THE
BEYOND (1981)Director: Lucio Fulci
Anchor Bay Entertainment
THE
BEYOND (1981)In Louisiana in 1927, a "warlock" named Schweick is seized by a torch wielding lynch mob. In the basement of a hotel, they chain whip him, crucify him, and pour quicklime all over his body, allowing the flesh to literally melt off his bones. Over 50 years later, a pretty young lady (Catriona MacColl) inherits the same hotel and plans to renovate it. As soon as she arrives, strange things occur, and a number of her house workers end up mutilated and dead.
A crusty plumber comes to fix the swimming pool of a flood in the basement. When he busts a whole in the wall, he unknowingly unlocks one of the seven gates of hell, but not before he has his eyes explicitly gauged out. MacColl is then visited by a mysterious blind girl (with creamy white eyes) who warns her of the hotel's secret and tells her to get out. A kindly, rugged doctor (David Warbeck) is enlisted to help, but all hell breaks loose as a series of demonic forces plagues the town.
Like fine wine, Lucio Fulci's films get better with age, making me get down on my hands and knees begging for his brand of genre which has now been diminished to an assortment of unenlightened hacks and adolescent TV stars. Gone are the days of crude but effectively nasty special effects (by the talented likes of Gianetto de Rossi) that in this case, make the viewer anxiously await each of the various gory setpieces. With THE BEYOND, Fulci sustains a loose and confusing storyline by allowing the graphic vignettes--depicting violations sent from hell--to be the surreal attraction of the movie.
Like his CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD (AKA THE GATES OF HELL), the themes of the doorway to hell are here explored in a visionary fashion, and like that film, the zombies are used as an added bonus, or a highlight, to this "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to horror. With all its eye popping, throat splitting, acid pouring, head shooting, etc., THE BEYOND is like a 50s EC comic come to life; it relies almost totally on vision, and it's a truly fascinating, gory, gothic vision to behold, often considered the Italian maestro's finest work by his dedicated legion of fans.
Previously, THE BEYOND was released on video in the U.S. as THE SEVEN DOORS OF DEATH after a brief theatrical release in the mid-80s. This version was snipped of most of the meat and potatoes, and bootlegs surfaced here that were copied from a long out-of-print Japanese laserdisc. In 1998, Rolling Thunder re-released the film to the arthouse crowd, and the remastered, uncut version of THE BEYOND became a surprise midnight hit. Now, Anchor Bay presents that same version on the long awaited (it was actually slated for laserdisc release) deluxe DVD. Well worth the wait, the disc is loaded with extras.
THE BEYOND is appropriately letterboxed at its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and it's 16x9 enhanced. The colors look stable, remaining true to the dim, low-lit appearance of the film. The transfer is very clean and free of any major source damage, but there is some minor grain in darker scenes. The English track, which is in Dolby Digital Surround 5.1, is superb, accenting Fabio Frizzi's fabulously eerie score and the expectedly unsettling sound effects. There is also a 2.0 surround version, the original mono soundtrack, a mono Italian language track, and a commentary track by stars David Warbeck and Catriona MacColl.
The commentary by the British-born MacColl (heroine of several other Fulci epics) and Australian-born Warbeck is very lively as both fondly reminisce about making a low budget film for an Italian director in New Orleans. Both actors are amazed at the growing popularity of THE BEYOND and are overwhelmed by the amount of fans they have because of it. Sadly, the conversation was recorded in a hospital shortly before Warbeck died of cancer in 1997. He is very high-spirited, but it's obvious by his voice that he was seriously ill.
Other extras include a massive still and poster gallery, brief interviews videotaped at European conventions, Fulci on the set of 1990's DEMONIA, German and U.S trailers, and a rather pointless thrash metal music video for a song called "And You Will Live in Terror." One of the best extras is the alternate German pre-credit sequence that depicts Schweick's execution in vivid color rather than sepia-tone as in the regular version. You can also purchase THE BEYOND as a limited edition tin that includes a beautiful, glossy booklet and a set of colorful postcard-sized poster repros.
Follow the "Eibon" signs carefully on the menu, and you'll discover two Easter Eggs; 1) A foreign trailer for Fulci's NIGHTMARE CONCERT (CAT IN THE BRAIN), 2) The original opening for the U.S. cut, THE SEVEN DOORS OF DEATH, looking like it was culled from a dupey video! (George R. Reis)