HELLGATE is a terrible, little-known horror film of 1989 that's one of the most disappointing of the decade. The plot seems to have been stitched together from bits and pieces of better movies, and it screams cliche throughout. The opening sees a woman killed by a biker gang, only for her grieving father to bring her back to life. She proceeds to act as a succubus, going around seducing men and killing them. The usual bunch of teenagers turn up at an abandoned house and slaughter continues. The first half of this hokum plays out as softcore pornography while the second half descends into tedium with overacting, bad scripting, and hopeless direction.

A group of college students decide to investigate an urban legend concerning a young woman named Josie (luscious busty blonde babe Abigail Wolcott) who was abducted and killed by a biker gang back in the 1950's. They go to an old abandoned ghost town to check out said urban legend and naturally find themselves in considerable jeopardy.

Boy, does this ham-fisted attempt at a surrealistic horror movie rate highly as a choice absurd chunk of flaming hot garbage: We've got hopelessly inept (mis)direction by William A. Lavey, a seriously ridiculous premise that's played ludicrously straight, occasional clumsy use of strenuous slow motion, tacky gore, shoddy (not so) special effects, an obviously fake rubbery bat on strings, some tasty gratuitous female nudity, a mutant goldfish puppet and other stuff that blows up real good, dancing undead can can girls, a plodding pace, zero tension or spooky atmosphere, and even a face-shredding zombie turtle (!). As an extra plus, Ron Pallilo (Horshack on "Welcome Back, Kotter") is uproariously miscast as a total chick magnet who hangs a BA for the ladies (yikes!). By no means a good movie, but overall pretty enjoyable in a train wreck sort of way.

A motorcycle gang kidnaps a young woman, Josie, from a diner and brutally kills her. Many years later, the girl's father finds a magic crystal that can bring the life back to dead objects. He uses it to re-animate his daughter.

This film has a low rating and has generally been forgotten. And yeah, I can see why. It is no masterpiece and is definitely not a horror gem. I like the reanimation aspect, and the 1950s bit... and we have zombies, ax murders, and more...

If nothing else, the film is good for the very, very corny humor and the slow motion shot of a topless woman getting blown through a window by a shotgun blast. That is an incredible stunt, and by going in slow motion it is even more spectacular.