This fourth film is an old to good old fashioned man-hating feminism. I kind of wonder if it was ghost written by Rush Limbaugh. It is also the first film in the series to have no killer Santas.
Ambitious young reporter Kim is trying to break through the man’s world of investigative journalism. She is researching a story about a young woman who lept from the roof of a building and burst into flames. While investigating, she meets Octopussy. Well, Fima, but she is played by Maud Adams. Fima invites Kim to a special get together of her feminist book club. Kim starts to have visions of worms and stuff.
The film is full of scenes where people espouse all sorts of basic caricatures of feminism and anti-feminism. Kim talks like the version of feminism from a guy who did a quick google search on feminism. Listen, I get that Google did not exist when the movie was made. That is not the point. There is no depth to the characters. No deep motivation to their ideals and beliefs.
Kim finds that Fima and her friends are a witches coven that are trying to bring Kim into the fold for a winter sacrifice. Ultimately, she cannot, because that sacrifice? Involves killing a little boy, so she fights back.
Unlike the other films in the franchise, this is not a slasher. Instead, this is more of a body horror film. Not unlike Cronenberg, director Brian Yunza has an obsession with gruesome body deformations and changes. The film is also heavily focused on bugs. Because…bugs.
The effects are very strong, as created by the effects artist Screaming Mad George.
Clint Howard plays a homeless guy named Ricky, but it is unclear if he is the same Ricky as the previous two films. He seems to be the “Weird Homeless Guy” the film needs to creep out Kim and is a servant to the witches. Guess they needed a man after all.
Tripping Through Gateways 
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