Metacritic reviews

This surprisingly effective low-budget effort from Canada plays on universal childhood fears, and manages to be scary without resorting to scenes of sadism or graphic bloodletting.

This is good-natured terror, the sort that can take time at the height of action for a quick joke. [18 May 1987, p.3C]

If you can get in touch with your inner 12-year-old, The Gate is a pleasant diversion.

The lunacy on view is strangely dreamlike, and no bad thing. It's only a pity the film actually tries to make sense. More abandon all round, and the result could have been a Z-grade cult classic.

The Gate, whatever minor triumphs it dredges up, is too hopelessly copycat. It's basically powdered Speilberg on Zwieback toast and Stephen King on a stick. [19 May 1987, p.3]

The movie puts us back in Poltergeist territory, but it cannot approach that film's shock value. The plot is too simple. Watch the children pulverize the demons. Watch the demons terrorize the children. You get the idea. [22 May 1987, p.D5]