"The critics don't get it, and the critics never will.", February 2, 2002

By	Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews

The Beyond (Lucio Fulci, 1981)

Many hardcore fans of Italian horror cinema consider The Beyond to be Lucio Fulci's best film; more than one will likely opine, if you ask, that The Beyond is the finest Italian horror film ever made. While that's probably stretching the case more than a little (I still prefer Fulci's raw, almost unbearably campy Zombie), there's a whole lot to be said for The Beyond as loads of fun. Without doubt, it is one of Fulci's brightest moments. (Note that all description below is from the uncut version on the Anchor Bay limited edition DVD, and as I've never seen the cut version released to theaters, some of what is described below may not sound familiar to those who have already seen the movie, which had a theatrical re-releases in 1998 as Seven Doors of Death.)

The Beyond takes place in the Louisiana bayou country. It opens with a scene in 1927 detailing the brutal lynching of Sweik, an eastern European of some sort who the natives believe has placed a curse on the town. During his lynching, Sweik protests that, in fact, he's the only person keeping the town from falling under the curse. Needless to say, they mob doesn't listen to him, or a very short film we'd have. We then skip to 1981, as our heroine, Liza (Fulci regular Catriona MacColl, seen most recently in the well-received 1998 film A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries), inherits the hotel where Sweik was staying at the time of his unfortunate demise. The place is haunted, especially Room 36, Sweik's room. As well, the basement is constantly flooded, and no one can figure out why. A plumber is dispatched to find the source of the water, and in his attempt he instead finds the source of the hauntings. Complications, as they say, ensue.

The Beyond works in no small part for the same reason that John Carpenter's contemporary film The Fog works--the events are presented with absolutely no context. The filmmaker hands up a plate of hot, steaming horror and raises no questions as to why any of this is happening. This is an important distinction; whether the film itself raises unanswered questions is often the difference between the success and the failure of a venture like this one. Fulci doesn't raise the questions, and The Beyond works. Argento doesn't raise the questions, and Suspiria works. (Argento tried to raise the questions in Inferno, and boy, did it ever not work.) Fulci throws us an extra bone, however, in
allowing one character to raise one question that no one in the film is capable of answering. Very nice touch, that.

Beyond (no pun intended) the film itself, the DVD release falls apart a bit, which is somewhat surprising in any Anchor Bay release, and is especially troubling in such an expensive, limited disc. Most of the extras that come with the release are either soundless (which is quite annoying when the extra is, for example, an interview!) or have a harsh soundtrack overlaid onto them. Might have been nice to use Fabio Frizzi's score for the film, which is up to the usual Frizzi standard and even surpasses it in places.

The film itself is definitely worth watching, both for fans of Italian horror specifically and the more general horror-fan population alike. However, you may want to wait for a non- limited release from Anchor Bay or Elite before picking it up on DVD. **** for the film, ** ½ for this particular release of it, so we'll compromise and say ***.

Super gory, even for Fulci, January 3, 2004

By	Jeffrey Leach (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews

The film opens in 1927 New Orleans at the Seven Doors Inn located out in some bayou. Strange things have been going on in this rickety looking motel, and the local townspeople plan to do something about it. A painter in room 36, as it turns out, found a key to one of the seven doorways to the underworld and has since made paintings of what he found inside the gateway. While a young girl reads about the pathways to Hades in the Book of Eibon, a lynch mob bursts through the door of the painter's room and promptly carries out a grisly execution using chains and what appears to be quicklime. The mob leaves the painter nailed to a wall in a basement as Fulci treats the viewer to a new definition of the term "pudding head" (watch and see). Meanwhile, the young lady reading the book goes blind when the tome explodes into flame. Confused yet? That's a perfectly acceptable condition to find yourself in during a Fulci film. Don't worry, understanding will come to you soon enough. Even if it doesn't, don't fret too much. This is Fulci, man! Lighten up!

Flash forward to 1981. Liza (Catriona MacColl) inherits the run down Seven Doors Inn from her rich uncle. Deciding to abandon life in New York City, Liza heads into the swamp to fix and reopen the motel. Almost immediately problems emerge of a most sinister nature. One of the workmen falls of a scaffold and seriously injures himself. A plumber looking for a way to fix the water filled basement dies horribly when he uncovers a nasty little secret tucked away in one of the walls. Things become so touchy at the inn that local doctor/forensic pathologist John McCabe (David Warbeck) arrives on the scene to investigate. The good doctor becomes intrigued when Liza tells him she has met and talked with three people who really shouldn't be living anymore. The most important of these people is Emily, the aforementioned blind girl who pops up occasionally to warn the new inn owner about the dangers emanating from room 36. According to Emily, the painter who died painfully in that room--he didn't; he died in the basement but Fulci's script fails to remember this fact--has now returned to the world of the living. In fact, soon all of the dead shall walk the earth because the gate to hell is now open. And hey! Emily is right. The dead arise and attack the living in glorious Technicolor. McCabe and Liza attempt to escape the wrath of these zombies and discover what is going on at the inn. How does one close a pathway to the underworld? Watch and see.

I generally liked "The Beyond" and consider it one of Fulci's better efforts although it is not as good as "Zombie." This movie primarily serves as a vehicle for various gore effects. You get faces covered in acid, a messy tracheotomy and severed ear incident, nails hammered through wrists and heads, bullets to numerous foreheads, and a nasty looking spider attack that is sure to turn a few stomachs. The real capper consists of three separate eye sequences, particularly notable since many consider Fulci the king of eyeball violence. I don't think these scenes hold a candle to the memorable splinter rendezvous in "Zombie," but to each his own. The gore works better than the acting (wooden) or the pacing (better but still slow). I got a few unintentional laughs out of McCabe's shootouts with the shambling zombies. Even I realized immediately that shooting the creatures in the head polishes them off, but McCabe wastes a lot of ammo plugging bullets into stomachs and chests to little effect. I did, however, enjoy watching the actress who plays the blind Emily; she's a real cutie who steals a bit of thunder from Catriona MacColl's Liza character.

"The Beyond" DVD bursts at the seams with extras. You get a commentary with MacColl and Warbeck, colorized versions of the opening sequence, trailers, stills, interviews with Fulci, a short interview with MacColl and Warbeck, a lame video from some thrash/death metal band, and a nice widescreen format for the movie. Trying to read meaning into a Lucio Fulci film is an exercise in futility practiced mostly by people who spend their entire waking hours watching Lucio Fulci films. "The Beyond" is a gorefest, plain and simple, and viewers should enjoy it as such.