PORTAL TO HELL lists in the Slamdance write up as a horror film and a comedy. The thing is it's neither really. It's a fable that never quite gets the tone right.
The plot has a debt collector discovering a portal to hell in the local laundromat. It transpires that it opened so that a demon can cross over and take the collectors next door neighbor who is, by all accounts a great guy. As things go he begins to feed people into the portal in the hope of saving his friend.
There is a great film locked in this story, but this isn't it. As much as I love almost everything about the film, I absolutely hate the matter of fact tone. That would work except that the film alternately tries to play things as a horror film (it's lit that way) or didn't know what to feel or think. Forgive me the story and the performances but the director's choices work against the audience connecting to it.
Give the film points for trying but the film never satisfies.
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