The Gateway Meat

Cast (major): Ron DeCaro,

Rated: Unrated, brutal violence, sexuality

Synopsis: Present day: the world's going to hell due to the deterioration of our society. Kids are growing up in a morally bankrupt world of cell phones and iPods (that part's for real. Don't believe me? Look around you). As the prologue to the movie states: "In 2006, the president of the US was assassinated by a religious extremist. The country carried on with life as normal - the American way. . . but in a quant coastal fishing town, a group of Satan worshipping family people saw his passing as a sign." These family people, as DeCaro calls them, murder people in an attempt to open a true portal to hell.

Review: Hell is exactly where DeCaro takes his viewers, as they are plunged from a scene of a young girl talking with her father about her late grandfather, to where DeCaro's shorts - The White Lie and Eating Razors, ended. Through brief flashes of murder and self mutilation (all done with a style very reminiscent of Jim Van Bebber's "The Manson Family" - a vibe which the viewer will often catch while watching The Gateway Meat) DeCaro shows the viewer glimpses of just what they've gotten themself into.

The film really begins, the viewer thinks the worst of the gore is over. After all, what could be worse than a man slicing his own tongue apart, then having a woman bite it the rest of the way off? With special effects done by DeCaro himself, along with Ben and Aaron Labonte (who also worked on August Underground) Ron keeps proving that it can always get more graphic.

While this film does contain many instances of graphic violence, it is not on the perversion level of many other exploitation films. Rather than being a mindfuck with sexual violence (the likes of which is seen as a strong theme in the August Underground series), it's more of gore to the extent that even some true gorehounds may find disgusting. This is a good thing, however, because if the violence was mostly sexual, it wouldn't work nearly as well with the themes, nor the storyline of the film. If you've read this far, and were thinking you can handle any amount of non-sexual violence, you're in luck, and I encourage you to pick up a copy of this film. I just felt it necessary to make sure the reader of this review knows what to expect from The Gateway Meat. While no cinematic masterpiece deserving of tens across the board, The Gateway Meat still delivers what it promises: tension and gore on a tiny budget. And for that, everyone who worked on it deserves congratulations. You can order this only (as far as I know) at For the Better of Mankind Productions

Rating:

Acting: 6.5/10
Direction: 9/10
Script: 7/10
Plot: 7.5/10
Character Development: 7/10
Gore: 10/10
Overall: 7.8/10

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