Horror House 2

Beyond Darkness is a b horror picture about a haunted house. It's Poltergeist meets The Exorcist.

A reverend and his unsuspecting family move into a house with mysterious supernatural symptoms. Even more mysterious was why a married Protestant minister was a part of the Catholic Church, but these are details, just a minor technicality! The creepy ambient music was doled out with a heavy hand and it worked. The special effects were on point, and the tone was camp-free.

The acting was what you would want to see in this type of story. The hag and the Catholic exorcist killed it. The minister and his wife, not so much. The writing didn't make a whole lot of sense. It could have used more development, such as the backstory about the property being built on the sight of a mass witch lynching. The opening scene more than made up for the gaps in the narrative logic. Beyond Darkness is nobody's classic, but it delivers.

From the director of "Troll 2" comes this moderately amusing haunted house / exorcism movie. Gene Lebrock ("Metamorphosis") stars as Father Peter, a reverend who moves with his family into a house of horrors. Not surprisingly, terrible things happened on the same grounds many years ago, and Father Peter must team up with the intense Father George (David Brandon) to take on the forces of evil and save his son Martin (who's played by Michael Stephenson, a.k.a. the young hero of "Troll 2").

Flagrantly bad acting combines with director Claudio Fragassos' extravagant efforts to show the audience a good time. Fragasso gives this silly movie as much atmosphere as he possibly can, but the screenplay, which he wrote with Rossella Drudi, is pretty inane. The music score by Carlo Maria Cordio is over the top, which seems like an attempt to distract the audience from the fact that we're not seeing anything particularly interesting or unusual in this movie. The visual effects are variable, the makeup effects not that bad at all.

The hunky Lebrock is very much a stiff, but "Friday the 13th" series fans might enjoy seeing actress Barbara Bingham (Mrs. Van Deusen in "Jason Takes Manhattan") in the role of his wife. Brandon does an awful lot of gnawing on the scenery. One person who looks like they're having fun is Mary Coulson, who plays the gnarly old crone Bette.

One of the producers was an uncredited Joe D'Amato; the costume designer was Laura Gemser.

Five out of 10.

Fun little film that seems to combine The Amityville Horror and Poltergeis , tie in a little of The Exorcists and you've got the plot. If you're into a lot of gore then this one probably isn't for you but worth a watch if nothing else is around. 5/10

Without a doubt, this low-budget haunted house thriller pales in comparison to genre classics such as Poltergeist due to horrendous acting and a pervading student film feel. However, if you enjoyed the Amityville Horror movie and book (especially the book) you might want to give Beyond Darkness a try. Many of the most terrifying aspects of the Amityville book are an integral part of this movie including hooded entities lunging at the cast out of nowhere, doorways to hell, and some unforgettable scenes of inanimate objects like an antique radio becoming possessed by the dark forces in the house. Yes it's true that the portrayal of the family is perhaps too clean cut (I know for a fact that pastors' kids can sometimes be brattier than other people's!) and that the actress playing the executed serial killer is more than a little wan. However, if you don't expect Oscar winning performances in horror films, then you will find Beyond Darkness a creepy treat to watch alone on a stormy night. And before inserting the tape, you might want to turn off the radio first.

From the Ed Wood of Italy comes, "Beyond Darkness," a movie that you can at least say is slightly better than "Troll 2." The primary difference is that there is no attempt at humor in this one, just a straight Italian horror movie done in English. Personally, I dislike Italian horror no matter how homogenized it is. But the poster looked fascinating and figured let's go for it in spite of all the warning signs.

As the movie opens, a priest is being led through a prison to meet with a female serial killer about to be electrocuted. First thing I notice is, "Hey! That priest looks really familiar-like some bad actor I've seen in a bad Italian movie before." I look him up...oh yeah, it's David Brandon, who played Caligula years ago. He has not aged well. And his participation in a Claudio Fragasso movie does not bode well. Anyway, the woman lets him know she's a witch and somehow she's allowed an ancient Satanic spell book in her cell which I'm SURE wouldn't be boxed up in a police archive somewhere considering there is evidence inside regarding the 12 children she's guilty of murdering. After the execution, cut to happy young family moving into the same house there's a picture of in the Satan book. The father is a father. I mean, he's a priest. I'm not Catholic, but when did priests start being allowed to get married? ANYWAY, weird things start happening in the house because as it turns out, it's built on top of a lot of dead people, you know, like, "Poltergeist." The male child becomes possessed and the father priest is joined by Caligula priest to exorcise him. You know, like, "The Exorcist." Not that I'm suggesting Fragasso steals from other movies. You know, like, "Troll." AAANNNYWAY... the rest is predictable and in no way original.

Production-wise, nothing special. The score is once again the same synthesizer we've heard in Fragassos before. The acting is bad and over the top. The script is derivative and meandering. The special effects are laughable. It's not a very well made film. BUT, it's still at least watchable and better than most Full Moon releases.