Beyond the Wall of Sleep

This movie is very loosely based on Lovecraft's original short story, and that only as a premise upon which the film makers desperately attempted to make a movie. Even the cover art of the DVD was misleading because none of the imagery on it ever appeared in the final version. Anyone who claims that this movie remains faithful to the original short story either read a different story or watched a different movie than I did. There was nothing even remotely resembling Amducious in the original story (where did that come from?), just as there was no rampant blood and guts, no conflict amongst the "alienists" in the asylum, no woman with an exposed brain (rip off of "Hannibal," no doubt), no brains in bottles, and no "evil" entity attempting to break through Sam's body. Taking some creative license is expected, but this movie just blatantly ripped off a Lovecraft premise and turned it into a lame joke. As a Lovecraft reader and fan I was offended and angry that his name and the title of his short story were stapled to this travesty just to sell tickets and DVD's. What a rip off! No, this is not a work of comic film noir genius and wasn't the least bit scary, people. If the DVD had any special features with the directors or producers stating that they were not really serious and that it was supposed to be more like a cheesy serial comedic send up with tongue firmly implanted in cheek I would go along with the joke, but I see no indication that the joke was intentional. Simply stated, this movie just plain sucked, and if I actually believed in such things I would have to say that H. P. Lovecraft is probably spinning in his grave.

Even though the H.P. Lovecraft is a great author, the person who directed makes bad films and makes a mockery of his books. This movie has the worst acting i have ever seen. Though, i will give it credit for its comic relief, but i can't not say it was the worst movie i've ever bought and regret it. So my words of wisdom are "don't buy this movie", you can rent it but don't buy it, it doesn't deserve to be next to Fight Club or even Josie and the Pussycats. The ending however came to a bit surprise, it was the only good part of the movie. I not going to tell you what happens, but if you want to follow along with the story a little better i recommend reading the book because its hard to follow. My overall rating: 3.

My friends and I rented this movie thinking it would be a creepy adaptation of a good Lovecraft story, since a couple of us are Lovecraft fans. However, what we got was something very different than what we bargained for. In short, to us this was not a straight horror movie; it's a dramatic, sardonic comedy that just happens to have a horror-based plot. To me, its overall execution seemed more like a film noir parody than anything. One look/listen at the cheap visuals, low-quality audio, melodramatic acting, horrible scripting, and downright hilarious one-liners makes it fairly obvious that this is not a movie to be taken seriously. At least, we hope not. For what it is (or at least what we hope it is), it was very well-done in that it was pure entertainment, nothing more. If you want some gore, insanity, and slight creepiness to accompany your laughter, then this is the film for you.

I found this on the $1 rack at the video store and said "ooh, Lovecraft." and thusly rented what I thought would be a fun movie to scare the crap out of myself with at 2am on a Friday Night.

Well, it scared me all right, but not with the unspeakable horrors usually expected of something with the name H.P. Lovecraft on it, but with some pretty horrific acting, poor sound equalization and camera angles even my mom could pull off. I expected cheese...you can't watch a movie like that and not expect at least 40-50% cheese but sheesh, there's a limit! It might have been OK had it not been for some pretty unimaginative camera work (a low budget is no excuse for doing nothing more than pointing and shooting, unless the budget didn't include bendable wrists or tripods) and the acting was so distracting that I lost track of what the heck was going on.

A couple of handsome guys in the movie didn't quite make up for the "What the *beep* just happened?" feeling when the end credits finally rolled around, leaving me with the thought that I could have bought some M&Ms with that $1 instead.

so, I've sat through all of ed wood's films, and i'm still convinced this is the worst film I've ever seen, but also the most hilarious. the acting is sub-sub-sub-community theatre/high school acting class on a bad day style, and the directing appears as if the directors (it took two people to be this awful!) just got a bunch of new equipment and computer programs they wanted to screw around with. if you want a good laugh, and some great new catchphrases, and don't mind having no idea what a film is about and sitting through crappy scene upon crappy scene, then check this movie out. as horrible as it is, i almost recommend watching it to be flabbergasted by how awful the three main performances are. check out the wig on edward! i certainly hope tom savini was at least supplied with a delicious lunch for appearing in this trash.