Las siete puertas del infierno

Director Lucio Fulci's THE BEYOND opens with a flashback to 1927 Louisiana, where townsfolk take the law into their own hands, killing a man in hideous, grisly fashion. This is also when we are told of the seven gates of hell.

Fast forward to 1981, and Liza Merrill (Catriona MacColl) has inherited the very same hotel where the aforementioned death occurred. Within seconds, unfortunate "accidents" begin to take place. Liza just wants to fix the place up, unaware that occult terror and unspeakable doom await!

Another entry in Fulci's wonderful horror cycle, this is one dreadfully dreary, flesh-crawler of a movie! In spite of ridiculous dubbing, goofy characters, and the infamously questionable "tarantula scene" (Why mix fake spiders in with real ones?), the Director somehow manages to keep it so utterly bleak, that all is forgiven! Ms. MacColl is even better here than she was in CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD! David Warbeck is also good as the dauntless Dr. John McCabe. Of course, stealing the show is Cinzia Monreale as the enigmatic, blind, yet supernaturally sighted, Emily. Her intro is unforgettable!

Obviously, a zombie uprising is in the cards, and these are some memorable, shambling dead! There are several classic set pieces, showing Fulci at his finest. Gorehounds will be in ecstatic bliss, since Fulci pours on the gore by the bathtub-full!

EXTRA POINTS FOR: The devastating denouement that drains us of all remaining hope!

P.S.- For added enjoyment, count how many times you have to yell at Dr. McCabe to "Stop wasting bullets and aim for the head!"...

A woman attempting to fix up an old southern house she inherited accidentally stumbles upon one of the seven doors to hell and unleashes a torrent of nightmarish terror into the world.

Lucio Fulci films can be an acquired taste. While his talent for creating unforgettable and gory images is obvious, his scripts don't always make the most sense and this is no exception. It gets by on mostly style and gore effects alone and the script is nothing more than a skeleton.

If you think Dario Argento doesn't give a damn about coherent plots, check out Lucio Fulci! 'The Beyond' does have a (Lovecraftian) plot as such - a woman inherits a hotel in Louisiana that contains one of the doorways to Hell - but that is basically an excuse for Fulci to string together a series of fantastic and frequently gory images. These include zombie attacks, eye gougings, a better dog attack scene than 'Suspiria', the crucifixion of a Satanist, and a sequence involving tarantulas which has to be one of the high points of horror, anywhere, anytime.

'The Beyond' is sensational and a bona fide modern horror classic. Absolutely essential viewing!

I guess I must have been in a bad mood when I first watched this as I really didn't like it. Now I've watched it again (simply because I'd forgotten I'd even watched it, I really enjoyed it - like I've done so with many (so-bad-they're-good) Italian horror films of the eighties. It's about a hotel in Louisiana which is basically a 'hell-mouth' and, seeing as Buffy probably wasn't born when this was made, it's up to a woman who wants to refurbish it and a doctor who can only shoot a zombie in the head every three shots (I counted!).

It's a bit weird where there are some secondary characters who just wander around talking badly. Yes, it's dubbed in many places - I noticed that severely when I first watched it and it's still as overly-dramatic now. In typical Italian horror movie style, it's almost deliberately all over the place and the sharp edits which give the film a truly disconcerting atmosphere. Plus there are some scenes which are almost funny while being bizarre - like when a woman seems to freak out because a beaker of water overturns in slow motion (and she then comes off worse, believe it or not).

And there's the gore - which was damn gool if you're into 'claret' and generally want to see a hundred and one different ways of inflicting pain on eyeballs. 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.

I'm glad I've given this film another go as - this time - I found it really entertaining and it's an example that you clearly need to be in the right mood for the right film.

This is probably my favorite horror movie of all time, and that stacks up against the pure genius of stuff like Phantasm, Evil Dead, Phenomenon and Dead Alive or any Romero. We have "Shocktoberfest" at my place every year over several nights, and I remember it being the 2008 election season when we watched The Beyond (like we do just about every year). We were totally blown away by John McCain and Joe the Plumber being in the same movie from 1981!!! Well, it's actually "John McCabe" but being that close to the election we could only hear "McCain," and our heads probably weren't on completely straight. Fulci is a master and transcends space-time to bring us the ultimate in fear and gore.