Vozes das Profundezas

Caution: Some plot and scenes revealed

"Voices from beyond" is one of Fulci's most coherent and successful productions, especially among his last films. As usual, the subject are the horrors of death and what comes after it.

The story deals with the death of Giorgi Mainardi, a man with a lot of money and enemies. After the prologue and the opening credits we witness the violent death of Mainardi, vomitting loads of blood. During his burial ceremony we are introduced to the main characters and in flash back sequences to why they had good reason to hate him. After his death, Mainardi manages to keep contact to the living: To his only trustee, his daughter Rosy, he talks in dreams, and his enemies he haunts with terrible nightmares. This concept gives Fulci the opportunity to insert many wildly surreal dream sequences (including, believe it or not, a zombie attack), and he makes good use of it. This dreamlike aspect of the movie is contrasted to the clinical analysis of Mainardi's death and decay, starting from his unpleasant demise on the death bed, ranging over the autopsy carried out by the Maestro (i.e., Fulci) himself, and ending in repeated shots of his decaying corpse.

Other fine images include a still life with broken light bulbs (the device used to kill Mainardi) which summarizes the evil plot against him.

We also watch the claustrophobia of Mainardi's father whose spirit is still alive but who has no means to communicate with the outside world, except his tears. He has to suffer interminable mockings through Mainardi's enemies.

Maybe this character expresses Fulci's own incapacity to express himself properly in his latest movies due to extremely limited budgets and equipment. In fact, in an interview Fulci declared that he wanted to make one more movie with sufficient production values (i.e., "The Wax mask"), so that he can die in peace. As everybody knows, fate has declined this favour to him.

Nevertheless, with "Voices from beyond", Fulci has demonstrated that he could create something of value even with restricted resources.

This is one of the last films Fulci directed and you can tell. As this is a decent film it is not a horror movie. It's more of a mystery with very little of what made Fulci a great horror/gore director. It really does stray from the norm for Fulci as this story is more on the story and characters than it is on gore.

Basically, a very wealthy man dies an unnatural death (spewing up blood). His family are all a bunch of money grubbers except his daughter (who is the star of the movie). She has a dream one night that her father comes to her and tells her that he was murdered and that she needs to find the person that killed him before it's too late.

Now, the story is kind of interesting but things just don't click together. You can tell with many of the scenes that Fulci was trying to incorporate his psychedelic horror style but the story wasn't right for that style. There were though many scenes that were good and very eye catching. The music in the movie was very hypnotic and enjoyable. The big problem with this movie is the gore. There is very little gore. The gore that is in the movie doesn't even go on par with his work in the late 70's and early 80's. Though, there was one funny scene at the beginning of the movie involving a crying child and his crazed father threatening to stab him with a knife.

Over all, for Fulci fans I have to rate this a 3/10. For a regular movie, I have to rate this a 5/10. It's not bad but it's not good.

"Voices from Beyond" is an overall solid Italian thriller, padded with typical Fulciesque gore scenes. I say padded because you'll quickly notice that, albeit very cool and delightfully gruesome, the gory bits are absolutely irrelevant to the story and they just seem to be included because the fans expect no less from Mr. Fulci. The gore occurs during several nightmare-sequences, a totally gratuitous autopsy and through repeated images of a slowly decomposing corpse. The rotting process goes incredibly fast here, by the way. Only moments after the burial, the corpse is already covered in maggots and cobwebs! Anyway, you certainly don't need these gloriously gooey moments in order to follow the story, but they sure make the movie more entertaining and easier to digest (…except if you have a weak stomach, of course). The actual story, written by Lucio Fulci himself, is quite compelling and revolves on the arrogant and despicable Mainardi family. The patriarch – Georgio – died from food poisoning, but his soul is restless and can't help thinking his dead was a carefully planned murder conspiracy. Therefore he seeks supernatural contact with the only remaining person he can trust, namely his cherubic teenage daughter Rosy. Guided by the voice of her departed father, Rosy investigates the various reasons why the entire Mainardi family wanted Georgio dead. The premise might sound a little silly; yet "Voices from Beyond" is quite involving and the tension is adequately build up. The film as a wholesome may not rank among his best efforts, but this is definitely one of Lucio Fulci's finest achievements in directing! There are several highly imaginative scenes to state his mastery, most notably the part where Georgio's body lies in state and the family members come to pay their last 'respects'. With each person standing before him, we are informed – through flashbacks - about the conflicts (read: possible motivations for killing) between him/her and the deceased. Very powerful! There are negative aspects as well, of course, like the occasionally poor dialogs and monologues, especially when Georgio's soul speaks! I suppose this is why dead people don't talk… They say stupid and cheesy things. Also, you should prepare for a dull and completely UNexciting climax. It's a really lousy ending to an overall recommended thriller. Now then, who wants a slice of eyeball-omelet?

Lucio Fulci's penultimate movie is par for the course for the Italian godfather of gore in that it is a largely incoherent effort, an offbeat horror mystery enlivened by some bloody effects to keep the director's die-hard fans happy. There are also several surreal dream sequences (including one involving rotting zombies) and a reasonable helping of sweaty nudity for those who prefer their Euro-horror on the sleazy side.

The story starts with a wealthy man, Georgio Mainardi (Duilio Del Prete), dying from sudden internal haemorrhaging. As an autopsy is carried out (in graphic detail, naturally), Georgio's spirit questions what has happened to him. Determined to find out the truth, he contacts his daughter Rosy (Karina Huff) from beyond the grave; however, with the majority of Georgio's family and acquaintances having good reason to want the man dead, and with the guilty party covering their tracks, Rosy won't find it easy to solve the mystery.

While a long way from the director's best work, there are still a few scenes that make this one watchable: the aforementioned autopsy will appeal to gorehounds (also worth a mention are the frequent cuts to Georgio's interred body, each time the corpse a little more decomposed); those who enjoy the bizarre will love the freaky dream sequence set in a restaurant patronised by weird creatures with tentacles, where a serving of fried eggs turns into a plate of eyeballs; and those who like naked ladies will appreciate the T&A from pretty blonde Huff and brunette Bettina Giovannini as Georgio's wife Lucia.

Rest in peace, oh no, not this sorely departed soul. He wants his conniving killer revealed with the help of his innocent daughter. One of his last directorial efforts, Lucio Fulci presents something peculiar, and very patchy. You wouldn't think you're watching a made-for-TV presentation though. While not packed with violence, there's still a persistent mean-streak with Fulci's signature style. Explicit brutality towards a child, squashed eyeballs in a soup, mausoleum zombies (in a dream), topless nudity and flashes of a rotting, oozing corpse covered in flies and maggots. A TV-movie you say? Even with those nightmarish details, Fulci's vision is restrained, but there's something rather expressive and personal in his canvas of work.

The histrionic story is a hazy murder mystery without the mystery build-up, filled with lingering suspicions, sordid family secrets and the afterlife (presented by an echoing voice-over) getting involved through the use of allusive slow-mo dream sequences caused by either guilt or grief, depending on the character, to communicate or torment. Those prolonged dreams, and sometimes nightmares were striking and strange, along with the flashbacks, but without them there wouldn't be any thrills/intrigue/exposition/shocks - just melodramatic tropes and cold stares. While the narrative hardly comes out of first gear, its slow nature gives off a hallucinogenic vibe with the screen being soaked in moody imagery, foreboding aesthetics, swirling camerawork and a distinctive score.

This supernatural mystery doesn't entirely come together, yet remains hypnotic in its ideas and atmosphere.