The Beyond (2014)

This is Fulci's ripoff of Suspiria. Murder at a hotel, a female protagonist shows up, creepy people work there, the occult is involved, etc. it lifts a few scenes directly like a blind person being bit by their seeing eye dog. The Beyond, while beautifully shot and directed well enough, is a very stupid and slow film that borrows too much from previous Fulci films.

I watched the beyond as part of a triple bill with City of the Living Dead & The House by The Cemetery to make up the "Gates of Hell" Fulci Trilogy.I will say from the beginning this movie is a big step up from City of the Living Dead. It starts out with a brutal kill of an artist in the Seven Doors Hotel back in 1927 as he was believe to be a warlock. The kills were definitely an upgrade from City of the Living Dead and the grabbing the brain out of the back of the head or blood out of the eye balls. I am glad we live in a time where we are able to view these movies as they were meant to be seen without all the censors blocking the gore/content.The thing I love most about Italian Horror, specifically Fucli and Argento is they are well made movies in addition to being good horror movies. Some of the late 70's and early 80's slashers were terribly made movies that we graded on a scale because a lot horror movies had bad acting/plot. The Beyond definitely stands up along with other non-genre films.

I go to a lot of horror conventions and I frequent a lot of horror message boards. I find in my conversations there that most horror geeks go through a typical exploration. You start with the big budget Hollywood horror that was readily available and as your tastes grow more, you start delving deeper into the horror underground. Inevitably, for most horror fans you exhaust the domestic classics and start digging into the foreign films, which brings us to Italian horror and, more specifically, Lucio Fulci.Let's just establish quickly that his films are either going to be appreciated or hated and there is little middle ground. I will admit that it took me a few runs through Italian horror films until I started to "get it" more and appreciate them. Accept right off the bat that you are throwing plot and logic out the window to appreciate imagery. Fulci believed strongly that the best horror should elicit a strong response in the audience and spur them to a feeling or action. It did not have to be a "good story". If you can't get past the fact that the movie doesn't always make good sense, then don't bother. I'm not going to tell you you're wrong because it's perfectly logical to want a good plot in a movie. On the other hand, art doesn't always have to make sense. The art of Jackson Pollock doesn't portray life in the same way as a Reubens portrait might, but that doesn't mean they aren't both valid art.So, with the caveats out of the way, let's talk about the movie. To me, ZOMBIE will always be Fulci's masterpiece and is in my top 50 horror films. This movie is easily his next best. The story revolves around a hotel built on one of the gates to hell, which naturally causes some strange occurrences on the grounds. It's hard to give you more plot than that because...well..there isn't much more. What the movie can provide, though, is good atmosphere and some awesome visual effects.The tone of the movie is consistently creepy. Originally intended to be a haunted house flick, but altered some to make the producers happy, the movie still adheres well to the haunted house feel. From the beginning scenes, there is something unsettling about the house and the events going on and Fulci plays this well by injecting a surreal feeling into things so that it truly feels like a nightmare.The deaths are what you're paying admission for, though. There are some great visual effects here. Gallons of spurting blood, ripping flesh, melting faces, spiders tearing chunks off people. For gorehounds there is a lot of fun to be had here and that's what draws me into this movie the most.Fulci's movies always walk a thin line between surreal and ridiculous. The first time I encountered this movie I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it, but as I've seen it a few more times I've really grown an appreciation for the movie. Set aside your preconceived notions about plot (who needs it) and just enjoy the ride for what it is, a bloody, disgusting, thrill.

I know I'm probably going to get a lot of hate for writing this review. I always considered myself a fan of (a) eighties horror films and (b) European horror films from the same time period. Therefore, I thought, how could I fail to enjoy 'The Beyond?' If you check out its many glowing reviews, you'll probably get the impression – as I did – that it's a classic (currently sporting a very healthy 6.9 out of 10 on IMDb).Sadly, I just didn't like it. Or, maybe to be more precise, I didn't GET it. Okay, so I understood the plot – haunted hotel-type place, built over gateway to hell, good must stop evil. I just didn't understand what was happening. There are multiple characters who seem to just wander around talking badly. Oh, yes, this brings me onto the calibre of acting earlier than I intended. It's awful. And I don't just mean a bit naff (as in the case for so many horror movies). I can take a few bad lines and one-dimensional performances in the average B-movie, but this could well be the worst acted film I've seen in a long time. Yes, it could be explained by something like the actors' voices were dubbed over in post production (think Italian horror classic 'Demons'), but, whatever the reason, the end result was possibly the most horrific part of this horror movie.Okay, that's a lie. I actually quite liked the gore. Back in the eighties (before every 'head-shot' was computer generated) film-makers had to come up with new and interesting ways of doing gore on the cheap. And, to be fair, that's one area where The Beyond succeeded. The gore wasn't just gore, but also pretty inventive, providing me with more than a few moments of on-screen horror that I've never seen before.However, the gore didn't save it. I left the film feeling more than a little confused and tired from the bad acting. I guess I'm not as into European horror as I thought I was. I know that many regard this film as a classic, but, if it's all the same to them, I'll stick to Demons when I need my fix of dubbed Italian horror.http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/