Beyond Darkness (1990)

Who better to take on the La Casa franchise - films that are not sequels and are not connected to one another - than the man who made Troll 2, a movie that is not a sequel and is also not about trolls?Yep. Claudio Fragasso (Monster Dog, Rats: Night of Terror) is in control of your movie watching experience and he's brought Troll 2 child actor Michael Stephenson along for another ride through the bottom of the movie making barrel.A priest and his family - right off the bat, you could see that this script has holes you can drive the Landmaster from Damnation Alley through because Catholic priests can't marry - move into a new house. Bad news for them, good news for us - it was built over the graves of twenty dead witches.Their son gets possessed, along with a radio and a meat cleaver. Oh yeah - there's also the ghost of a female serial killer who wants to eat the souls of children.And in another of those "they should have known better" moments, this is all filmed in the same building as Fulci's The Beyond!If you're looking for the madcap moments that Troll 2 has, you won't find them here. This is a more linear and controlled film, except for the crazed performance by David Brandon as Father George, an alcoholic priest whose contact with a demon has made him question his faith. You'll marvel as he wanders down real city streets with real people - not extras - ranting like a maniac! But what do you expect? He watched a serial killer orgasm in the electric chair surrounded by the trapped spirits of her victims!

For the three hundredth Italian haunted house horror I've watched in a row, Claudio Fragrasso, director of Troll 2 and part time amok killer robot, brings us an Italian haunted house horror with a bit of the Exorcist thrown in, plus a bit of Poltergiest for good measure. Priest George (David Brandon from Stagefright) loses his faith after attending the execution of a devil worshipping child killer, so you've got your Father Damien there. Later, a family move into what I think was Priest George's house, the father of which is also a priest. This priest is played by the guy out of Metamorphisis and his kid is the kid out of Troll 2! Nice one.Things start going wrong right away, what with toys moving on their own and a door to nowhere attracting the kid's attention, and before you know it, one of the kids has been pulled into another dimension by some vengeful witches and that chick who got the chair at the beginning of the film. What bogged this film down for me and made my mind wander awfully was the amount of screen time devoted to all the priests talking about losing their faith and keeping their faith and so on. It kind of goes on endlessly as they all argue with each other. There's also an awful lot of wandering around the house and a certain scene where a wall melts almost had me nodding off. When the film did decide to do the haunted house bit things were fine, as was some of the make up jobs on the witches and those that get possessed. Some of the acting by the kids was worth a laugh too, but this film is more fog machine heavy than anything Fulci made. You can give this one a miss if you want.Is it just me or was there exactly one synth in Italy for composers to score soundtracks with? Every single soundtrack on these films sounds the same. Next: Cat in the Brain!

House five, is not the continuation of the other houses. House five, extension for the first time a true fact of property, recognized from the sacred Roman church. The history is draft from the book " the 100 cases of demonic property recognized from the Holy Roman Church of father "Malachia" For the first time in a property film, the splitting of the two children is looked at entirety, l' real spirit and that possessed. An exchange of the two children happens, with the parents and its family goes that mistaking. The child will be saved with exorcism, from a priest who had lost the faith, tormented and scared, from the demon and now, alcoholic victim . This priest will return to the faith, during l' exorcism. It had lost the faith in order to have confessed a modern witch, condemned to the capital punishment on the chair electrical worker, in reality the woman was possessed from a demon between most frightful: Ameth, that it eats the spirits of the children in order to become stronger. (it is in the Bible) to the history appeals to me so much, for the depth. The film is to low cost, but the special effects beautiful because are made as years were made ago, when the computer did not exist. The film is of 1990 and task that would have to be praised who little succeeds with money to make a film that however it scares, thanks to the many ideas of the script and to a good direction. Task is easy to make good films when many money is had. The scene that it has hit to me more, is that of little the child, that it dreams to wake up sluice in a coffin, where, the family sees dead to it, but it is alive, she screams, and she screams, but she feels it to nobody, then encircle it to the witches, making them a magical deceit, in order to steal them spirit. The witches are devout people to Ameth. Much fear and much Gore. The Louisiana still renders more l' atmosphere. To see and to appreciate also for the suspense in the long, from the taste of the past, without those movements of movie-cam, too much fast times and you deprive of sense, within the history and in the turned scene, only used for giving rhythm, to case. The atmospheres thriller the fear, manifest in the waits. For this ballot 10/10. To revalue

"La Casa 5"/"Beyond Darkness" is another lamentable horror film from Claudio Fragasso,the man behind incredibly awful "Troll 2"(1990).The plot is simple:a priest(Gene Le Brock)and his family move into new house.Unfortunately the house was built over the place where twenty witches were burnt at the stake.Soon the terror begins..."La Casa 5" is a typical Italian possessed house horror which owes a lot to "The Amityville Horror"(1979).The script is mediocre,the acting is horrible and there is absolutely no gore.The special effects are also pretty bad including a possessed radio and flying cleaver.The film is not as painful as "Troll 2",but it's close.Skip it.My rating:4 out of 10.