Chi sei?

I will consider this DVD viewing a first-time watch for me, because I saw the unedited edition now released on disc by Code Red, under the European title THE DEVIL WITHIN HER (not to be confused with the Joan Collins film of the same name). Indeed, this Italian horror movie has gone through several title changes -- from CHI SEI? in its own country, to its most recognizable American name, BEYOND THE DOOR. But the only way to see it is under the complete DEVIL WITHIN HER form, since the U.S. version -- which I did see on a crappy videotape 20+ years back -- is a much more incomprehensible mess. Two directors tackled this (Ovidio G. Assonitis and Roberto D'Ettore Piazzoli), which is obviously a ripoff of THE EXORCIST with hints of ROSEMARY'S BABY. Director Ovidio states he got the idea from seeing the Polanski film, and from only reading the Exorcist novel.

Juliet Mills (of TV's NANNY AND THE PROFESSOR) stars as a British woman named Jessica living in San Francisco with her husband Robert (Gabriele Lavia) and her two small children. She becomes impregnated with what may be a spawn of the devil himself, and as a result she goes through a series of disturbing trends: smashing her hubby's favorite fish tank, eating a raw banana peel from the street, kissing her sleeping little boy lustfully on his lips, spewing blood and vomit, and rotating her head and levitating. A strange bearded man (Richard Johnson) who has had ties with her from the past, follows her husband around and introduces himself as Dimitri, a cultist who is now trying to help Jessica and to also release his own soul.

I don't think this is a good movie, but it's serviceable horror fare with enough shocks and eerie optical effects considering it's an EXORCIST copycat made on a limited budget. Some of the photography is hauntingly done, and Juliet Mills is quite good in her part as the possessed mom. The participation of Richard Johnson also lends something of class to such horrific goings-on. I think this film gets too harshly judged, though I am not surprised if most of those reviewers only got to see the inferior common U.S. Theatrical Cut. **1/2 out of ****

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.

Of all the "Exorcist" rip-offs made right after the box-office success of the original, "Beyond The Door" is the most blatant. All of the sensationalistic happenings of the first movie occur here (head spinning, levitation, green pea vomit, foul language spoken in a demonic voice), but in "Beyond The Door" they occur not so much as a manifestation of demonic possession as they do because they occurred in "The Exorcist". This tale of a woman becoming possessed by her demonic fetus (they even threw some "Rosemary's Baby" into the mix) certainly didn't help the careers of its stars Juliet Mills and Richard Johnson, despite its box office success (indeed, Shakespearean trained Johnson saw his career degenerate into more and even schlockier films than this). Still, one has to admire the film for its chutzpah: it's such an OBVIOUS rip-off that one can't help giving it credit for having the nerve to be such.

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.

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.