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The Beyond

The Beyond

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The REAL Hatchet Job!
Review: This is the "American" or "International" version of Fulci's classic gorefest The Beyond. Most of the film's more intense sequences have been edited or removed, and certain scenes are missing altogether. Now that Anchor Bay has released The Beyond in a definitive edition, don't even bother with this. I'm sure "Seven Doors..." won't even be on the market much longer as a result of the Anchor Bay version. Avoid this disc at all costs - or you will "live in darkness for all eternity!"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Easily Fulci's Masterpiece
Review: No director is more misunderstood than Lucio Fulci. And no director is more deserving of such misunderstanding. To the impatient viewer his films seem like mindless low-budget slasher films and nothing more. However, a more perceptive audience will realize he has created a truly unique artistic vision thru the medium of low-budget gore films. I was fortunate enough to experience this film in the theater, and was able to see Fulci's genius at work first hand. Within the first 15 minutes his disturbing imagery had forced several unprepared audience members to leave in disgust. Impressive, but not difficult to acheive. What truly astounded me was how most of the remaining audience laughed at what they perceived to be unintentional continuity flaws and other imagined mistakes. Fulci had gotten the better of such viewers. If they were unable to see such deviations from conventional filmmaking as anything other than unintentional errors and illogical sloppiness, they could not hope to appreciate the social criticism and dark humor hidden within. And yet, these viewers still left the theater satisfied. They had seen gratuitous amounts of gore and had gotten a good laugh at a "cheezy" horror movie. The artistic genius is well hidden in Fulci's films and only those open to it will be fortunate enough to appreciate it. Let the others laugh and think they get it...the movie is one of the goriest ever made, and deserving of all the acclaim it receives for being so. But it is also much more. And the fact that most viewers overlook it's other attributes is an extremely gratifying one to those of us who can see it as more. Thank you, Lucio Fulci. Thank you for giving me the most satisfying cinematic experience I could ever hope to have.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best horror films ever
Review: The music of this film is excellent. The acting is great. The ending is perplexing but cool. Lucio Fulci is at his best in this one. I liked Zombie better, but this is just awesome. I recommend it for REAL horror fans.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not as good as ZOMBIE, but a very good film by Fulci
Review: These films by Fulci are best left to watch in the late hours of the evening with all the lights off. THE BEYOND is a worthy follow up to Zombie. The cinematography by Sergio Savati is excellent, especially in the contrast between the opening sequ- ence in 1927 and the cut to 1981. I remember seeing this in 1985 or 1986 at the local neighborhood "Family Four" cinema, if you can believe the irony in that. It was called SEVEN DOORS OF DEATH". There are some great scenes of mood in this, especially when Liza travels down the highway and meets Emily the blind girl and her doggie. Great nihilistic ending too. Score is considered the best in a fulci film but I disagree, Zombie had the best score for midnight movie horror, and Gates of Hell had the most depressing and disturbing. Watch for the great mistakes in this such as "DO NOT ENTRY" and my favorite line"You have carte blanche, but not a blank check". Great to watch this with Zombie, House by the Cemetery, and Gates of Hell.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It's all about Atmoshpere!
Review: I saw this on the big screen a few summers ago thanks to Quentin and Rolling Thunder Pictures who restored and re-released it. I stood in line for 2 hours to be one of twenty to get a "Beyond Eerie Eyeball." Damn, it was well worth it! This wasn't the only treat. Before the movie they played old trailers: Deep Red, Evil Dead, Murder Mafia Style, Cannibal Ferox, and Blood Feast! Now, if they would only have midnight showings of these as well.

There are seven gateways to hell and if opened, the dead will walk the earth. One such door is located in Louisiana's Schweik Seven Door Hotel. In 1927 a Satanist opened one of the seven gateways before an angry mob of townsfolk crucified him and proceeded to do unspeakable acts to him. The townsfolk were too late. The door was left open.

1982. A young woman, Eliza shows up in Louisiana to collect her inheritance, the Schweik Seven Door Hotel. Of course strange things begin to happen. People are mysteriously ding from eye eating tarantulas, impalement, eye gouging, acid, etc. Then the freshly dead at the morgue decide to get up and walk. While all this is going on Eliza befriends John, a local doctor, and tells him about a mysterious blind girl. According to John the girl has been dead for many years. While trying to settle their curiosity, the two search the Hotel and examine a book of Eibon that they found. The book explains the seven doorways to hell. Now they must try and close this gate to hell or become trapped within.

It's better than it sounds. The gore is fantastic. I have never seen so much eye gouging in all my days. Were would a Fulci movie be with out it?

I don't like to nit-pick films but what's up with the tarantulas looking like they were made out of pipe cleaners?

The end is ball breaking. It's very climatic with zombie shooting and a little girl's head being blown apart. I hate happy endings and this is far from happy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It's all about Atmosphere!
Review: Yes! A classic Fulci zombie film now on DVD and just look at those extras! I don't even have a DVD player yet and I've got this one ordered.

I saw this in the theater when it was re-released by Quentin and Rolling Thunder Pictures. I stood in line for 2 hours to be one of twenty to get a "Beyond Eerie Eyeball." Damn, it was well worth it! This wasn't the only treat. Before the movie they played old trailers: Deep Red, Evil Dead, Murder Mafia Style, Cannibal Ferox, and Blood Feast! Now, if they would only have midnight showings of these as well.

There are seven gateways to hell and if opened, the dead will walk the earth. One such door is located in Louisiana's Schweik Seven Door Hotel. In 1927 a Satanist opened one of the seven gateways before an angry mob of townsfolk crucified him and proceeded to do unspeakable acts to him. The townsfolk were too late. The door was left open. 1982. A young woman, Eliza shows up in Louisiana to collect her inheritance, the Schweik Seven Door Hotel. Of course strange things begin to happen. People are mysteriously Ding from eye eating tarantulas, impalement, eye gouging, acid, etc. Then the freshly dead at the morgue decide to get up and walk. While all this is going on Eliza befriends John, a local doctor, and tells him about a mysterious blind girl. According to John the girl has been dead for many years. While trying to settle their curiosity, the two search the Hotel and examine a book of Eibon that they found. The book explains the seven doorways to hell. Now they must try and close this gate to hell or become trapped within.

It's better than it sounds. The gore is fantastic. I have never seen so much eye gouging in all my days. Were would a Fulci movie be with out it?

I'm not one to nitpick a film but what's up with the tarantulas looking like they were made out of pipe cleaners? Come on!

The end is ball breaking. It's very climatic with zombie shooting and a little girl's head being blown apart. I hate happy endings and this is far from happy.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: All I can say about this movie is .....WOW!
Review: I have been a big fan of Lucio Fulci for quite a while now, and still my Fav Mr Fulci film is 'Don't Torture a Duckling' but this movie would have to be a close second. I am from England and from the country that has very strange censorship laws (BBFC, mentioning no names! ) and I am always on the lookout for uncut versions abroad. My work takes me to Los Angeles and while there I pick them up, first on video and now on DVD. This picture had everything, a good story (although drops a little in the middle) great special effects for the time, creepy atmosphere and the acting was good (not great, a little corny but acceptable) The transistion to DVD was okay, being a fairly low budget pic anyway the picture was a little shaky and a couple of times the colour was a little drab, but all in all they have done a good job. I do wish that they would have added a few extra features with it but the movie really speaks for itself. This film is definatly not for the faint hearted, yes it is very gory, yes it is quite explicit but anyone who is aware of Mr Fulci's work knows exactly what they are in for and as for any fan who will see this they will not be disappointed. A real Horror flick that beats any Scream10 , I know What you did Last week, month year etc. Watch and learn! Enjoy.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: If this is the best of Italian Horror then shoot me.
Review: Ok, it is obvious that the majority of Italian horror fans feel that character developement, good story, and most importantly, good acting are not iportant factors when creating a horror movie. This film is considered by many Italian Horror films to be one of the best, if not the best Italian horror movie ever shot. Though the story isn't to bad, the acting and the character developement are NO WHERE to be found! There are TONS of scenes where you the victum had seconds if not minutes to escape some slowly approaching zombies or what ever, but rather decided to screw around until they were killed, transformed or what ever. It's almost as if Lucio did this on purpose so that he could squeeze an extra long gore sceen into the picture. Like where the young girl walks in to see her mom collapsed on the floor, with her face being slowly eaten away by acid...

...you would think she'd run away, but rather, she decides to make her self at home. I can NOT stand idiotic moments in horror films like that.

On a good note, the gore in this movie is AWSOME for the most part. There are a few sceens that could use some serious work, but for the most part, most scenes turn out great!

It is too bad for Lucio, his films were definatly visually disturbing, and at times almost creepy, if it were not for the comlpletely un-creepy sound tracks, horrible acting, and over abundance of moments where the victum could have escaped, but chose not to apparently.

Your better off with Zombie, or Zombie Hell House, two of his other films that are still imperfect, are MUCH better than this over rated piece of crap...

...that happens to have kool death scenes! :)

Buy it for the gore, but don't expect to enjoy everything in between.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Its all about the visuals in The Beyond
Review: And the visuals are astounding. The camera and the director breathe in and revel in every shot, their attention is totally unwavering and they have an eye for the beauty in the scenes, actors, and in the horror as well. Frankly, I couldnt take my eyes off it if I tried, it demands your attention.
Find me any film let alone a horror film from 1983 that looks so crystal clear, so well framed, and so well filmed, its impossible. This film is timeless in that respect, if you told someone this was a 1980's period piece that was filmed in the late 1990's they'd believe you.

Like all Italian horror of the time, the emphasis wasnt put on the script, which is being generous to some of the scenes.

The visuals rule the day though and win out, the quality of all these elements puts you in a forgiving mood for the lesser qualities of the film.

Haunting in a good way.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Dissecting "The Beyond"
Review: There's an intentionally ironic scene in Italian horror filmmaker Lucio Fulci's "The Beyond" involving a hospital cart with excruciatingly squeaky wheels. This cart is wheeled by a soon-to-be victim of Fulci's special-effects crew. Listening to the weird, erratic soundtrack, I found myself praying for those sqeaky wheels to return.

Lucio Fulci is the Italian gore king that brought us such classics as "The New York Ripper", "Zombi", "The House By the Cemetery", "The Gates of Hell", "City of the Living Dead", and the inexplicably titled "Don't Torture Duckling" (?!).

"The Beyond" isn't so much a film as, say, an excuse to show off 14 or 15 really cool gross-out scenes. Acid on face, plastic tarantulas eating face, acid on face again (Fulci apparently had a thing for acid), and various scenes where eyes are popped out of their sockets.

I mentioned the music. The schizophrenic music varies between very chilling, effective mood pieces to completely confounding horror-disco. Nothing funkier than a scene that builds, and builds, and builds until the shocking acid-on-the-face climax is accompanied by the Italian equivalent of the Bee Gees.

Watching this "film", one is left with several questions: why film in Louisiana if all the actors are all British and Italian? Why is it that Bob the dead plumber rises from the dead in a completely new outfit? When did he change his clothes? Are the dead that conscious about fashion? Is the video store still open so I can go rent something better?

If you enjoy watching dogs tear out people's throats, chain-beatings, and bad overdubbing (and who doesn't, I ask?) then Lucio Fulci's "The Beyond" hits the spot.

Since I'm reviewing the DVD version, I'll mention the extras. Each schlocky, unbearable frame of the original print is lovingly restored for the DVD. There are lots of other goodies, like a slide show of the posters, articles, and promotional materials. Of course, the experience of suffering through such a wretched film may leave you asking yourself why you're watching the extras about a film you wish you'd never seen in the first place.


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