Cut in the mode of the movie "Grave Encounters," "Portal" is about ghost hunters looking for a real haunted house. After failing too often to find a real haunted house they steal a tip about a house that may be the real deal: the Dalva House. The Dalva House is where patriarch, Richard Dalva, killed his family and himself (so the legend goes).
The ghost tracker crew set up their elaborate ghost hunting equipment at the Dalva House really feeling they'd capture something. After hours of getting nothing, the ringleader, Steven (Ryan Merriman), decided to read an incantation he unearthed. The incantation didn't awake ghosts though; it awoke a demon.
The good thing is that the movie is only an hour and fifteen minutes, so if it's bad-which it kinda was-then you only have to suffer through an hour and fifteen minutes. If it's good, which it was at times, then you've got a taste.
The movie was a bit hackneyed with the ghost hunter aspect as well as the ominous Native American ushering an enigmatic warning about going to the house. Later in the movie the Native American's adopted sister, Fiona (Heather Langenkamp, as in the girl who played Nancy in Nightmare on Elm St.), would remind the production crew that they had been warned about going to the house while I, as the viewer, screamed, "Could his warning have been more confusing!?"
A warning is, "Don't go to that house. Stay far away from that house. You'll die if you go there." A warning is not, "You don't find the ghosts, the ghosts find you." I mean really, WTH!? You do know that they're trying to find ghosts, right? Your "warning" gave them all the reason they needed to proceed with their plans.
There was further cause to be bothered when the ghost hunter crew dug up the shallowly buried incantation. Per Fiona, who happened to be a surviving Dalva family member, she couldn't destroy the incantation, so she buried it. Yeah, she buried it about 18 inches deep, in the back yard, with a marker to indicate its location. She may as well had set it on a table with neon lights around it saying "Read Me." I've seen Easter eggs hidden better than that evil spell.
I've already spoiled most of the movie so I may as well spoil the ending. Steven ends up dying. He has to trade his soul for the soul of his producer, Cris (Jamie Tisdale), because that's how the rules work. It was another unoriginal plot piece liberally borrowed from movies before it.
Even though the movie only got worse in the last half-hour, it wasn't so bad I couldn't stick it out.
The ghost tracker crew set up their elaborate ghost hunting equipment at the Dalva House really feeling they'd capture something. After hours of getting nothing, the ringleader, Steven (Ryan Merriman), decided to read an incantation he unearthed. The incantation didn't awake ghosts though; it awoke a demon.
The good thing is that the movie is only an hour and fifteen minutes, so if it's bad-which it kinda was-then you only have to suffer through an hour and fifteen minutes. If it's good, which it was at times, then you've got a taste.
The movie was a bit hackneyed with the ghost hunter aspect as well as the ominous Native American ushering an enigmatic warning about going to the house. Later in the movie the Native American's adopted sister, Fiona (Heather Langenkamp, as in the girl who played Nancy in Nightmare on Elm St.), would remind the production crew that they had been warned about going to the house while I, as the viewer, screamed, "Could his warning have been more confusing!?"
A warning is, "Don't go to that house. Stay far away from that house. You'll die if you go there." A warning is not, "You don't find the ghosts, the ghosts find you." I mean really, WTH!? You do know that they're trying to find ghosts, right? Your "warning" gave them all the reason they needed to proceed with their plans.
There was further cause to be bothered when the ghost hunter crew dug up the shallowly buried incantation. Per Fiona, who happened to be a surviving Dalva family member, she couldn't destroy the incantation, so she buried it. Yeah, she buried it about 18 inches deep, in the back yard, with a marker to indicate its location. She may as well had set it on a table with neon lights around it saying "Read Me." I've seen Easter eggs hidden better than that evil spell.
I've already spoiled most of the movie so I may as well spoil the ending. Steven ends up dying. He has to trade his soul for the soul of his producer, Cris (Jamie Tisdale), because that's how the rules work. It was another unoriginal plot piece liberally borrowed from movies before it.
Even though the movie only got worse in the last half-hour, it wasn't so bad I couldn't stick it out.