“The Gate to Hell”: This Austro “crime scene” is scary

Everyday life as a detective can be pretty scary. The Viennese “Tatort” duo made this experience in their latest case “The Gate to Hell” (on Sunday on ORF 2). Harald Krassnitzer as Moritz Eisner and Adele Neuhauser as Bibi Fellner deal with a dead priest, after which they delve deep into the occult scene. Satanic symbols, mysterious cards and foreign tongues also play a role, of course.

“Tatort” veteran Thomas Roth, who is responsible for directing and scripting, kicks things off with classic horror film gestures including a grainy look: a young girl sneaks through a seemingly abandoned house in which objects and walls begin to tremble. In the background you can hear a prayer that is repeated over and over like a trance. When the little girl finally opens the door at the end of the corridor, which is only ajar, she first sees a strange crowd of people reminiscent of a séance – before the moment of shock sets in.

However, the dark fare of the genre by no means ends with this sequence, the exact classification of which causes a small surprise in the course of the case. Rather, under the bright Viennese sun, there will soon be a dead priest to mourn, beaten up pretty badly and equipped with a pentagram medallion. Did evil powers have their fingers in the pie? After all, the man worked for the archdiocese in the “liberation service” – in other words: he was contacted if an exorcism had to be carried out. Such as with the young woman Nathalie, whom he had met the day before and whose trail the investigators found rather by accident. The short interrogation that follows offers the next horror, as Nathalie seems to be obsessed.

While Moritz is quite skeptical about all of this and wants to relieve his growing anger with loud classical music on the car radio (including shouting “That calms me down!”), Bibi’s situation is different. With her grandmother in the country, she came into contact with necromancy earlier, and then there is an old acquaintance: Roland Düringer plays a former pimp who is now well versed in occult things and really doesn’t want to know anything about anything. After all, there’s a lot to come for the two commissioners, he’s sure. It is not the first time that the gate to hell, which can apparently be found in Vienna, is mentioned in the conversation. And what role does that psychiatrist (Sven-Eric Bechtolf) play, who supported the deceased priest in exorcising demons?

Moritz and Bibi gradually find themselves in a network of false leads and half-truths, which doesn’t make things any easier. Unfortunately, this also applies to the film itself: This case isn’t quite a crime thriller, but it’s also not really horror. The more there is talk of terrible demons, witch burnings on the banks of the Danube and possible connections to the past, the less you can find your way around in this story. Especially towards the end, Roth jumps back and forth between his acting characters and different locations, which also affects the narrative balance.

Nevertheless, this “gate to hell” is quite fun and ultimately has plenty of scary moments to offer, which is not exactly commonplace for this series (or the time slot). The tried-and-tested dynamic between Krassnitzer and Neuhauser is reliable anyway, as the two pass balls in the tried and tested manner. It’s hard to believe that Düringer is allowed to give Strizzi for the first time in the “Tatort” universe. But the mixture of crook and demon expert suits him extremely well. All of which at least partially makes up for the half-baked direction and somewhat absurd resolution of this case.

(S E R V I C E – https://tv.orf.at/program/orf2/tatort350.html)

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