The Beyond (1981)

[trekgeezer]

When the film starts we are told the setting  is Louisiana in 1927. A group of tern looking men carry torches and pitchforks are coming up the river in boats to the hotel. Cut to a strange skinny guy locked in room 36 making a painting of a baron landscape.

The bust into the hotel and drag the artist to the basement where they nail him to the wall crucifixion style and throw some liquid on him that melts his face (Holy water?).

Suddenly we are in 1981 and Liza has inherited the hotel complete with creepy housekeeper and her simpleton son (for some reason a staple of bad horror movies)

A series of strange incidents occur keeping Liza from renovating the hotel.  A painter falls from the building after seeing a girl with pupal-less gold eyes.

Joe the plumber disappears in the basement (he's attacked by hand coming out of the wall gouging into his face and popping his eye balls out ).

Okay I give up, this movie has basically no plot, except for a book called the book of Eimon, and the fact that the hotel is built on top of one of the 7 gateways of hell.

The movie directed by Lucio Fulci hops from one gory scene to another with no logic what so ever .   The movie actually ends in a hospital full of  zombies.  (Hope my doctor doesn't keep a loaded Colt Python in his desk).

The gory killing scenes are shot slowly in an almost pornographic style.

If you want to see some cheap Italian made gore this is the film for you.  If you want a comprehensible story, avoid it .

One good thing about the the movie, they actually filmed it in several locations in Louisiana.

I DVR'd this movie from TCM.  I've gotten in the habit of checking their schedule on Friday Nights. After midnight  they have a movie series called TCM Underground.






 

[Trekkie313]

When the film starts we are told the setting  is Louisiana in 1927. A group of tern looking men carry torches and pitchforks are coming up the river in boats to the hotel. Cut to a strange skinny guy locked in room 36 making a painting of a baron landscape.

The bust into the hotel and drag the artist to the basement where they nail him to the wall crucifixion style and throw some liquid on him that melts his face (Holy water?).

Suddenly we are in 1981 and Liza has inherited the hotel complete with creepy housekeeper and her simpleton son (for some reason a staple of bad horror movies)

A series of strange incidents occur keeping Liza from renovating the hotel.  A painter falls from the building after seeing a girl with pupal-less gold eyes.

Joe the plumber disappears in the basement (he's attacked by hand coming out of the wall gouging into his face and popping his eye balls out ).

Okay I give up, this movie has basically no plot, except for a book called the book of Eimon, and the fact that the hotel is built on top of one of the 7 gateways of hell.

The movie directed by Lucio Fulci hops from one gory scene to another with no logic what so ever .   The movie actually ends in a hospital full of  zombies.  (Hope my doctor doesn't keep a loaded Colt Python in his desk).

The gory killing scenes are shot slowly in an almost pornographic style.

If you want to see some cheap Italian made gore this is the film for you.  If you want a comprehensible story, avoid it .

One good thing about the the movie, they actually filmed it in several locations in Louisiana.

I DVR'd this movie from TCM.  I've gotten in the habit of checking their schedule on Friday Nights. After midnight  they have a movie series called TCM Underground.

I heard so much hype about this movie and after years of waiting for it to get on Netflix I was disappointed.

[Trevor]

This was banned here for many years along with many of Fulci's other films but has become available on DVD a few months back.

[Doc Daneeka]

I gotta agree with you guys, at least on the case of the "pornographic gore scenes" (the lack of a plot was... ok for the most part, it sort of worked for me to make things more surreal). Pretty much a case of "crossed the line twice" wherein it was shocking at first, but the shocking things get lingered on so long that you wonder why the victim isn't dead or writhing in pain yet and it loses its effect. Fulci's "Gates of heck" trilogy all have that problem if you ask me; the editing is way below-par (above par? Whichever one means it's bad). Fulci can craft a pretty good atmosphere IMO, but I don't think he works with it well enough.

[claws]

This is Fulci's masterpiece. Brilliant crap, over-the-top, unintentional hilarious, awful, awesome, gory, incoherent, disturbing, dumb, shocking. For every "bad" there is something "cool" and vice versa. You get some of the best atmospheric moments in horror cinema (the bridge scene) followed by something stupid like "Do Not Entry."

Always loved this movie, and its one of Quentin Tarantino's favorites (not that it matters but I always love pointing that out  ) 

[Jim H]

This is Fulci's masterpiece. Brilliant crap, over-the-top, unintentional hilarious, awful, awesome, gory, incoherent, disturbing, dumb, shocking. For every "bad" there is something "cool" and vice versa. You get some of the best atmospheric moments in horror cinema (the bridge scene) followed by something stupid like "Do Not Entry."

Always loved this movie, and its one of Quentin Tarantino's favorites (not that it matters but I always love pointing that out  ) 

That's a pretty good list of adjectives for this film.  It's really hard to coherently review it in-depth. 

Watch for the shot of the lead character trying to load his revolver by pushing a bullet the wrong way down the barrel as he gets into an elevator after shooting zombies in the hospital - looks like he was messing around, as the actress with him starts to laugh.

[Trevor]

It's really hard to coherently review it in-depth. 

Now you know the hell I've been through during the last few weeks reviewing Fulci's City of The Living Dead for this site: I hope to have the review on soon.

[major jay]

I caught this Friday night. I don't think anything was cut (which really surprised me). I agree with claws, it's all that and entertaining because of it.
I see TCM is showing the Mexican Santa Claus this weekend.

[TheDope]

It's really hard to coherently review it in-depth.

Oh, I dunno 'bout that....   

[voltron]

Like others, I too was let down by this movie because it's considered to be Fulci's masterpiece. For me, that honour would go to Don't Torture A Duckling - awesome giallo with a coherent plot (!) and none of the cheese that would come with his later works.

[Trevor]

and none of the cheese that would come with his later works.

Strange - when I bought CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD all I got was a DVD. No cheese, so I guess I got robbed. 

[retrorussell]

Yeah, I kept hearing about how this was his "masterpiece".. I never really thought that highly of him to begin with.  His older stuff like Don't Torture A Duckling is much better IMO.  I thought some of the SFX were laughably bad, like the "puppet spider" or the watery blood.  The coherency level here may not have been as bad as City Of The Living Dead but it still had a great big "whatever" stamp on it.

[major jay]

The problem is you're expectations are too high....from down here it looks much better.

[xupernaut]

   My public library has this flick. When I watched it I had to skip through sections because it was so scratched. I'd like to see it in its entirety
not that it would make more sense. Have to say it does have atmosphere.

[The Burgomaster]

Years ago, I bought the limited edition DVD of this (which comes in a square tin box).  After all that fanfare, I didn't care much for the movie.