[Justin Victor]

So, I've seen several of Fulci's films multiple times except, inexplicably, The Beyond. I first saw it maybe 8 or 10 years ago or so, and I have no idea what kept me from coming back to it. I'm glad though, because I got to experience it tonight as though I'd never seen it before.

It has everything that Fulci is known for in spades. The gore and kill scenes are brutal and even occasionally shocking. The eyeball and spider scenes had me squirming, and the exploding head really surprised me. The extended sequence in the morgue with the plumber's family is indeed puzzling, but 'puzzling' in a Fucli flick is par for the course. It doesn't hurt that the entire sequence is also really awesome. The idea of being chased around a room full of dead bodies by a puddle that used to be your mom's face is wonderfully insane.

The bloody stuff is perfectly juxtaposed with creepy, quieter moments. Like the aforementioned bit where the blind girl is surrounded by zombies in a darkened room, or the bit when our intrepid heroes leave the hotel and the windows are slowly filled with silhouettes of the dead.

Frizzi's score is great and I actually think the way in which it's used adds to the overall weirdness. It reminds me of some Argento sequences, like in Inferno and Opera, where the score will suddenly kick up really loud at inappropriate moments. The best instance of that here is when Warbeck is unloading bullets into a hallway full of zombies.

The Beyond also features some of the best atmosphere in a Fulci flick, thanks in large part to the cinematography and editing. There's one really clever cut at the beginning wherein we see the plumber's eye being ripped out and then we jump immediately to that striking shot of the lonely bridge.

I fully recognize that weird music and jump cuts and illogical behavior are off-putting to a lot of viewers, but when this stuff is combined with atmosphere in the right way, you feel like your watching a nightmare unfold which, to me, is the best kind of horror movie experience.

Throw in one of the coolest endings in any horror film, and you have a very nearly perfect flick, probably the best of Fulci's career and one of the best Italian genre flicks period.

[Spook E. Bangs]

Originally Posted by Justin Victor

So, I've seen several of Fulci's films multiple times except, inexplicably, The Beyond. I first saw it maybe 8 or 10 years ago or so, and I have no idea what kept me from coming back to it. I'm glad though, because I got to experience it tonight as though I'd never seen it before.

It has everything that Fulci is known for in spades. The gore and kill scenes are brutal and even occasionally shocking. The eyeball and spider scenes had me squirming, and the exploding head really surprised me. The extended sequence in the morgue with the plumber's family is indeed puzzling, but 'puzzling' in a Fucli flick is par for the course. It doesn't hurt that the entire sequence is also really awesome. The idea of being chased around a room full of dead bodies by a puddle that used to be your mom's face is wonderfully insane.

The bloody stuff is perfectly juxtaposed with creepy, quieter moments. Like the aforementioned bit where the blind girl is surrounded by zombies in a darkened room, or the bit when our intrepid heroes leave the hotel and the windows are slowly filled with silhouettes of the dead.

Frizzi's score is great and I actually think the way in which it's used adds to the overall weirdness. It reminds me of some Argento sequences, like in Inferno and Opera, where the score will suddenly kick up really loud at inappropriate moments. The best instance of that here is when Warbeck is unloading bullets into a hallway full of zombies.

The Beyond also features some of the best atmosphere in a Fulci flick, thanks in large part to the cinematography and editing. There's one really clever cut at the beginning wherein we see the plumber's eye being ripped out and then we jump immediately to that striking shot of the lonely bridge.

I fully recognize that weird music and jump cuts and illogical behavior are off-putting to a lot of viewers, but when this stuff is combined with atmosphere in the right way, you feel like your watching a nightmare unfold which, to me, is the best kind of horror movie experience.

Throw in one of the coolest endings in any horror film, and you have a very nearly perfect flick, probably the best of Fulci's career and one of the best Italian genre flicks period.

Well said Justin Victor. Couldn't have said it better myself. The Beyond is Fulci's best.

[fizzmaster]

This is actually my favorite horror movie. When watched in the right mood, with the right people (or alone), no movie is scarier. I absolutely love this movie.

[Uberdemon]

This film is in my top five favorite films. This film will always have a special place with me. This film was my first exposure to Fulci and Spaghetti splatter films. I've hooked ever since. I frequently mention Fulci. R.I.P. Maestro!

If you are interested, check out my movie reviews on YouTube. I did an episode on Fulci shortly after Grindhouse Releasing came out with Cat in the Brain (aka Nightmare Concert) on DVD.

Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/uberdemon0666

[Fred Garvin]

This movie is so awesome. The first thing that grabs you (heh heh) is the gore: so many bloody good moments, but what really impresses me is the many quality scares. Watching it tonight I really got creeped out, and I've seen it a few times before. That's re-watchibility, folks! (is that a word?) Anyway, this one is a classic and a must-see and, well, just go get the fucking thing already!

Oh, the Grindhouse Releasing disc is great.

[Uberdemon]

Originally Posted by Fred Garvin

This movie is so awesome. The first thing that grabs you (heh heh) is the gore: so many bloody good moments, but what really impresses me is the many quality scares. Watching it tonight I really got creeped out, and I've seen it a few times before. That's re-watchibility, folks! (is that a word?) Anyway, this one is a classic and a must-see and, well, just go get the fucking thing already!

Oh, the Grindhouse Releasing disc is great.

The Grindhouse disc is essentially the same as the Anchor Bay disc. The Grindhouse Release is still the definitive release in my opinion, just for the new intro with Cathrine MacColl

[Torgo]

SPOILER FILLED, LIKE A TWINKIE

I cannot believe I waited this long to watch this awesome and gory film. It's fun from the word go, as the lynch mob just walks into the hotel with lit torches, past the front desk, and right up to the warlock's room (where he did not die, regardless of what the rest of the film tries to tell you.)

Some things I learned from this film:
- Louisiana doctors are morons.
- There are about 17 quarts of watery blood in the human body
- Tarantulas eat human flesh
- Merely by saying the words "The Seven Gates of Hell" you are Doomed! DOOMED!
- Never trust a blind girl
- Lucio Fulci hates eyeballs.

I really liked this flick. It's too bad I didn't get to experience it on the Big Screen, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. And the ending was perfect, even though the film didn't make a lick of sense.

[Rovin]

Originally Posted by Torgo

I really liked this flick. It's too bad I didn't get to experience it on the Big Screen, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. And the ending was perfect, even though the films didn't make a lick of sense.

It's one of my favorite endings to a horror film ever.

[thenewboss]

Originally Posted by Torgo

I cannot believe I waited this long to watch this awesome and gory film.

Oh, to be new to Fulci again. It's great to hear someone discovering and enjoying this film for the first time.

[jaffe28]

Finally got to this Fulci favorite and can say that I enjoyed it in the same way that I enjoy other Fulci films. Both the soundtrack and cinematic style make for a brooding and dark atmosphere that is unique to his films. That atmosphere, to me anyway, tends to make up for the common complaints people have about his films. I thought both the opening and the ending were fantasticallhy effective. I loved the way the ending implied the beginning of something even bigger and weirder than what we'd just been through. I also loved how it suggested that the people who had arrived at that point were both privileged and cursed. Very, very cool.

As with most Fulci films I've seen, he was also consistent in having at least one extremely annoying character. At least it wasn't a high-pitched squealer of a child for once (though the pig-tailed redhead once again shows that Fulci thinks anyone under the age of 16 must whine "mommy" when anything awful happens. He's not good with kids.). Seriously though, the male lead was an ijit. The bullet loading snafu was funny and annoying at the same time. The fact that the dude couldn't notice the pattern of head shot drop, body shot keeps coming was just annoying.

The gore was decent but for some reason I thought it fell short of some of his other films. I'll have to have a Fulci marathon some night to really get a sense though. Of the Fulci films that I've seen, City of the Living Dead is most similar to The Beyond and for some reason I also preferred the former over the latter. Maybe it was because the zombies' ghost-like qualities in City actually ramped up the surreal atmosphere I love in his movies.

Anyway, enough of this rambling review. In summary, well worth the watch.

[Scotty]

Heh, I've got this in the DVD player right now. So far, so cool.

[andy milligan]

I love this movie! I could watch it forever! Acid bath scene is amazing

[triefy]

FYI, if anyone is in the St. Louis, MO area on June 25 & 26th, I'm showing this on 35mm at Hi-Pointe Theatre.

Go here for more info: http://www.destroythebrainonline.com...is-the-beyond/

Or, click here for the RM friendly version: http://www.the-mortuary.com/showthread.php?t=28460

[Count Whackula]

It's an incoherent fucked up mess of a movie filled with scenes of rotting flesh, eyeball trauma, crucifixion, flesh eating spitters, acid baths, zombies, Dickie the dog and people that go POP!

I haven't seen it in ages and it still doesn't make a lick of sense to me and yet I still love it, I think the gore has a little something to do with it... okay it has alot to do with it and it's pretty much in the same vein as the Gates of Hell which is another great movie and whether this is true or not it was supposed to be a trilogy of some sorts?

[Flesheater]

The Beyond and Gates of Hell are also to Fulci love affairs of mine...don't really make a ton of sense but they are bad ass!

[Stuart Feedback Andrews]

The films aren't supposed to make sense. Not on a logical, literal level. The focus is expressing the fantastic, a weird dream like realm that can't be understood rationally. Here's a great Fulci quote that helps explain his modus operandi with The Beyond, "My idea was to make an absolute film, with all the horrors of the world. It’s a plotless film, there’s no logic to it, just a succession of images.”

I think he succeeded brilliantly.

[Nut of the Living Dead]

I remember the DVD of this film popping up on the shelf at a local Fry's in October of 2000. Yes, I just looked that date up. My mind is a many splintered thing, not so steel trap. I hadn't seen this film yet but I was in the midst of my fascination with 70s-80s Italian horror. Thanks to Anchor Bay my Argento collection was looking pretty good as I remember and I was just starting to delve into Fulci a bit. I knew of the term "FULCI LIVES!" but I wasn’t one of the converted yet. This film along with ZOMBIE and HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY made me a fan.

After a couple of weeks of walking by and staring at the cover, I bit the barrel loaded bullet and blind bought THE BEYOND. In my opinion this film has a great score, awesome death scenes, general sustained creepiness, characters I care about (really, I feel bad for them), and the best pipe cleaner spiders ever captured on film.

It may not make a lot of narrative sense but as with films like INFERNO and PHANTASM, which are maybe a bit more coherent than this one, the style outweighs any lacking in the story department. That still doesn’t stop me from trying to make sense out of what others may think of as nonsense. In a way I look at THE BEYOND as a precursor to the HELLRAISER films. We have someone sent to Hell, a device which opens the doorway, people turned agents of Hell sent to retrieve someone… You catch my drift?

I think I need a revisit on this one soon. Of all the films of Fulci's that I've seen, this one is the Lucio Fulciest.

[G.F.V.]

I thought the scene where the man fell off the ladder and the Tarantulas came out of nowhere to begin devouring his face was really unsettling, yet hilarious at the same time.

[Stuart Feedback Andrews]

Originally Posted by Nut of the Living Dead

It may not make a lot of narrative sense but as with films like INFERNO and PHANTASM, which are maybe a bit more coherent than this one, the style outweighs any lacking in the story department.

As I indicated HERE the film was never intended to make sense in terms of a logical progression of narrative events. So if the intent was never to construct a standard narrative, I don't think it's fair to say it's lacking in the 'story' department.

I've made this point on here before but you can't criticize a womble for not being a muppet.

Now, whether or not Fulci is successful in executing his intentions, that's another matter of debate. Personally, I think he succeeds brilliantly but you can't measure it against a conventional narrative structure because he was going for something deliberately more abstract.

[The Gore-met]

Originally Posted by Stuart Feedback Andrews

As I indicated HERE the film was never intended to make sense in terms of a logical progression of narrative events.

There's a quote from Fulci somewhere I'm paraphrasing in which he says that The Beyond is "a film of images, to be received without reflection".

You can say the same about City of the Living Dead, too.

[Stuart Feedback Andrews]

Originally Posted by Stuart Feedback Andrews

You can say the same about City of the Living Dead, too.

Definitely! But the same is true of many of his horror films. But a great many European horror films lean this way, towards the abstract. The emphasis is more on the Cinefantastique than any sort of logical narrative.

But American audiences tend to point out the nonsensical nature of Fulci's narratives as though it's a strike against the film as opposed to a deliberate narrative strategy.

But I wish more filmmakers would have the nerve to dive into the sort of strange, dream-like terrain that Fulci did. He was adventurous. In comparison, most contemporary American horror films seem tedious and ordinary.

[Nut of the Living Dead]

Originally Posted by Stuart Feedback Andrews

As I indicated HERE the film was never intended to make sense in terms of a logical progression of narrative events. So if the intent was never to construct a standard narrative, I don't think it's fair to say it's lacking in the 'story' department.

I wasn't trying to be critical of the narrative styling of The Beyond - I celebrate it! Yes, of course I fully understand the intent of the film and that's why it works for me.

I didn't intend 'lacking in the story department' to be construed as a negative. I enjoy this and other abstract films because I challenge myself to put my own perspective on them and that in turn makes it engaging and infinitely re-watchable. I think this film does succeed on all it's intended levels and that's why it's one of my favorites.

Originally Posted by The Gore-met

There's a quote from Fulci somewhere I'm paraphrasing in which he says that The Beyond is "a film of images, to be received without reflection".

"No, my idea was to make an absolute film, with all the horrors of our world. It's a plotless film: a house, people, and dead men coming from The Beyond. There's no logic to it, just a succession of images." ~ Lucio Fulci on The Beyond

[Stuart Feedback Andrews]

Originally Posted by Nut of the Living Dead

I didn't intend 'lacking in the story department' to be construed as a negative. I enjoy this and other abstract films because I challenge myself to put my own perspective on them and that in turn makes it engaging and infinitely re-watchable.

Alright. You're off the hook!

[Nut of the Living Dead]

Oops! I pasted the wrong quote earlier, Gore-met! This is from the same interview but I believe this is the one you meant. I can't believe you didn't call me out.

"People who blame The Beyond for its lack of story have not understood that it's a film of images, which must be received without any reflection. They say it is very difficult to interpret such a film, but it is very easy to interpret a film with threads: any idiot can understand Molinaro's La Cage aux Folles, or even Carpenter's Escape from New York, while The Beyond or Argento's Inferno are absolute films."

[Stuart Feedback Andrews]

Thanks for digging it up, Nut!

That's a brilliant interview and one I think every Fulci fan should read.

http://www.shockingimages.com/fulci/interview2.html

The person who transcribed it from STARBURST mentioned there were two interviews and he couldn't find the second one.

Actually, BOTH interviews are amalgamated into the STARBURST piece.

You can find the original French language interviews here:

http://www.luciofulci.fr/pages/interviewsFulci.html

And Nut! Weirdly, I quoted this exact interview on the next edition of the RUE MORGUE PODCAST - the one I am currently editing. Strange coincidence.

[Nut of the Living Dead]

Originally Posted by Stuart Feedback Andrews

Weirdly, I quoted this exact interview on the next edition of the RUE MORGUE PODCAST - the one I am currently editing. Strange coincidence.

Oh wow, nice! I almost feel like I'm in an M. Night Shamalamadingdong movie.

[Stuart Feedback Andrews]

Originally Posted by Nut of the Living Dead

Oh wow, nice! I almost feel like I'm in an M. Night Shamalamadingdong movie.

Wow. Talk about 'all the horrors of the world.'

Imagine being in a movie directed by M. Night Shamacalifragilisticexpialidocious-adiddle?

[Dark Mark]

Originally Posted by Stuart Feedback Andrews

Imagine being in a movie directed by M. Night Shamacalifragilisticexpialidocious-adiddle?

I worked on a computer game based upon The Last Airbender (2010). I had a feeling of impending doom from begining to end.

[Stuart Feedback Andrews]

Originally Posted by Dark Mark

I worked on a computer game based upon The Last Airbender (2010).

All of a sudden, telemarketing doesn't seem so bad.

[Nut of the Living Dead]

Originally Posted by Stuart Feedback Andrews

Imagine being in a movie directed by M. Night Shamacalifragilisticexpialidocious-adiddle?

I'd rather use the book of Eibon to open a portal to Hell, face the sea of darkness and explore all therein... or telemarketing.

[Dark Mark]

Originally Posted by Stuart Feedback Andrews

All of a sudden, telemarketing doesn't seem so bad.

If I hadn't worked on the former I might not be doing the latter

[Stuart Feedback Andrews]

Sounds like you've been Shamdiddlydoodled.

[Dark Mark]

Originally Posted by Stuart Feedback Andrews

Sounds like you've been Shamdiddlydoodled.

That’s one way of putting it. Back on topic I think I celebrate my last day of idleness by watching The Beyond again this afternoon, inspired as I am.

[Nut of the Living Dead]

Originally Posted by Dark Mark

That’s one way of putting it. Back on topic I think I celebrate my last day of idleness by watching The Beyond again this afternoon, inspired as I am.

I will be doing the same in the next couple of days. Happy viewing!

[Dark Mark]

I definitely enjoyed this more than on my initial viewing when I had attempted to rationalize the proceedings. Instead I just let myself be amazed by it's eye popping brilliance and came away with far more from the experience