Poder maléfico

But, now that I'm older, it isn't so bad-ass. Still, it has some pretty chilling scenes that should be seen by any horror nut out there! I decided to buy a copy of 'Beyond the Door' (1974, also known as Chi Sei?) because I had seen it late night in the '70's and it really gave me the creeps as a kid! Of course, it's an obvious Exorcist rip-off, but this time it's Juliette Mills whose possessed and instead of green pea soup she spits up, it's a kind of black inky stuff, which is just as gross to the viewer! She also does all the cussing & growling that was to expected of her to be convincing as a plaything of the Devil and there's also some levitating (floating, really!) towards the end, for good measure! One of the creepiest scenes I remember as a kid, was when her two children tell their father "Daddy daddy, please don't leave us alone with mommy!" and he's like "Oh, it'll be alright, I have to be at work! Bye!" - haha - of course! So, they go into the bedroom later and say "Mommy mommy!" and Ms. Mills is on her stomach, but her head turns all the way around to look at them with evil eyes! THAT part is why I bought this damn film! That was as close to the Exorcist-head-spin they could do without being an OBVIOUS rip-off, but it's effective nonetheless. So, all in all, I bought this video to re-live old fears and to conquer them! haha - Worth a rental or a cheap buy off ebay, like I did! I give it 5 out of 10 stars! ***** As in, average!

BEYOND THE DOOR definitely riffs on THE EXORCISTS, but has an entirely different feel. While THE EXORCIST took normal, banal moments or settings and injected them with a sense of dis-ease, BEYOND THE DOOR has a disturbed, dream-like feel to it. There isn't a single normal thing about this movie to lull viewers into safety or complacency. Juliet Mills' erratic, violent behavior, the montage-like exteriors as Mills shops in San Francisco and her husband visits the psychic are weirdly unsettling with no pretensions. Ditto for the sequences with the children and the glowing-eyed dolls. The scene in which Mills is trussed up in bed with electrodes attached to her scalp is almost unbearable to look at for Mills' creepy facial expression. I first viewed this when I was a sophomore in high school, watching it on an independent TV station late at night. The movie weirded me out like no film before it(until I saw ALICE SWEET ALICE)and was truly unsettling. Very symbolic, with attempts to convey concepts of evil through cinematic language. Interesting, if only for seeing a different interpretation of the demonic possession genre.

Oy vey, what a doozy we have here. "Beyond the Door" (also known as "Chi sei" and "The Devil Within Her") has Juliet Mills as a San Francisco housewife who becomes pregnant with a Devil child, which puts a hamper on her otherwise bourgeois West Coast existence. She also becomes apparently possessed, and does a lot of really wacky and scary stuff.

A low-budget, unabashed riff on "The Exorcist" and "Rosemary's Baby," "Beyond the Door" is one of the weirdest offerings in the possession horror sub-genre of the 1970s, and despite its unashamed ripping-off of about every possession film up to that point, there are still moments of technical flair and genuine creepiness here. An Italian production, the film was directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis, who at times seems to be tapping into surrealism with the moody and disorienting camerawork; as some other reviewers have noted, there are things about this film that are very much dreamlike. Take for example, the first five minutes: We have a sea of candles appear on screen, with overhead narration by none other than Satan himself; the camera pans to the right, as Juliet Mills inexplicably stands amidst the candles in a white nightgown, wearing a brainwave monitor. Three minutes later, we have a random montage of Mills grocery shopping in the Bay Area set to a hokey funk track by Sid Wayne. Surrealist horror, or funk rock music video? I don't even know, nor do I want to attempt an answer.

The film suffers tremendously from godawful dubbing, and Mills' foul-mouthed children who look about ten but talk like nineteen-year-olds bring some terribly laughable lines, while the bulk of the dialogue between the family is utterly brainless chatter. Despite all silliness, the real treat of this film lies in the execution of its possession scenes which, despite their derivative nature, are really well-done and at times genuinely scary. Mills does a commendable job with the script and is convincingly frightening as she transforms into a complete monster. There are some surprisingly out-there twists in the script that will leave you scratching your head, but also work in favor of the "surrealist horror" wave the film seems to be riding (funk rock music video is still a solid choice though, just for the opening credits alone).

Overall, "Beyond the Door" is a divisive film because it has moments of acute technical success and truly spooky moments, but it's also horribly dubbed, generally badly acted, and the plot is a rehash of the decade's earlier possession films with some absurd twists thrown in for good measure. As I said before, it is worth a watch for Mills' possession alone, and for the borderline surrealist visuals on display, but the undertone of utter silliness rarely escapes the screen. 6/10.

This might be giving it too much credit, but I would venture to say that this film is the king of rip-offs. Like so many other horror flicks of its day, this movie lifts its plot from THE EXORCIST, and also seizes the opportunity to "borrow" elements from ROSEMARY'S BABY. Juliet Mills plays the wife of a successful San Francisco record producer who becomes possessed by you know who..... Mills(the older sister of Hayley) is a very beautiful and supremely gifted actress, but the repetitive and repulsive script has given her very little to do but spin her head and spit up pea soup. Co-star Richard Johnson is also a talented actor who is severely misused. Director Hellman went on to make a JAWS rip-off entitled TENTACLES. That film also features a great cast at their all-time worst.

If "The Exorcist" is a big taco, "Beyond the Door" is a taco burp: vaguely reminiscent of the real thing, but with no substance or nutritional value. I don't like tacos anyway, and I don't like this movie. It tells the tedious, glacier-paced story of a dull woman who is pregnant with some sort of demonic baby and starts vomiting pea soup and spinning her head around. She and her family are plagued by a Mr. Beale-esque gentleman who tries to exorcise the demons, but may have his own nefarious reasons for helping- like we care. The only good parts in this crappy, boring movie are the foul-mouthed little kids who cuss like sailors and read cheap romance novels. Also appearing is the guy from "Deep Red", "Zeder", and "Inferno", but this performance is much different from his previous roles because this time he has a mustache.

Not recommended, although I do heartily recommend Mario Bava's "Shock", which was released as "Beyond the Door II" despite the fact that it has nothing to do with "Beyond the Door" and actually has things happen in it.