Home Entertainment: ’Portal’ digital review

Released earlier in the year in the US as Doors, the film has been re-branded as Portal here in the UK and offers a composite of science-fiction weirdness. It’s an anthology film with a slight difference: all the stories are set within the same world crisis, at varying points in time. Without warning, millions of mysterious alien “doors” suddenly appear around the globe. In a rush to determine the reason for their arrival, mankind must work together to understand the purpose of these cosmic anomalies. Bizarre incidents occurring around the sentient doors leads humanity to question their own existence and an altered reality as they attempt to enter them.

Although made up of segments that all take place within the same ‘world’, each one offers a very different tone, style, and perspective. As the film progresses it moves through standard horror science-fiction, to cerebral nightmare, onto philosophical musings, before ending back in the realm of horror. It’s an interesting journey, though one full of ups and downs. With any anthology there’s the risk of the different sections being hit and miss; different audience members will react in different ways to what is offered, and that’s a big factor here. The jumps in tone and content seek to find a story for everyone, but in doing so will serve to alienate vast chunks of viewers from most portions of the film. Many will find one or two to latch onto, but that means that at least half of the run-time won’t be for them, making for an occasionally painful watch. A constant within each film is the design of the doors themselves. They have a strange almost magnetic iron-filing nature to them as they twist and distort. A lot of time and attention has clearly been paid to their realisation on screen and they are easily the most memorable element of the film.   

Lockdown is by far the most engaging and compelling of the stories. Set on day one, it joins a quartet of high-school students who find themselves trapped in the school library during a lockdown drill. Directed by Jeff Desom, this segment opens Portal strongly, playing like the beginning of a Blumhouse teen movie, and catches the viewer’s attention effectively. There’s a strong sense of foreboding about the piece, and despite only being around twenty minutes in total, manages to create some interesting character dynamics and developments. It’s easily the most accessible of the stories presented and makes for the perfect first step into the world. 

Up next comes Knockers, the first of two segments directed by Saman Kesh. Having now jumped to day fifteen, the story follows a trio of scientists known as ‘knockers’ as they venture through one of the mysterious doors that have appeared. Their mission is to discover the secrets of the door, but after previous research hints at a catatonic trance afflicting all who stay inside too long, they must be in and out within eleven minutes. Knockers plays itself somewhere between Solaris and Event Horizon, it’s desire to be an arthouse cerebral science-fiction weighs itself down heavily, making it a bit of an ordeal to get through.     

The third story, Lamaj, jumps one hundred and one days into the crisis and joins scientist Jamal as he studies the exterior of a door located within his garden. This day sees a major breakthrough in his research, one that sets off a cataclysmic chain of events. Directed by Dugan O’Neal, Lamaj presents the most intriguing narrative prospect and, out of all segments on display, is perhaps most worthy of expansion. As with Knockers, it’s a section that relies on theories and philosophical musings to entertain, but O’Neal’s handling makes for a more palatable watch than the previous section. Fans of Alex Garland’s work on Annihilation and Devs will have an especially fun time with this one. 

Ending the piece, as well as acting as an interconnection between all stories, is Interstitials, the second segment from Kesh. Throughout the narrative we hear snippets of a radio show host’s coverage of events and now we join him as he interviews an ‘expert’ on the doors. The date stamp here is missing, though the story plays out as a kind of epilogue to everything that has come before. Set during a call using a Zoom-type platform, Interstitials is arguably the weakest of all the offerings. It feels too much like a Host knockoff, even though it was potentially made pre-pandemic. There’s also something a little silly about this ending, whether the narrative device or the exaggerated acting that is to blame is unclear, but it ends the film on a very wobbly note. Anthology films are always tricky beasts to wrangle and here a confliction in tones and narrative styles unpicks a sound attempt to connect the individual stories. 

Signature Entertainment presents Portal on Digital Platforms and DVD 19th April.