Review: The Beyond
Director: Lucio Fulci
This is Fulci's masterpiece – maybe the greatest Italian horror movie ever made. As is common for Fulci's horror movies, the story takes a back seat to the mood. So it's no surprise that the plot and characters are fairly weak. But the mood is so nightmarish and surreal that typical story elements would probably just be a distraction. Still, the story does draw from much better material than Fulci typically uses, and it leaves a lot of questions unanswered, leaving you to try and piece it together. The Beyond takes place in Louisiana and is partly filmed on location. The lead (Catriona MacColl) inherits a hotel which happens to be one of the seven gates to hell, probably borrowing from The Shining and The Sentinel. Lovecraftian influences are apparent, such as the Necronomicon-like Book of Eidon. And on top of it all, the living dead arise in typical Romero fashion. There's also plenty of scenes borrowed from other Italian horror masters. For instance the dog bite scene is straight out of Argento's Susperia, and the scene where Emily runs from the house multiple times was probably pulled from Mario Bava's Kill Baby Kill. Fulci takes this patchwork of influences and molds it into something very original. The insane level of atmosphere and gore he was able to create in the Beyond was thanks in no small part to Gianetto De Rossi – effects/make up, Fabio Frizzi – music, and Segio Salvati – cinematography. The team is also responsible for City of the Living Dead and House by the Cemetery. Despite a couple very fake looking effects (such as pipe cleaner tarantulas), the gore and effects in this movie are incredible. A girl's head is blown off, a man is chain-whipped and crucified, and eyes are torn out left and right. The gratuitous eye gouging probably has a more symbolic theme this time, as hell is represented as an eternity of darkness. Reality turns into a dizzying sequence of torture and death, as the laws of space and time quickly unravel. The Beyond is the ultimate nightmare. There was talk of Michele Soavi doing a Beyond 2, but unfortunately it never happened.
Reviewed by: Ravenous, added November 16 2004
Comments: The Beyond
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