Rating: 
Summary: a Fulci nightmare
Review: Superb film from director Lucio Fulci that is positively dripping in atmosphere.Dream-like and totally haunting this masterpiece just has to be seen to be believed.Even then you won't believe it.
Rating:
Summary: Great film, great dvd
Review: I want you to know I'm not a sad gorehound fanboy. I don't think every Fulci film's a great film just because he directed it, and I don't send fan mail to Katriona MacColl. But I've studied cinema and I've seen few films that have affected me in as profound way as The Beyond. The Beyond is an exercise in cinema in its purest and most artistic form. Fulci uses the mechanics of cinema (lighting, editing, rhythm and texture)to raise the intensity of images and sounds, creating a truly evocative, lyrical quality. The film contains a truly mystical quality. Even in scenes that could have been simply repulsive and gratuitous, like a bottle of acid spilling on a woman's face, the film is magical and wonderful. The process of signification (the images, sounds, etc)raises the images from the potentially prosaic to the mystical. Very few films can match the pure atmosphere that this film possesses. Because of the low budget, there is one very bad scene, when the obviously fake spiders bite a man's face. But this is only 4 minutes of rubbish in an otherwise perfect film. It's worth noting that recognised classics like CITIZEN KANE have some truly fake scenes (remember the fake background with fake bats, an image stolen from a King Kong sequel). Or what about the pathetic Jar Jar Binks in the awful Phantom Menace, not to mention the fake backgrounds. THE BEYOND is more forgiveable due to the minute budget. Critics have always trashed this film, because they don't understand it. They ignore poetry when it is applied to genre films (see William Friedkin's marvellous Sorcerer). The thing is, in the horror genre, which is based around extreme feelings and sensations, when the mechanics of cinema are applied to such an extreme subject, the images and textures have to be even more powerful, evocative, extreme and atmospheric. That's why the best Italian horror films are so good, and this is why the genius of Fulci is allowed to flourish in its most unadulterated form. Another aspect that is often criticised is the bizarre logic that the film possesses. For example, when the protagonists exit the hospital, why do they end up in the hotel cellar, which is located miles away? When a renovator falls off a ladder, why is he devoured by spiders? The answer is obvious if you understand surrealist cinema and the use of the set piece in Italian horror cinema. First, Surrealists like Bunuel and Dali scripted their films through the process of automatic writing, as ideas from the subconscious were scribbled down and then filmed. Hence the abrupt transitions and illogical phenomenology. The link to the subconscious can be found in The Beyond because it has a true nightmare quality; almost every image in this film feels like an overwhelming, frightening dream. Secondly, the story takes a back seat to the set pieces in Fulci's films. In Hollywood films, which ususally tell straightforward stories, the set pieces act as a spectacle to momentarily detour the forward motion of a clear narrative. Fulci gives the set piece precedence in his films; the narrative is one nightmarish event after another. These sequences are held together tentatively by small story threads. Fulci combines poetic cinema, nightmare images, and exquisitely horriffic set pieces to create a film where the image is all important. Fulci wants us to feel this film, to experience the startling images "without reflection". We should forget logic and story; The Beyond is an amazing sensory experience. It is a true enigma that favours strangeness over familiarity, poetry over prose and nightmare logic over narrative clarity. Let the jaded critics rave about Citizen Kane, Vertigo and Regle de Jeur. Let them shamefully neglect superior filmmakers like Fulci. But don't follow suit. This is a great dvd for a great film, one of the best ever.
Rating: 
Summary: Pure cheesy fun
Review: The Beyond is, by no means, a good film. In fact, it is 90 minutes of pure, mindless poo. Even so, it is one of the most prized dvd's in my collection.
No matter how poorly written and acted this mindless zombie film may be, it is made phenomenally well. The directing, the pace, and the gore are all top notch for when this was made and especially so considering that it was on a low budget. If you are the sort of viewer who can laugh rather than gag in the face of intense, over-the-top gore, you will love this movie.
On the actual dvd front, this is loaded with special features, some of which are great, and some rather pointless. The David Warbeck commentary track is worth the cost of the dvd all on its own.
Rating:
Summary: Not a bad flick...
Review: This movie was one of Fulci's best. While not a true zombie film, it had more than its fair share of them. The movie itself had a decent enough storyline and the script was one of Fulci's better ones. The gore wasn't as realistic as I'd hoped, but there was a lot of it. Fulci used his usual eye-gouging and throat slashing to keep this one among his best gore-fests. The acid-in-the-face was a nice touch.
By the way, when people in your home begin to die mysterious and gruesome deaths... it's time to move to the opposite end of the planet, Okay?
Rating:
Summary: Fulci's ultimate movie!
Review: I enjoyed all of Lucio Fulci's movies and i am a fan of his since i saw " Zombie", but i think " City of the Living Dead" and " House by the Cemetery" were quite good but nothing can rival his own " Zombie" and " The Beyond". This film was long forgotten since it was first released in the U.S. in 1981 under a diferrent title called " Seven Doors of Death" ad it was also heavily cut to avoid X Rating. Now Tarantino's Rolling Thunder Pictures thankfully re-issed this movie in Theaters back in 1998 for the first time, Uncut, uncensored and remastered with better soundtrack and became a Midnight hit. I bought the DVD of this movie, i love the movie and it's features too on DVD. It's set in Lousiana in a large Grand Hotel that was once a secret place of Occult rituals that was made by an evil Warlock a long time ago, now it's a Grand Hotel with nice rooms and great service. Suddenly, there are mysterious deaths that have been happening, but the Rich woman who owns it wants to keep her dreams alive despite a warning from a Psychic woman now the Hotel is haunted by dark forces such as Zombies, Demons and Ghosts. A graphic, Unique and one-of-a-Kind Horror drama thriller with rich Atmosphere, Realistic graphic Gore, chilling music score and one Hell of an ending. I urge you horror fans to own this movie on DVD, it's one of the best i've seen and ranks number three on my list of favorite horror movies. This is not for the faint of Heart or squeamish, cause it's Beyond your wildest nightmares, Beyond fear, Beyond terrifying and wayy beyond the possiblity of any MPAA Rating.
Rating:
Summary: rarevideo nyc rr.con stoled my dvd and money no dvd
Review: no e-mails no dvd help me stop this crooked rarevideo nyc .rr. com dont buy from him by henry june18.02 i give oit 5 stars even know i never got my dvd but still is lucio fulci and he gets 5 stars in his movies from me.
Rating:
Summary: Only a hint to Fulci's genious as a filmaker...
Review: This beautiful piece of work is, besides a great visual fest that delights by itself, a metaphor of christianity. If you pay close attention to the beginning, the end, and the nature of the painter, you will recognize the elements of sacrifice, similar to that of Jesus, or Prometeus in Greek mythology, warning and apocalypse. After he is made into a zombie, he is the only one who doesn't attack and kill people, his presence being only some kind of warning of what's going on, just as the prescence of the book in different geographic sites, insistently. The apocalyptic fate of Liza and the physician is a representation of what the experience of the end of all hope would be like, not clearly being individual or for the rest of humanity, or both at the same time, but one of the most creative, multidimensional scenes ever, ever shot. The seven doors of evil (textually, not death as many see) are a transposition of the seven capital sins to the geographic dimension. Overall, this is, for me, a transposition of the christian doctrine in Fulci's view,just like the unfairly underestimated "Conquest" is of the encounter of civilizated and barbarian men, both in the search of light and fighting a common enemy, because of the symbology and semiotics that he uses, which are pretty obvious for me. He also tried to synthesize the lovecraftian principle of "supernatural horror beyond human description " and shows a great knowledge of the written theory and creative works of the great horror writters: He knows, and he puts those elements in practice. All with a hint of the phantasmagoric atmosphere of the haunted hotel, created somewhat by Stephen King/ Stanley Kubrick, and the handling of the eye expressions, similar to Luis Buñuel's "Un Perro Andaluz", which justifies the gore (centered in the eye ) and gives it a certain sequence. Too bad some people are too biased and blinded (just like those in the movie) by all the bad stuff being said about this true genius, banning themselves to the chance of this undescriptible, beautiful, and spiritual experience. The message is pretty clear: "You will see the sea of darkness, and all therein that may be explored".
Rating:
Summary: More Gross Than Scary But Scary Nontheless!
Review: This film is probably playing on [tv] pop cinema as I write this review but I must say this film is little gross no it's more gross than the first Evil Dead and I dare not watch it at night. The zombies in this movie seem to come from outta nowhere and look like they just lost a prize fight against a mack truck. The eyeball gags are obviously fake but they make you gringe just the same. That brooding voice at the end that resigns the two main characters: the doctor and the hotel owner to their ultimate fate to wonder the plains of hell for all eternity, is just plain disturbing. And that's pretty much the sum of the movie...
Rating: 
Summary: Boring, silly, and pretty much nonsense.
Review: A woman discovers that a Louisiana hotel she inherited is one of the doorways to hell! Lucio Fulci's most highly regarded film is the worst of his that I've seen. As a whole, the movie is never very engaging and features far too many unintentionally hilarious scenes. Yes, the film looks great (love the hotel silhouette scene with all the zombies awakening) and has some memorable gore effects and a fairly action-filled finale, but for a movie that many proclaim as being plotless, this film sure ... has a lot of ludicrous plot holes. For more entertaining undead fun, stick with Fulci's Zombie or George Romero's living dead series.
* 1/2 out of *****
Rating:
Summary: not exactly great...
Review: I really don't know what to say about this movie, even though the booklet in the limited edition DVD tries to give an explanation for this no plot gorefest anyone who has seen atleast 3 Fulci films and read some of his interviews can tell he was more interested in making a collection of gore scenes instead of a coherent story.
It kind of a shame, there's some real beautiful shots here. Some scenes are top notch suspense, but its all hollow. You feel some of the scenes would work better if there was an actual story inbetween instead of disjointed scenes of people going place to place spurting inane and downright cheesy lines. But thats expected from Fulci films, they have a vibe all their own, whether thats good or bad, after seeing most of the films he's ever made, I still can't tell.
And again, the gore scenes! Brutal and unsettling but done with such fascination it turns out somewhat brilliant, but sadly like one reviewer stated, its kind of forgettable. One more thing, the final zombie attack scene is great! Its gets your blood flowing, everything is great in this scene and the downbeat ending is cool, but you couldn't really care less really. So what you have is a film that COULD HAVE been a masterpiece, maybe if Fulci had Argento to do the script with him, I think it would have been excellent.
The bonus materials include a pretty good commentary track, some trailers n stuff and a cheesy music video by Necrophagia (yes thats Phil Anselmo from Pantera on guitar). But think about this, the movie is much better if you turn the movie's sound down and play a Necrophagia CD. All in all I feel a little sad about this film, I WANT to like it but I CAN'T for some reason. Its a halfassed attempt at story but a first rate success in style, view at your own risk.
|
