Além dos Limites

The rookie journalist Vivian (Kimberly Liebe) seeks Frederick (Christopher Kriesa), the caretaker of the oldest cemetery in an undefined country, asking for an interview and the old man tells the story of two "costumers" and both connected by a mysterious secret. The powerful gangster Jimmie Levinson (James Matthew-Pyecha) accuses his former partner Paul Pattuchi (Joe Cook) of stealing a load of cocaine and orders to kill his beloved girlfriend Clarice (Xenia Seeberg). Paul is found dead later in a cottage, and Jimmie and his friends and girlfriends are visited during a dinner party by Robert Downing (Daryl Jackson) first and then by the sadistic Mortimer (Simon Newby) and his partner Rick (Thomas Reitmair) seeking the truth about Paul and a suitcase with a mysterious relic. The second story takes place in the Middle Ages, where the cruel David Deming (David Creedon) and his minion Tom Brewster (Russell Friendenberg) chase the renegade priest James Flynn (Hank Stone) in the name of the Inquisition but actually trying to force him to reveal the secret of the Eternal Heart to grant immortality.

The low–budget "Beyond the Limits" is extremely gore but is not a bad movie. Most of the performances are only reasonable, the choreography of the fights with sword is terrible, but I liked the plot. There is an enormous exploitation of violence, but the special effects are very impressive and realistic. The only work of director Olaf Ittenbach that I have had the chance to see is the awful "Legion of the Dead", and "Beyond the Limits" is better and better showing a great improvement in his career. The characters Mortimer (mainly) and Brewster are among the most sadistic I have ever seen. The torture at the dinner table and in the castle chamber, the massacre in the church and the trip to Hell are extremely impressive and strong, and of course not recommended to sensitive persons. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Além dos Limites" ("Beyond the Limits")

Note: On 30 May 2013, I saw this movie again.

Gee, where to begin? This movie is very bizarre and unique; it's not the plot that makes it unique, however, because the plot is quite simple. On one side of equation, there is a misterious... well, item, and on another side, there are people who get tortured and killed right and left in different and quite imaginative ways, because somebody wants this item very, very much.

So, like I said, the plot is simple, but the execution is quite sophisticated. The movie consists of 2 barely connected parts and takes us through modern and Medievil times, and then there is someone who combines the whole story and tells it to (you guessed it) a beautiful, female reporter.

So, how bizarre is it? Here is my take on this very unusual movie:

1. "Beyond the Limits" is one of the most violent, gory films I've ever seen in my entire life (and I've seen quite a few!)!

2. It's also THE MOST CREATIVE and professionally done gorefest I've ever seen.

3. Notwithstanding the previous comment, acting and dialogs in the first vignette are atrocious and over-the-top - totally B-movie material. At this point you will get confused, since you've been told this is not a B-movie (stay assured, it isn't, just wait for the second part). Besides, murders and tortures are so well done, you will forgive the filmmakers for this acting fiasco, guaranteed.

4. Since they didn't have enough money to hire professional actors for entire duration of the movie (just guessing here:), the second vignette is where the director makes it up to you in this department. I think it's flawless. Acting is terrific, and fight scenes will take your breath away.

5. The outline plot is subtle, and the end scene, albeit very strong, doesn't make too much of a sense, which, I must say, is perfect for this movie. The ending, somehow, reminded me of the ending of "Ronin" (with Robert De Niro).

6. The film had to have a fairly good budget, if only for all those special effects having been made so well, but obviously, not enough money went into marketing, which can explain why no one on this side of Atlantic ever heard of this movie, which is sad, sad, sad...

Final Thoughts.

The only reason, I don't call this movie a horror masterpiece is because of the laughable acting in the 1st part. Overall, I'll say, if you like the genre and have a strong stomach, find and see this movie -you'll be glad you did! 7 out of 10.

Having read a lot about Premutos (another Olaf Ittenbach movie, often mentioned in the 'goriest horror of all time' debate), but unable to get hold of a copy cheaply enough, I opted instead for Beyond the Limits, a movie which might not have got such great reviews, but also promised to deliver its fair share of splattery delights.

And boy, does the blood flow in this one. Ittenbach and his crew have created a gore drenched anthology-style movie with some of the most brutal scenes I have seen in a long time. In the wraparound story, a young female journalist interviews a cemetery caretaker for her newspaper; he tells her the shocking tale behind one of his recent 'customers' and then follows that up with another set in medieval times.

The first story has a dinner party (attended by a group of mobsters and their wives) interrupted by a pair of ruthless killers. The sadistic assassins, hired by a man seeking vengeance for the death of his wife, set about slaughtering the party guests. But all is not as it first seems...

The second sees a bloodthirsty inquisitor and his henchmen slaughtering innocent people in a quest to revive an ancient demon. Chock full of torture and gruesome deaths, this is definitely not for the squeamish.

Ittenbach handles the direction confidently and there are some well filmed action scenes and great use of scenery and lighting. Unfortunately, he does also succumb to the use of annoying visual trickery and unnecessary MTV style editing (a particular bugbear of mine). The quality of acting varies from reasonable to very bad, but let's face it—it's the gore that really counts, and that is of a very high standard indeed: vicious, unrelenting and downright unpleasant, but very convincing.

Beyond the Limits is not a film that should be watched by casual horror fans (it's way too disturbing for most viewers, I fear), but those who enjoy 'extreme' movie-making should be more than happy with the tour de force of revolting effects that splash across the screen.

As far as i know potatoes were brought to europe in 1493....... Then how is it possible that they were SLICING potatoes in 1452?????

Anyway nice blood

Compared to Ittenbach's earlier films, definitely a step or two up in terms of camera work, production value, and overall professionalism. However, some criticism still applies: the acting is, well, somewhere between so-so and pretty abysmal. The dialogs are sometimes more than a little over the top, in general, though, it's not too bad. I don't believe, Ittenbach's films will ever win an Oscar for the best script, but on the other hand, I have had to endure much worse during my search for (halfway) decent splatter flicks. BTW: the English track is IMHO superior to the German dubbed version. Splatter effects are pretty good and--for the most part--effective, provided you catch the uncut version (106 minutes), although not quite as numerous as in Premutos. Beware of German rental version, it is cut by approx. 5 minutes. Recommended to Ittenbach and splatter fans. All others proceed at your own risk.