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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.

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

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.

There's a reason why this claims to be a part of a series it's not: no one would watch it otherwise!

A collared priest enters a prison to give last rites to a middle aged female serial killer. Somehow she's stolen a number of stout children's souls, and the priest can see them. He's somehow affected by her evil holy book, which has a picture of Satan and a house in it that look much more recent than all the other pages. He turns into an alcoholic who staggers around town. Apparently he is possessed and also having a crisis of faith.

Anyway, another collared priest moves into the house from the book because an older priest gave it to him for him and his family of four. There's a strange giant black swan rocker in the children's room they assume was a gift for the kids. One of the doors has a poorly- bricked and stuccoed wall behind it with a slit that glows. Obviously supernatural bad stuff starts happening soon, but the family for some reason stays. Turns out the older priest knew that the entire family would be in danger, but he thought it would be a good idea anyway for some reason.

The movie is filled with terrible editing, terrible dialogue, and terrible plotting. The special effects aren't so good, mainly the house being full of smoke and red light as the cast has sweaty faces. There's a bunch of somewhat spooky zombie witches. A mixture of witches and innocent women had been burned at the stake on the site years ago. What the connection is to the serial killer is anyone's guess.

It's a poor mix of The Amityville Horror (haunted house), The Exorcist (exorcists, possession and crisis of faith), and Poltergeist (child taken into other world, stuff flying around). Don't bother! Who would actually believe this as a sequel to Evil Dead?