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Research for The 7th Gate (aka The Berkshire Terror)
     Although not available as a location for the film, Mystery Hill supports the aniquity and accuracy of the set to be constructed for the ancient terror within The 7th Gate. If you wish to explore this genuine, related site, follow this link to Mystery Hill in Salem, New Hampshire.
     Joshua, a native American Vietnam veteran and recovered alcoholic, is stunned by a newscast reporting his grandson, Deputy Sheriff Dan Twotrees, has shot and killed an unarmed assailant in the local campgrounds. Recalling the Van der Haven massacre story he used to tell his comrades-in-arms, quoting the testimony of the native warrior hanged for the crime, whose rejected testimony is now legend in Joshua's part of the Berkshire Hills. An evil spirit, whose proximity alone was enough to transform decent people into deranged murderers, and husbands spared not their wives, nor mothers, their children. Drunk, the last tinme he told that tale, Joshua didn't know the other native American in his audience, son of a Shaman, who suddenly went all spooky, warning Joshua to quit alcohol and remain sober, strong and valiant, for a day was coming when he'd be called to put an end to the evil that stalked the hills. Something in that soldier's voice caused Joshua to quit, and he hadn't touched a drop since. Believing the newscast to be that long-awaited call, Joshua is afraid. No longer strong or valiant, his vow to abstain from alcohol crumbles and he succumbs to a sudden, desperate craving for alcohol, believing he needs it, now more than ever, to fortify his spirit and steady his nerves.
     In the photo (above right), the colorful fellow on the left is Travis's brother, Gregory Pike, and the grey, scholarly fellow on the right is Arthur Gribben, a member of the Friends of Folklore and Mythology at UCLA, brought East by Travis to see if he recognizes any Irish (Celtic) words in Indian placenames in New England, and to compare what he sees in New Hampshire, with similar megalithic structures he'd visited in Ireland.

Gregory and his pup are on the left, and Gregory's wife, Elaine, is in the photo on the right.
     That night, a group of campers turn on each other. In the morning, the campgrounds are invaded by federal agents and workers from a secret military research facility wearing hazmat coveralls who close the campgrounds, Trading Post, and deploy cannisters of explosive lethal, rapidly dissipating gas throughout the surrounding area. And as the news comes in over an inebriated Joshua's radio, unaware of the lethal gas canisters,deployed gas cannisters, he is dressing in his old 1st Cavalry uniform, preparing to set out into the woods to confront the terror lurking within The 7th Gate.

In this final shot, Arthur compares elements in the screenplay with what he sees on Mystery Hill.

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