Post by doomedbloodwork on Jul 4, 2004 7:01:23 GMT -5
THE BEYOND is unquestionably the best film that Lucio Fulci ever did, eclipsing anything that was ever produced. It wasn't until he started making the cult horror classics of the late 70's and early 80's that his career really took off. For a fuller story, please do read BEYOND TERROR - THE FILMS OF LUCIO FULCI by Stephen Thrower, the one, only and best book ever written about the director.
The strength of THE BEYOND lies in the fact that along the way there are one or two decent shocks, as well as an atmosphere that gets increasingly downbeat as the film goes on, as eerie as any before or since.
The film opens in 1927 in Louisiana at a hotel when a group of baying locals lay into a maverick artist, Schweik, and douse him in acid. They think he is the devil, but he pleads to say that the house is built on one of the seven doors of death (hence the original US title, as well as GATES OF HELL or L'ALDILA)
The scene then moves to 1981 where a new woman (Catriona MacColl) inherits the place and begins work on it. However, bad things start to happen. A builder falls from a window when he sees something in one of the rooms, a plumber encounters something mysterious down in the crumbling cellar and the hospital where the builder has been begins to experience a few strange things of it's own.
Granted, some of the time the film doesn't make that much sense, but even Fulci admitted that this was a 'plotless film' at one point, but as a horror movie, it delivers the goods, to a far greater extent than it's follow-up, THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, which had some good moments let down by poor dubbing and plot illogistics.
An atmospheric movie at times with great cinematography and a terrific climax in the hospital to boot, THE BEYOND is well worth consideration.
The strength of THE BEYOND lies in the fact that along the way there are one or two decent shocks, as well as an atmosphere that gets increasingly downbeat as the film goes on, as eerie as any before or since.
The film opens in 1927 in Louisiana at a hotel when a group of baying locals lay into a maverick artist, Schweik, and douse him in acid. They think he is the devil, but he pleads to say that the house is built on one of the seven doors of death (hence the original US title, as well as GATES OF HELL or L'ALDILA)
The scene then moves to 1981 where a new woman (Catriona MacColl) inherits the place and begins work on it. However, bad things start to happen. A builder falls from a window when he sees something in one of the rooms, a plumber encounters something mysterious down in the crumbling cellar and the hospital where the builder has been begins to experience a few strange things of it's own.
Granted, some of the time the film doesn't make that much sense, but even Fulci admitted that this was a 'plotless film' at one point, but as a horror movie, it delivers the goods, to a far greater extent than it's follow-up, THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, which had some good moments let down by poor dubbing and plot illogistics.
An atmospheric movie at times with great cinematography and a terrific climax in the hospital to boot, THE BEYOND is well worth consideration.
