Granted, when I sat down to watch the 2021 horror sci-fi movie "Beyond Paranormal", I wasn't really harboring much of any great expectations from writer and director Matteo Ribaudo given the movie's somewhat rather lousy cover. And truth be told, then the whole 'influencer' thing is just ridiculous beyond belief that it has zero appeal to me. But with "Beyond Paranormal" being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to give it a chance.
Now, I should have opted to check out IMDb before watching the movie, as the really low rating of the movie would have been a warning sign of what lied ahead and what I was in for. Wow. Just wow. The storyline written by Matteo Ribaudo was laughably bad. It felt like it was the school project of a middle schooler that had to write a horror story for a term paper. So don't expect the great Shakespearian experience if you opt to sit down and watch "Beyond Paranormal". But take heed!
The acting performances in the movie were actually okay, especially when taking into consideration the horrible script that Cortney Palm (playing Lilly) and Ryan Donowho (playing Ray) had to work with. Aside from those two, the movie had a very small cast ensemble, so it was essentially Palm and Donowho whom carried the movie.
For a horror movie, then "Beyond Paranormal" just failed on so many levels. First of all, the script and story was immature and just downright generic. I suppose if you are new to the horror genre that you will find something worthwhile here, but for a horror veteran then "Beyond Paranormal" just didn't cut it. Heck, I even fell asleep during the 1 hour and 42 minutes that the movie ran for. And when I woke up, I was still up to speed with the events that transpired in the movie, and that says something about the contents that there was to the storyline.
Visually then I will say that "Beyond Paranormal" wasn't actually bad. It wasn't spectacular either, so don't get your hopes up. But the special effects worked to their purpose, so that counted for something.
I am rating "Beyond Paranormal" a very generous three out of ten stars.
