A Bundle of Blood
The Beyond is the best of the films reviewed here for a number of reasons — the gore effects are splendid, most of the acting is decent with less atrocious dubbing than usual, the camerawork is vivid, and the eerieness is pervasive. The plot is pretty basic: A woman inherits a New Orleans hotel which is built over one of the seven gateways to Hades. When the doorway is opened by an unwitting plumber, all hell breaks loose, literally and figuratively. There are certainly some leaps in logic for the picky viewer, but between the man-eating tarantulas, the gouged eyeballs, and the acid baths, most gorehounds will not pore over the plot inconsistencies.

The Black Cat was made just prior to The Beyond and finds Fulci in a much more subdued mode. It's based loosely on the Poe story about a malign feline who does damage to those crossing its path. Composer Pino Donaggio provides a good score, and Patrick Magee overacts splendidly as a medium with a psychic connection to the cat, but the film is ultimately too derivative to be anything special. Italian horror devotees will want to compare this to Argento's better adaptation of the same story in Two Evil Eyes.

Occupying a similar spot on the Fulci continuum is The New York Ripper, a brutal slasher movie about a sicko who kills women while talking like Donald Duck. The film is nastily effective, but like William Lustig's Maniac or Meir Zarchi's I Spit on Your Grave, the violence is too distasteful to qualify as good art.

At the bottom of the scale is Manhattan Baby, an incoherent muddle about an Egyptian charm which causes havoc in the lives of a family of New York City residents. Aside from a nifty opening sequence shot in Egypt and an amusing murder scene courtesy of some angry stuffed birds, Baby is mostly a dull mess, ripping off more effective films like Poltergeist and The Exorcist.

Taken as a whole, these four Fulcis may fail to make a compelling argument for the director as one of the finest in the genre, but there is talent on view in each of the films, and The Beyond is a must for any horror lover.

The Extras
Both The Black Cat and The New York Ripper have a theatrical trailer, information about Fulci, and liner notes on the reverse of the cover. The liner notes on the latter disappointingly discuss little about the film, which is unfortunate because it's one of the director's more controversial works, not to mention one of the few he wrote himself.

Manhattan Baby adds an interesting interview with screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti to the trailer, talent bios, and liner notes. In the nine-minute discussion, he talks about some of the failings of the film, and offers a very interesting analysis of Fulci's sadism towards women. Michael Felsher's liner notes are also quite good, putting Baby in context with the director's other work and finding that it comes up short.

The extras on the above titles are a little paltry, but Anchor Bay goes all out for The Beyond. At the top of the bonus features is the gossipy and very funny commentary from leads Catriona MacColl and David Warbeck. They point out some great inside jokes that only attentive viewers would notice, and discuss Fulci's temper tantrums (especially with actresses) and propensity for setting himself on fire. Fans of the director won't want to miss this discussion by two actors who worked with him on multiple films.

The Beyond disc also includes a nifty psychedelic feature set to music called "Images from The Beyond," three theatrical trailers, a different version of the opening sequence previously thought lost, a brief on-set interview with Fulci from the set of Demonia, and a music video by Necrophagia.

There was a limited edition tin (20,000 copies) put out by Anchor Bay which also included poster replicas and a 48-page color booklet, but this version was unavailable for review.

Sound and Picture Quality
All features are presented in widescreen (aspect ratio 2.35:1), and enhanced for 16x9 televisions. All are presented in Dolby Digital mono, except The Beyond, which offers Dolby Digital 5.1 or Dolby Surround 2.0. The latter option makes brilliant use of the rear channels in a couple of key moments.

Picture quality for all features is quite good, with The Beyond again taking top honors in the field. There are a couple of print glitches on The Black Cat, but nothing devastating.

For Fulci Fans
True acolytes will want to know about other Fulci films now available on DVD or VHS or coming soon. The House by the Cemetery, The City of the Living Dead, Don't Torture a Duckling, and Zombie have all been released by Anchor Bay, with the latter unfortunately available only on VHS. In addition, Image Entertainment is putting out two of the director's later films, Demonia and A Cat in the Brain.