets standout, but it's well photographed with it catering a claustrophobic remoteness to its house-bound terror.

You could probably nit-pick the creaky narrative and find a whole lot of flaws, but what's the point. It did take on some different fabricated plot roots, but the ending was unfulfilled in the way they closed it off. One aspect that I could have done without the cheeky humour that filled the fashionable script. The performances are passable enough and Lauren Woodland is likable.

If you let it, there's fun to be had.

Remake and Bake

[delbruk · 1 February 2002]

B-film? Yes.

Cheesy style homage to yesteryear horror films? well, sort of.

At times intriguing and other times laughable but the most haunting thing about it was I felt as if I had seen it all before...and I had. Slightly updated effects (which certainly didnt enhance the film) and a couple slightly re-arranged plot lines but this was definately a thinly-masked remake of the 1981 The Evil starring Richard Crenna. For those who enjoyed this film find a copy of the original and compare. For those thinking of watching The Doorway, find the Evil and enjoy a slightly more interesting (and original) b-horror film.

Don't even bother entering here...

[insomniac_rod · 4/10 · 16 July 2004]

Ultra low budget possession film with a twisted ending. The opening of the film clearly paved the road for a mess...

SPOILERS. Four friends stay in a haunted house in order to get paid some money by the owner if they can fix something (I can't remember). Soon after they settle they meet a demonic woman wandering in the house, little detail that doesn't freaks them out. Strange things start to happen, like obscenities written in one of the boy's computer. The other boy gets possessed and cheats on his (hot!!) girlfriend with her bestfriend (bitch!), and he states he can't remember anything. After they realize something's wrong in the house, the demoinc woman makes another appearance and these dumb teens get running out of the house! They search their history teacher (none other than Mr. Roy Schedier from JAWS fame) and tell him about the incidents, coincidentally! a woman working for her looks exactly like the demonic woman from the house. What's the link between them? Wisely the teens decide to return only to get killed, plus the owner of the house and Mr. Scheider (a big killer shark couldn't defeat him but surely the devil could) well except for 2 of them. After an ultra cheesy and poor representation of hell, the 2 survivors face a cheap devil.

I won't spoil the mediocre ending, you have to watch to believe. What's the link between the demonic woman and her look alike? What's the past behind the house? How will these not so wise people defeat evil?!

Bad acting, horrible f/x, lame score, lame direction, but nice T&A all around. Behind those glasses, Tammy is really hot! The lead boy is a lucky bastard as he gets to bang the 2 hot girls from the movie.

The nudity and sex scenes are the best thing here... Sad but true. Seriously, don't bother watching this. Not even die hard fans of the genre could enjoy it. 4/10.

OK horror movie

[monkey-man · 4/10 · 29 July 2005]

This movie was bad and the movies about how some college students stay at a house to get money by renovating it and then they find out that the house has a woman Deamon in it and that there is a portal to hell.In this movie there are heaps of stupid scenes like at the start of the movie how they are cleaning the house and they start to dancing to a cheesy song and some of the Demons at the end of the movie are just some guys in bad costumes trying to make scary sounds and there are some good gore scenes like when the Professor gets his face ripped of.I only hired this movie because i am a big fan of horror movies and its only worth watching if u are a fan of horror movies.The acting in this movie is really bad the only good actor is Roy Scheider from the great movie Jaws and over all this movie has heaps of flaws and my rating is 4 out of 10.

the Doorway 2000

[ruben_valdez · 3/10 · 21 April 2017]

I watch this movie a couple of time and i see a lot of mistakes in this movie, the part that Evelyn floating in the air, when she face to face with rick and the gang, it doesn't show her whole body floating in the air, half cut. on the lower part of the dress. you can barley see her sanding on something to make her look like she floating in the air, another scene, when evenly was trying to attack Tammy and Owen, in that scene when Evelyn try to go float after them,i think the actress was standing on a wagon to make look like she floating in the air, when she floating after Tammy and Owen, on the bottom right you can see a bald head man pop up half way, you don't see his face just the head, he was the one them pushing her in the movie to make it look like she was floating in the air, now that seen that, know i how they make looked like she was floating, LOL

I was hoping their was a part 2, reason why because to understand how Evelyn and Walter meet, this movie the doorway leave me with a lot of question???

What the f**k ???

[stiva · 1/10 · 2 May 2007]

This is the lamest, crappiest, idiotic, stupid movies i ever saw in my entire life... I can't believe there are directors who make these kinds of movies... this movie is a disgrace to horror genre... acting ??? Oh! no !!! i couldn't bear... it's full of anguish... don't ever watch this movie... you'll feel like u are being tortured to eternity... please, save yourself from the horrible fate of watching this movie... if you really want to live, don't watch it... there are very good horror movies...

this movie doesn't deserve tat single vote too... but, i hate to vote if I want to post my comments...

The Horror! Hauntingly Bad Film Choices As a Teen

[ataylor-23766 · 1/10 · 24 July 2016]

Back in the olden days of VHS and movie store rentals, in our naivety of taste my teenage friends and I binged on whatever horror themed movies we could find. To this day I am forbidden from being the one to suggest random films to watch unless I do research before hand, no more blind picking for me!

It's like any classic bottom of the barrel bad horror movie. The film is so bad its funny, but pathetically so. Cheesy effects, acting, and plot the trifecta of what makes a however low you can go in the alphabet horror film.

If you run out of needles or other objects to stab in you eye, then I suggest this nugget of a film to numb yourself with.

A healthy mix for the eclectic

[spastickitchen · 8/10 · 27 November 2004]

Come on? What horror movie is actually scary? I find them all laughable. This film meshed quite well with my warped sense of humor. If you want to have your pants scared off, come spend a night or two in Detroit! No, seriously, I found this film enjoyable, but I am warped. Let's break down what The Doorway has to offer:

Acting: No academy awards here, but the acting is lively and organic for its genre.

Special effects: Yeah they're campy, but you have to work with what you have and I felt this was done nicely as the effects were not distractingly cheap.

Script: I thought the script was rather good. Are there clichés? Definitely! But art is worthless if it doesn't relate to something old. Was it weird? Sure, but that's where the excitement comes into play. I particularly enjoyed the ending.

Continuity: No significant errors. The film seemed to flow evenly without much dragging. As a fan of the genre, I particularly enjoyed this. Not saying you will, though; if you are not accustomed to low budget films, you may feel restless at times.

In conclusion, I recommend this film to people who have realistic expectations. 8/10

For the love of B movies!

[panthonyd · 7/10 · 11 December 2000]

When a true Hollywood film nut asks "Why do they make B-class Horror movies?" the answer is: because people want to see them, of course.

But, why do people want to see them? The answer is quite simple:

1) Bad Acting: There is nothing better than drinking beer and watching untalented people pretend to act. This movie had some great bad actors. But, it also had some semi-decent actors. Don Maloney's character became really funny as the movie wore on (and bears an uncanny resemblance to Paul Giamatti, which may be why I thought him so hilarious).

2) Cheesy Special Effects: Fingernails growing out of fake hands. Makeup from the local Halloween store. Blood that shoots in direct squirt-gun streams. Blue screens of death. What more can you ask for? This film had it all!

3) The Plot: There's always two girls and two guys, the haunted house, and the resident paranormal expert. There are the excuses they make to keep themselves in the house (I mean, after having a severed hand feel you up in the shower, would you seriously stick around?). Again, this movie had it all.

4) Naked girls: This is probably the most important reason anyone would watch a B-movie. It's a guaranteed boob fest! I was only disappointed in that we never got to see Tammy in the buff. Oh well, there were plenty of others.

All in all, The Doorway was a great B-movie that had all the elements that us B-movie fans love.

Great example of supernatural thriller mixed with black comedy.

[awolf-2 · 10/10 · 7 February 2001]

Michael Druxman has created a great ride for his audience with "The Doorway." A great thriller mixed with black comedy. A welcome rebirth of the scary films of the 50's. Don Maloney brought a comedic break to the supernatural thriller which made for a great balance. I found "The Doorway" to be a very entertaining independent film. It will be a great addition to my film collection.

"I don't do ghosts anymore & I never did demons." OK haunted house horror.

[poolandrews · 6/10 · 3 April 2006]

The Doorway starts at an old run down house as an electrician named Charlie (Joe Moylan) enters the basement in the hope of turning the power back on, unfortunately for him all he does is disturb an ancient medallion hanging on the wall which opens a gateway to hell & unleashes the demon of Evelyn Van Buren (Teresa DePriest) who happens to be a previous occupant of the house 100's of years ago & had orgies in which herself & other's would engage in sex with demons in satanic rituals, hey it passed the time I suppose... Young care free teenagers Rick (Christian Harmony) & his girlfriend Susan (Suzanne Bridgham) plus two of their friends Owen (Don Maloney) & Tammy (Lauren Woodland) are entrusted with the house rent free in exchange for doing the place up ready for the new owners, the small matter of a $10,000 fee helps as well, even though first impressions are not good they decide to stick it out. It is a decision they may not live to regret as evil demon Evelyn is a horny ghost with sex, murder & mayhem on her mind. In steps ghost expert professor Lamont (Roy Scheider) & his lovely assistant Lydia (Teresa DePriest again) who happens to be a direct descendant of the Van Buren's, will they be able to cleanse the house of evil & send the demons back from where they came? Watch it to find out...

This Irish American co-production was written & directed by Michael B. Druxman who also has a small uncredited cameo as the College Dean, I personally thought that The Doorway was a fairly decent horror film & while nothing outstandingly brilliant it served a purpose. The script feels a bit fragmented & shifts in both direction & tone a few times, it starts of as a standard haunted house tale with things going bump in the night & scarring everyone but then it turns into a paranormal investigation film as professor Lamont sets up his equipment to monitor the ghostly goings on but it then goes into teen slasher mode towards the end as the demonic ghosts turn into green scaly monsters & hunt our teenage heroes down. The Doorway never had a steady constant story as it changed to significantly too many times for my liking, almost as if the filmmakers were trying to please a numerous different types of potential audiences, in the end all it does is frustrate & never really satisfies anyone. Having said that it moves along at a fair pace, it's never too boring, it has a reasonable story although the constant nudity & sexual references seemed forced & provided 90 odd minutes worth of haunted house horror entertainment which is just about all I could have hoped for.

Director Druxman does an OK job, while the film doesn't have much style it's watchable & not too badly made. There isn't much atmosphere, there are no scares & that monster thing at the end looked a bit silly to me. Forget about any real gore, there's one scene where someone has their face gorily ripped off but it's shown so quickly as to be almost totally redundant. There is a fair amount of nudity & sex on display here, if that's your cup of tea.

Technically The Doorway is fine, it's competent & that's about the best we can expect. Even though it's definitely set in America it was actually filmed in Northern Ireland here in the UK which I could tell straight away. The acting was OK considering the material & both Tammy & Susan were nice looking ladies, I had no idea Roy Scheider's career got this bad, what is he doing in crap like this? Needless to say The Doorway is a million light years from classics such as The French Connection (1971), Jaws (1975) & Marathon Man (1976) among other's, then again at least The Doorway was better than SeaQuest DSV (1993) & the subsequent TV series that followed it, but that wouldn't be too hard, would it?

The Doorway is an average haunted house horror with slightly more gore & nudity than one might expect from a film of this type. Worth a watch if your desperate but don't expect too much or you'll be disappointed. To add to his seemingly endless list of credits The Doorway was executive produced by the legendary Roger Corman.

Enjoyable bad movie!

[Kektokio · 6/10 · 25 September 2002]

Yeah, it's another bad horror flick! But hey, it's still a fun movie to watch! I picked up a copy of this on DVD for $10(AU), and pretty much assumed I wouldn't enjoy it much, but it ended up being a lot of fun.

As for Roy Scheider, he's barely even in this film! I hate it when they stick known actors names all over the box, just so people will watch it.

SCARY MOVIE?ABSOLUTELY!!!!

[youngjacob2002 · 19 November 2002]

The words I would use to describe this movie are this movie scared the living heck out of me!It's hard to find a horror movie that actually scares you these days,and this one is a fine acception.People that make horror movies try to make it scary,but alot of times they do things that mess it up.I actually loved this movie,it was terrific,not only because it was scary,but everything else was great,too,the plot,the acting,ect.Teresa Depriest is great with her performance as Evilyn/Lydia.Lydia is a woman descended from a woman many,many centuries ago.They look excactly alike,one is evil,one is good.The people that made this film were succesful to make it great.This movie is definately a ten.

A Fun Little Low-budget Direct-to-video B-movie Horror With the Legendary Roy Scheider.

[lukem-52760 · 7/10 · 21 December 2021]

The Doorway is a cheap little direct-to-video Horror that is pure late-night B-movie fun even if it's not great.

Four college students stay in an old Georgian mansion whilst doing repairs on it for cash but soon realise it's got a creepy presence within it's walls.

This is so basic late 90's & early 2000's straight-to-video fodder that covered most of the shelves of my local Blockbuster video store back in the day (I miss those days) & i actually remember the case to "The Doorway" way back when it was released in 2000 & always wondered about it because it had Cheif Brody in it (the great Roy Scheider) but never got around to seeing it until lately on dvd. I'm a huge Roy Scheider fan, the guy is a movie legend & a guy i grew up watching & loving from his Classic role as Cheif Brody from the Jaws films. Roy Scheider has a small role in this cheap demonic Horror as a college professor named Robert Lamont & just his presence in this cheapy makes it worth a watch. Once again Roy is solid even if it's a part in a very low quality B-movie such as this but later in his Career it was probably just a paycheck but because Roy also delivers a good performance it never feels like that.

The Doorway has Evil Dead & Night of the Demons vibes & i liked that & i liked the little cast of likeable characters for a change. The College kids are a decent bunch & actually quite funny. I liked the big old mansion setting & yes the effects are cheap but expected for this type of B-movie but the gore is decent & of course there's the erotic/sex scenes that are expected for this type of flick. There's nothing particularly great about this demonic Horror but it is an easy watching little Horror & hey it has Roy Scheider as a ghost investigating professor so it's all worth it in my opinion.

It does seem odd to get a movie legend like Scheider have a part in a cheap trashy Horror like this but it kinda works. There's possession, sexual spirits & bloody gore & a sense of fun.

I like alot of cheap B-movies & i love the Horror genre & i love Roy Scheider so it hit the right bits for me.

Hell had never looked so cheesy

[dead_dudeINthehouse · 1 July 2003]

Take a chance to watch this one. THE DOORWAY is the average slasher of the new century. It takes some ideas from 80's and 90's slashers. It fails miserably to scare or even to get your attention.

Rick has a chance to get for free an old mansion if he fixes it. With the aid of 3 friends, Rick and companny accept the challenge. Soon after they arrive to the house, they notice that something evil is in the atmosphere.

A demonic ghost of a woman makes an apparition just to scare them and in the same time manifest that she needs rest for her soul. The doorway in the attic leads to hell and these guys need to close it... sounds easy, but they don't know that before doing it they have to face the devil in a monstrous disguise. These friends look for help with their school history teacher (Roy Scheider)that apparently knows a terrible secret about the mansion.

Try to watch this movie without losing patience. The highlights of the movie are Susan and Tammy. The ghost girl is somewhat attractive even when she's possessed. Average horror movie from the 2000, the year that marked a return to slasherS. A lame attempt to return the dead genre, but at least the intention is there waiting for better chances.

3/10

Nicely done rehash of old cliches

[jackcade · 26 October 2003]

Writer/director Druxman draws from previous films of his producer Roger Corman (such as "The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Dunwich Horror") to deliver a well-done ensemble piece about the doorway to hell.

Filmed in Ireland, but presumably set in Massachusetts or New England, a group of four teenagers and their lecturer dare to uncover the dreaded doorway despite their horrific encounters with a demon. It is not clear whether they are brave or stupid.

Scheider's role is lamentably too small to have an impact despite top-billing. It's the kids we care about despite their immaturity.

The writer/director knows we've seen it all before, so while the film is played straight, the tongue is firmly in his cheek. The humour is not out of place, but the frights are genuine.

Stay tuned for the wrap-up, it's satisfying though you will feel like a victim of a practical joke. The fate of the surviving two teenagers might have made a great sequel.

Really, what does happen to characters in horror movies when the "horror" is over?

Another horror attempt that goes directly to the garbage can

[Insomniac_moviefan · 31 October 2002]

I can't believe this was released in theaters. It should came straight to video. Anyways, this is a very bad horror movie. In fact, it can't be horror as it lacks of gore, scary scenes, creepy direction and settings, etc. It features 4 teens that spend some days trying to fix a house in order to receive some bucks. For their bad luck, there's a doorway in the house that leads to hell. Yes, hell in a very cheesy way. When they find out that they found hell, they immediately look for help... I won't get into details about the plot as the explanation of hell and some strange events that occur inside are very stupid. And guess what? Roy Scheider is on the rescue... What does that mean? Is it something good or bad? There's no reasonable answer.

This movie has only one good aspect : both girls are somewhat attractive, and the ghost girl (when not possessed) can be very attractive.

Avoid this one! Fans of the horror genre will find this a very boring, and no potential movie. Don't even give it a try.

This movie is awful. Awful, awful, awful.

[mattfngrant · 18 August 2004]

This movie is an unredeemable piece of crappy crap, crap. The acting, directing, script and special effects were strictly amateur night. I am shocked and appalled that a credible station in Canada actually played this as it's Friday night feature. Yikes! Even the T&A aspect is tainted here....these "actors" think they are in a good movie! The title of this film should have been "Duped" because these hacks were being exploited by incompetent filmmakers. None of these actresses have done anything note worthy since (excluding lap dances) and the producers must have had a picture of Roy Scheider's agent with a donkey in order to book him for material this low. If you want T&A I'd advise you to rent a porno film instead. They have higher production values, better performances, the women are more appealing and it's not as embarrassing to leave the video store with. This shameful trash is a true blow to the horror genre. Avoid at all costs!

This movie was so bad it nearly cost me my family

[zaida2000 · 15 November 2002]

I really would like to have a talk with the actors and director, I mean how could they ! what were they thinking ! this movie came across as an insult to B-Movies!. The only reason that you'd complete this movie if you started watching it is pure curiosity. I was wondering if it was meant to be black comedy, but I swear to you it wasn't! avoid at all cost, even if someone gives you the movie for free!

No sir, I didn't like it.

[Remster · 7 September 2002]

I checked some reviews on IMDB before watching this film and the comments weren't all negative, so I decided to give it a go. Afterwards I have this unsettling feeling that I wasted yet another 90 minutes of my life, so I decided to write a review too, hoping to warn other people before they decide to watch "The Doorway". I mean, there really isn't much good to say about this movie, it's dull, the plot isn't bad in itself for a standard horror movie, but the bad acting and the lack of good special FX manage to screw it up entirely. Especially the actors, they were SO bad that I noticed myself feeling compassion for them during the movie, how they were struggling to make the plot and their play believable. I don't know what else to say about it, except to trust me and stay away from it as far as possible!

awful

[anthonycwhittle · 11 January 2001]

It gets pretty bad when Roy Scheider starts to play roles like this. This film is not worth 1 minute of anybody's life, let alone 90. This films moves at a torpid pace the entire time and never picks up. I highly recommend to continue that novel you were reading.....

Potential Viewers Beware!

[scrivs6 · 18 February 2002]

This was THE lamest movie I have ever seen! This doesn't even rate with B movies. For one, the only thing scary about this movie was the acting. Special effects? More like Special Ed Effects. The characters were supposed to be college students. That implies at least marginal intelligence, which none of them had. Was the script written by an 8 year old? If you are thinking about watching this one, do yourself a favor and borrow the video your neighbor made of their family vacation.