“The Gates” (opening Friday), a tense, low-budget thriller from Dallas director/writer John Burr, has an eye-catching premise: what happens when three, twentysomething African American guys find themselves trapped in a (mostly) white, North Texas gated community with no way out and at least one man who wants to kill them? What makes it all the more noteworthy is that the man on their trail is played by James Van Der Beek in what turns out to be his final role before he passed away from colorectal cancer last month.
Fortunately, “The Gates,” which admittedly has a stronger first half than second half and has one plot hole that you could plow an F150 through, lives up to both its promise and Van Der Beek’s legacy. His steely, grim performance adds a layer of danger that helps lift “The Gates” above being just another thriller.
Derek (Mason Gooding, “Scream,” “Booksmart”) is a studious, upper-middle-class African American guy and future lawyer from the tony Dallas suburb of Highland Park who ends up getting dragged out for a night on the town by his more streetwise, college-athlete friend, Tyon (Keith Powers, “The Tomorrow War”), who brings along his buddy, Kevin (Algee Smith, “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “The Hate U Give”). Kevin doesn’t really get along with Derek because he thinks the wanna-be attorney is too “bougie.” Conversely, Derek sees Kevin as too street and Tyon often has to play peacemaker between the two…