Lucio Fulci is a legend amongst horror fans, alongside fellow Italian director Dario Argento, on the strength of a quartet of films he helmed. ZOMBIE FLESH-EATERS/ZOMBIE (1979), CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD (1980), THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY (1982) – and THE BEYOND (1981)
Italian horror was probably among the most popular during the 1980s – and found its’ way onto British screens mostly via VHS, where the notoriety of these films were found as they made their way into video libraries all around as the ‘Video Nasties’ era began around 1981 – 1983.
Happily though, all four are available in uncut versions thanks in no part to Arrow Video, who have reissued them in Blu-Ray HD editions. All are worth a look if you are partial to horror, but it is THE BEYOND that is the stand-out, despite its’ flaws.
The plot is basic – young woman inherits a hotel in New Orleans, which allegedly was built on one of the ‘Seven Doors of Death’, according to a warlock who gets tortured in the film’s opening sequence set in 1927.
The ghostly spirits are everywhere here, including at the local hospital, where some of the undead are showing interest in life again, but it is in the hotel depths that things get really weird. A worker working at height sees a ghost and falls off the scaffolding, a plumber gets his eyes gorged out. You get the idea and the gore will get you, thanks to effects artist Gianetti Di Rossi’s work, which was very bloody and extreme on its’ initial release. Filmed in America, with some interiors shot on Italian soundstages, THE BEYOND comes over like a more gore-laden version of Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING (1980).
Nowadays though, audiences and particularly the horror community are more savvy about the fact that the effects techniques are merely that – effects. Indeed, some actually prefer the more in-camera physicality that appears compared to the CGI of recent films. The decent 2011 prequel to John Carpenter’s THE THING did get singled out as one that used a bit too much in contrast to the Rob Bottin work on the 1982 remake.
Now, I would also like to make a suggestion here. Instead of viewing this and the other Fulci films in their dubbed English version, if you do decide to purchase the film, click on the audio options and select ‘ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES’
What can sometimes be laughable in terms of dialogue and action does change with the original Italian dialogue and elevates THE BEYOND to a more similar film in style to the works of Guillermo Del Toro in the form of THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE, PAN’S LABYRINTH and THE ORPHANAGE. There are glaring plot flaws and even Fulci was once quoted as stating that THE BEYOND was ‘a plotless film’
Quentin Tarantino didn’t seem to mind any of this, as he reissued it in a limited US theatrical release through his Rolling Thunder distribution label a few years ago and it is by far the most accomplished work of Fulci. Strong stomachs advised.