The Beyond (1983)

Lucio "King of the Eyeball Gag" Fulci made his name with a series of gory, gooey horror epics, and The Beyond stands above all as his outré masterpiece. The largely incoherent plot has something to do with a turn-of-the-century curse and a doorway to hell in the cellar of an old New Orleans hotel. Fulci shows his usual sensitivity with wooden acting, clumsy dialogue, and buckets of oozing blood and pus, but don't let that get in the way of enjoying this mad tale of zombies from hell invading Earth and eating their way through a cast of humans: crucified martyrs, blind visionaries, creepy hotel handymen, befuddled cops, and a plucky pair of heroes desperately fleeing a horde of hungry undead. The blood-red art direction is eerily beautiful, and Fulci's relentless long takes, punctuated by jolting shock cuts and eruptions of grotesque violence, create a mood of sheer paranoid horror right down to the final, mind-bending image. And don't forget the Fulci claim to fame: eyes are gouged out, eaten away, melted with acid, and (shudder) popped out by a spike through the back of the skull. Yech! If you dare ignore such piddling details as narrative logic and let yourself get carried away on the creepy visuals, it's a deliciously stylish treat, an edgy bit of gothic gore pitched in all its bone-crunching, flesh-ripping, organ-splatting glory. This sadistic, sanguinary hell-spawn tale is for gore-hounds only.

The DVD features chatty but largely jokey commentary by David Warbeck and Catriona MacColl and an alternate German credits sequence featuring Fulci's preferred sepia-tinged prologue (but no alternate footage). --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

Lucio Fulci's films really aren't for everyone.

In Louisiana 1927, a man is lynched by a mob and beaten up badly for apparently cursing a town. Despite his attempt to convince his attackers that he is in fact keeping the town safe. They kill him anyway. In 1981, a woman named Liza inherits the hotel he was killed in. Several occurences take place and brutal murders also occur. Liza soon finds herself questioning her own sanity at times.

This is it, I'm officially done with Fulci's movies. This guy has lost me as a possible fan. After enjoying "Zombie" I really wanted to buy into the hype. But I find Fulci's movies atrocious and they are clearly meant for a specific audience. An audience that doesn't include me. Also, I have to be very honest here. After seeing this and "The House by the Cemetary". I'm afraid to watch "Zombie" again. I just might change my mind on it.

I loved the opening scene. I was almost dead set on handing this 4 stars at the very least. The atmosphere, creepy music, and brutal beating during the lynching, captured the very essence of human cruelty and was a clinic on style. Plus the ending was brilliant as well. But everything in between was terrible on the way there. Now let's face it, gore isn't scary. It does add to the horror but too much focus on gore becomes more of an excuse to cover poor storytelling. And "The Beyond" tells one poor story. And now that I think about it, Fulci's storytelling is so horrible that I honestly believe the ending is more a freak occurence than true talent at play.

The writing and acting is extremely poor. The plot is laughably incoherent with events taking place just to show off the gore. And the shoot out with the zombies towards the end is a test of patience. This is not a hate review at all but Fulci's work is not for everybody. I have to beat on that.

Well, I'll never watch another film by Fulci. No matter what is highly recommended. This man's work is completely taken off the menu. Some people actually compare this to Dario Argento's "Inferno". Well I have to say, "Inferno" stomps all over this and has more substance than people give it credit for. "Inferno" actually gives enough clues to the viewer to decide certain events on their own. While this... Well, things just happen. I'm sure this movie will mainly appeal to die hard gore hounds. If gore and style is your thing, then pick this up right away. If your movies must require thought and explanation, you might want to skip this.

October 19, 2008

Why has this not been re-issued......?

Every single lucio fulci film has been re-issued but this,anchor bay blue-underground please re-issue this classic fulci film with tons of extras im tired of waiting.great film very creepy. August 2, 2008

Solid, but flawed

When it comes to Lucio Fulci I always say either you'll love him or you'll hate him. Fulci's style isn't for everyone; some will hail him as a master of horror and others as a no talent hack who can only deliver on the gore. I do understand both sides of the argument; Fulci's splatter era while fun films were often very incoherent, which does at times bring the product down.

I'm a pretty big fan of Lucio Fulci, but people often forget he was a filmmaker who can actually tell a story that makes sense and that is very suspenseful without the over the top gore his later films would feature. Seven Notes in Black AKA The Psychic and Don't Torture a Duckling are prime examples of his talents as a filmmaker that I urge even people who have disliked his work to search for. The Beyond is hailed by many as his masterpiece, but I still go with Don't Torture a Duckling.

As I've gone back and searched for Fulci's early to mid 70s work I have found myself starting to lose patience with his splatter era. Movies I once loved I now think are alright and I say to myself what happened to this filmmaker who did such amazing work? The Beyond does suffer from the typical 80s Fulci problem. The plot is very incoherent and nothing ever is really explained thus making it for me a little frustrating.

If you want gore though you will very much find it here. Giannetto De Rossi did the gore F/X and this just might be his very best work of his amazing career. You have eyes being ripped out, a face melted by acid, tongues ripped out, ears ripped off a throat ripping that features a fountain of blood and gun blast to the head, which leads the head being blown to pieces. This is where the reputation of The Beyond stems from; this just might be Fulci's goriest and the F/X are just as good as any out there and are a million times better than any CGI.

But the fact so little is explained plot wise does for me take away from the film. The screenplay written by Dardano Sacchetti, Giorgio Mariuzzo & Lucio Fulci isn't very good. This might be a low budget 80s horror flick, but still not a logical excuse. While the plot is interesting nothing is ever really explained. The characters are quite stupid, some more than others and while there is a hint of a plot had things been better explained it easily would have made up for any flaws.

As director Lucio Fulci does put together some nice scenes of suspense and his gore shots are wonderful. Fulci's most popular run is from 79-82 and while this is one of his stronger outings from that era I wouldn't rate it as one of the best. While The House by the Cemetery might be just as incoherent that one has an eerie feel that I felt was lacking at times here. That's not to say there isn't any suspense and or tension, there's plenty of that, but I just felt it was lacking at times.

The late David Warbeck played Dr. John McCabe and has to be one of the dumbest characters I've seen. And when I say dumb, I don't mean in a fun way. He shoots the zombies in the body than finally does a headshot, which kills the zombies. The next few are headshots than for whatever reason he begins to shoot them in the body than the head. That was just damn annoying.

Warbeck though does a solid job despite playing a rather idiotic character. The rest of the cast is also good; one time Fulci regular Katherine MacColl stars along with Antoine Saint-John, Cinzia Monreale (under the name Sarah Keller) and Fulci regular Al Cliver.

The Beyond despite all the flaws does make for a fun time. The pacing is pretty good so you'll never be bored and the gore is simply amazing. This one is insanely gory. Like I said I do enjoy The Beyond and I do very much enjoy Fulci's splatter flicks, but after watching some of his earlier work and seeing what a terrific filmmaker he was (not to say he wasn't in the 80s), but after seeing how he can tell a coherent story that was well written my patience aren't what they once were with his splatter era. But again despite any flaws The Beyond remains one his stronger efforts and makes for a great double feature with City of the Living Dead as both deal with the gates of hell. April 14, 2008

Beware of "All Region Imports"!!!!!!

This review is for the Anchor Bay DVD edition.

This film is the best and is a gorehound's fantasy, literally. But beware of the edited versions! The original UNCUT version on DVD is manufactured by ANCHOR BAY and Anchor Bay only. It is 87 minutes in run time. It is severely out of print.

If you come across a copy of The Beyond for sale that advertises itself as an import, especially if it is from Korea. These versions vary in run time but are usually cut by a few minutes. I have one that is 84 minutes long, but the cover artwork and special features are identical to the Anchor Bay version.
The "Seven Doors of Death" version of The Beyond is about 83 minutes long. The edited versions have alot of the gore cut out of them. For example, the eye-gouging scene, the spider attack, and the whipping and acid attack scenes have been shortened, as well as other parts.
Bootlegging of The Beyond on DVD is rampant because the film is such a classic and so incredibly hard to find in it's uncut version. Somebody needs to reissue this movie uncut. Most of the other Italian gore films have been reissued by other companies. Anchor Bay doesn't seem interested in horror films anymore, and most of their recent releases are NEW movies, usually poorly made direct-to-DVD stuff. It is quite frustrating. January 8, 2008

...on that day the dead will walk the earth

I almost fainted when I found this movie at the used video store. Just in time for Halloween! Something from the beyond must have been calling me.
Now this evil little classic lives up to the hype and then some. It's filled with horrific visuals. Chains whipping chunks of human flesh from the bone. Eye gouging. Faces getting mutilated by--okay, I've already said too much. If you're a fan of zombie movies and extreme horror, do your best to get your hands on this as soon as possible.
Become part of the infection.
October 29, 2007

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