The World Beyond

With about an hour's worth of movie time, this TV horror does give you some chills and thrills, with the mud creature menacing a small group of people on a remote Maine Island after they were called there to look for a missing person. The creature's cries and shrieks are scary enough to frighten a whole town and its hideous appearance might give you nightmares.

It's a fast-paced movie from start to finish - just one main plot to follow and no room for filler subplots. The acting was good and the atmosphere was chilly. Though the suspense and thrills might be a little tame nowadays, it's still an entertaining movie.

Grade B

What appears to be a pilot for a non-existent TV series turns out to be a pretty good monster movie. A man who communicates with the dead is directed to a location where he is to save the life of a woman he has never met. They journey to an island where her brother lives, only to find his home in disarray and no sign of him. Soon enough, they and the captain of the boat that brought them to the island are being pursued by a mud monster -- a golem that her brother built, as it turns out. The TV movie is genuinely scary, and the monster is only glimpsed until the very end, which keeps up the suspense. Some scenes would look right at home in "Evil Dead," whose director may in fact have been influenced by this modest thriller. Worth a watch.

This is too wild! I am reading reviews from other people that I felt were my own memories of this flick. The monster, apparently created from mud, gets its hand cut off in the door, and then the hand crawls away. This memory has been with me for my entire life. I have talked to others about the movie and no one knew what I was talking about. So I started to think that maybe this was actually a dream I had and not a movie. But when I searched for "Mud Monster" this came up, finally I can confirm that I was not the only child to be haunted by this terrifically scary story. I always thought the name of the film was something along the lines of "Monster at the end of the World" so that did not help when I would try to describe the film to people. I would love to see it again, maybe it is not nearly as scary as I remember? I can't wait to call my brother to see if he remembers it. Thanks IMDb

What I love most about these obscure and semi-forgotten TV-productions from the 70s, is reading the nostalgia-laden user comments from people who re-discovered them online and instantly remembered how it were the most terrifying viewing experiences from their childhood. Personally, I never had that kind of pleasure, as I'm a product of the 80s, and 90s television is in no way comparable to the 70s.

I can understand my so many people have fond memories about this "The World Beyond", and why certain aspects - like the constant shrieking - haunted their nightmares forever after. It's a fine example of a TV-pilot that potentially could have become very successful, but for some reason got cancelled in an early phase. Who knows, maybe because there were already enough and similar supernaturally themed TV-shows at the time ("Kolchak: Night Stalker", "Night Gallery", "Thriller", ...).

Fact remains that "The World Beyond" most definitely had reason for existence, what with its intriguing concept about a sport journalist who, following a motorcycle accident and a brief 2'37" period of being clinically dead, receives desperate requests from deceased people to rescue their living loved ones from upcoming dangers. In the pilot, additionally titled "Monster", he must go to a remote and practically inhabited island to protect a woman from a Golem. The monster, created from mud and brought to life through black magic, remains largely unseen but its harrowing shrieks and howling is very unsettling. The short film - not even one hour - also contains a few bloody moments, and an early lead role for the talented JoBeth Williams ("Poltergeist").

Holy **** I think this was the show I saw when I was a kid that scared the beejeezuz out of me. My parent's were out and I was just old enough to be left alone, but young enough to be freaked out by this moody swamp monster. It was around this time that "In Search Of" hosted by Leonard Nimoy was on every Saturday Night. If there was anything about ghosts on it I didn't sleep. I remember my mother calling to check in when I saw this movie. I told her I was watching something that was scaring me on TV. Her advice "Don't watch it then." I had forgotten about this until I stumbled on this in the weird way that can only happen on the internet. In brief the 70's was a prime time for weird programming (After all this was they hey-day of Love Boat and Fantasy Island). I'd be curious to see this little treasure again as an adult. I suspect it would come across as rather cheezy, but as a ten year old in the basement late at night it wasn't hard to get freaked out.