Au-delà des ténèbres

This movie is a little bit stupid. But that is one of its best qualities. Acting ain't great. Special effects even worse (OK, they're better than SOME of the actors).

I couldn't get over David Brandon (Caligula in http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082133/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_152) playing a priest. He may be a drunk, but still a man of the cloth. I still can't make it through Caligula 2: The Untold Story in one sitting. It is not only kind of mean-spirited, but actually gross.

I got this on X-Rated (German video label, not MPAA) DVD in a fat box (große hartbox) and the box/case is actually a whole lot better than the film. Way better, as a matter of fact. It's called "Ghost House 6" on the box. Pretty sure it's called "Beyond Darkness" in the credits.

From the director of "Troll 2" comes this moderately amusing haunted house / exorcism movie. Gene Lebrock ("Metamorphosis") stars as Father Peter, a reverend who moves with his family into a house of horrors. Not surprisingly, terrible things happened on the same grounds many years ago, and Father Peter must team up with the intense Father George (David Brandon) to take on the forces of evil and save his son Martin (who's played by Michael Stephenson, a.k.a. the young hero of "Troll 2").

Flagrantly bad acting combines with director Claudio Fragassos' extravagant efforts to show the audience a good time. Fragasso gives this silly movie as much atmosphere as he possibly can, but the screenplay, which he wrote with Rossella Drudi, is pretty inane. The music score by Carlo Maria Cordio is over the top, which seems like an attempt to distract the audience from the fact that we're not seeing anything particularly interesting or unusual in this movie. The visual effects are variable, the makeup effects not that bad at all.

The hunky Lebrock is very much a stiff, but "Friday the 13th" series fans might enjoy seeing actress Barbara Bingham (Mrs. Van Deusen in "Jason Takes Manhattan") in the role of his wife. Brandon does an awful lot of gnawing on the scenery. One person who looks like they're having fun is Mary Coulson, who plays the gnarly old crone Bette.

One of the producers was an uncredited Joe D'Amato; the costume designer was Laura Gemser.

Five out of 10.

Without a doubt, this low-budget haunted house thriller pales in comparison to genre classics such as Poltergeist due to horrendous acting and a pervading student film feel. However, if you enjoyed the Amityville Horror movie and book (especially the book) you might want to give Beyond Darkness a try. Many of the most terrifying aspects of the Amityville book are an integral part of this movie including hooded entities lunging at the cast out of nowhere, doorways to hell, and some unforgettable scenes of inanimate objects like an antique radio becoming possessed by the dark forces in the house. Yes it's true that the portrayal of the family is perhaps too clean cut (I know for a fact that pastors' kids can sometimes be brattier than other people's!) and that the actress playing the executed serial killer is more than a little wan. However, if you don't expect Oscar winning performances in horror films, then you will find Beyond Darkness a creepy treat to watch alone on a stormy night. And before inserting the tape, you might want to turn off the radio first.

Explanation for this title. Evil Dead was La Casa in Italy. Then, Evil Dead II was La Casa 2. But, Ghosthouse, from Umberto Lenzi, was La Casa 3. Witchery, from Fabrizio Laurenti was La Casa 4. And this, the fifth.

The most glaring flaw of this film is that it features a married Catholic priest. Not a former priest, but a priest-priest. I know you're asking yourself, how is that possible? It's not.

Beyond Darkness (not to be confused with the much more famous Beyond the Darkness) was directed by an Italian but set in the United States. Apparently this poor soul was under the impression that there were married priests in America because he saw Protestant preachers on TV? Just baffling.

Otherwise this is a very bland, middling rip off of Poltergeist. Nothing special, was probably a Friday night movie on a major network channel in 1990.