Ever since the Scream franchise helped put him on the map, Mason Gooding has been a great talent to watch. The genre-bending slasher Heart Eyes is still his best non-franchise role yet, but he’s also branched outside of horror in interesting ways, with everything from the delightful buddy comedy Adult Best Friends to Sundance 2026’s mesmerizing breakout I Want Your Sex. But, as is the case with all actors, Gooding’s great run can’t come without a few misses. The Gates is one of the lowest among them. The film wants so badly to be a timely exploration of racial and class divisions, but it’s so lacking in nuance, subtlety, or intrigue that it not only proves to be aggressively on the nose, but also woefully devoid of any kind of thrills.

Written and directed by John Burr, The Gates centers on Derek, Kevin, and Tyon, a trio of long-time friends in Texas who get together for a night out, While on their mini-road trip to attend a party hosted by women they’re interested in, they make an accidental detour through a gated community, where the residents behave bizarrely in their presence. As they look for a way to get out of the maze-like neighborhood, the trio turn to an opulent mansion to ask for the gate code to let them out. Upon seeing the owner, a pastor named Jacob, having a heated argument with and then seemingly killing a woman, they flee. Jacob then hunts them down to keep his crime a secret, all with the help of his neighbors. Burr, best known for his Celtic-based horror film Muse and its extended version Legend of the Muse, clearly wants to say a lot with The Gates’ plot. From the moment the trio leave Derek’s house, which is itself in a nice neighborhood, the script aims to highlight the country’s inherent leap to profile people of color as criminals. A police officer questions Kevin and Tyon’s presence, only moving on after recognizing Derek.

The fact that the movie is also so predictable saps it of any consistent tension.

But even as they get to the eponymous locale, The Gates never really takes this message any deeper beyond the incredibly superficial “racism is bad” angle. Derek, Kevin, and Tyon attempt to find allies during their efforts to escape the predominantly white gated community, only for most to either look past them entirely, or shun them due to their own relationships with Jacob and doubts about trusting young, Black men. More frustrating than the movie’s very simple commentary, The Gates is just painfully boring. With its 98-minute runtime, Burr doesn’t take long to get right to the meat of the story, but fails to really keep any sense of suspense going. The events start to feel so repetitive that by the time the movie hits its halfway point, the viewer isn’t left wondering what’s next, but more when anything of note will actually happen. The fact that the movie is also so predictable saps it of any consistent tension. There are plenty of good examples of the “one bad night” formula that Burr could have pulled inspiration from – the Emilio Estevez-starring Judgment Night and Robert Pattinson-led Good Time are arguably better versions of The Gates’ plot, even without much commentary lurking under their surfaces. And yet, the script fails to deliver any kind of surprise with the trio’s attempts to flee.

Mason Gooding’s Derek looking shocked while Algee Smith’s Kevin and Keith Powers’ Tyon stand in the background in The Gates

Really, the only things that The Gates actually has going in its favor are the performances of Gooding as Derek and James Van Der Beek in one of his final roles as the malevolent pastor, Jacob. Gooding brings a reliably grounded presence to the film, even if the material doesn’t give him a lot to expound on, while Van Der Beek is surprisingly chilling in a rare villainous role.

The same unfortunately can’t be said for the cast around the pair. Euphoria alum Algee Smith and Uglies’ Keith Powers never quite match up to Gooding, nor elevate Kevin and Tyon beyond being stereotypes. It feels as if Sofia Hublitz, still one of the more underrated of Ozark’s cast, is sleepwalking through her scenes, while Kylr Coffman and Brad Leland are almost trying too hard to give the film some energy. While one could argue that The Gates could be commended for attempting to engage in the ongoing discussions of racial and class divides in the United States, it’s hard to even give it that credit when it has nothing interesting to say. Its message is so banal, and the execution of it so dull, that it not only fails in its social commentary, but also as an engaging story. With its molasses pacing and bland direction, this film is an absolutely forgettable dud. The Gates hits theaters on March 13.

Release Date

March 13, 2026

Director

John Burr

Writers

John Burr

Producers

Nancy Leopardi, Ross Kohn, Gary Glushon

Cast