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| About Review |
Reviewer
WesCraven
Review Date
28th July, 2004
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| Movie Credits |
Director
Lucio Fulci
Cast
Catriona McCall
David Warbeck
Cinzia Monreale
Veronica Lazar
Gianpaolo Saccarola
Screenplay
Dardano Sacchetti
Giorgio Mariuzzo
Lucio Fulci
Tagline
"The seven dreaded gateways to hell are concealed in seven cursed places... and from the day the gates of hell are opened, the dead will walk the earth."
Country
Italy
Classification
Unrated
Year
1981
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| Errors |
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| DVD Cover Art |
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| DVD Information |
Format
NTSC
Region Coding
1
Aspect Ratio
2.35:1
16x9 Enhanced
Yes
Running Time
89 minutes
Year Released
2000
Packaging
Keep Case
Extra Features
Audio Commentary
Photo Gallery
Video Montage
Music Video
Credit Sequence
Theatrical Trailers
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The Beyond
The Plot
A women inherits a hotel in New Orleans. What she doesn't realize
is that the hotel is hiding a horrific evil within its walls.
The Movie
Often regarded as Italian Splatter-master Lucio Fulci's finest
work, "The Beyond" succeeds and fails on several levels. First, the usual
centerpeice of Fulci's films, is the gore. And this film has copius amounts of
it. The violence comes very often and is extremely graphic. Not only are the scenes
of violence very explicit, but they're often, very closeup, and extremely
unnerving. Gianetto De Rossi proves his excellence in this movie.
Another centerpeice of a Lucio fulci film is the intenseness. Anyone who
claims Fulci is a hack as a director is seriously fooled. Lucio Fulci takes the
simplist of things and makes them suspenseful. Also adding in his reacurring
motif of the closeup on eyes, just helps create a mood of intense eeriness. And
this film is no different. There is constant suspense all thoughout the film,
and it works wonderfully to make the movie very creepy.
However, along with all that, Lucio Fulci also has quite a problem with plot
holes. The man just can't seem to fully connect this film. I've seen a lot of
people, especially about this film, talk about how the plot holes work to help
create a dream-like film. And while they may truly think that, I highly
disagree. There are many times throughout the film where I'm scrambling to
figure out what's happening. It just doesn't work for me, whether it was intendid or
not.
The film's score by Fabio Frizzi is pretty splendid. He has many eerie peices
mixed with some more upbeat peices that collectively help create a very dark
and moody undercurrent. All of which only go to help the films intensity.
All in all, if you like Fulci's past work, you'll definately like this film.
Gorehounds will rejoice. Otherwise Fulci is kind of a gamble, some like his
films, others don't. However, the director has at least earned a single viewing
from every horror fan, and this film is, and I agree, generally considered one
of his best.
The DVD
This DVD is pretty solid. The sound and picture transfers are simply
magnificent and make this film shown the way it was supposed to see. The
extras were also plentiful and entertaining. There's an audio commentary with
Catriona McCall and David Warbeck, which was fairly entertaining, but not overly
informative by any stretch. An interesting stills galleries/video footage
montage backed with an soundtrack nad has a couple of interviews, which I must
admit I really liked it (even if most of it was just still pictures). Also
included are 3 different theatrical trailers, a Necrophagia music video, and the
German pre-credit/credit sequence. All in all the DVD was soild.
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