Directed by Jackson Stewart, Beyond the Gates is a retro-movie from the Day-Glo 1980s past. This is a good trailer, too, for a low-budget horror movie. Nostalgia grabs viewers back to a time when VHS ruled, video stores were meccas for horror fans, and shocks came with a healthy dose of claptrap.

The story is not bad. It starts in the wake of their father’s mysterious disappearance and meeting two estranged brothers. The responsible Gordon, played by Graham Skipper, and reckless John, played by Chase Williamson. They reunite to sift through the contents of their father’s stubbornly outdated VHS rental store.

Among the inventory, they discover an interactive VCR board game, which their father viewed just before he vanished. Intrigued, the boys pop in the tape, press play, and soon discover that, far from an ordinary game, the video is a portal to a nightmarish alternate reality overseen by a sinister hostess, cult horror icon Barbara Crampton, and that to save their father’s soul, they must play by her rules.

I should note that Crampton starred in Days of Our Lives and made her film debut in 1984’s Body Double.