One of my all time favorites.

Fresh and Exciting

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

I watched the beyond as part of a triple bill with City of the Living Dead & The House by The Cemetery to make up the "Gates of Hell" Fulci Trilogy.I will say from the beginning this movie is a big step up from City of the Living Dead. It starts out with a brutal kill of an artist in the Seven Doors Hotel back in 1927 as he was believe to be a warlock. The kills were definitely an upgrade from City of the Living Dead and the grabbing the brain out of the back of the head or blood out of the eye balls. I am glad we live in a time where we are able to view these movies as they were meant to be seen without all the censors blocking the gore/content.The thing I love most about Italian Horror, specifically Fucli and Argento is they are well made movies in addition to being good horror movies. Some of the late 70's and early 80's slashers were terribly made movies that we graded on a scale because a lot horror movies had bad acting/plot. The Beyond definitely stands up along with other non-genre films.

The Beyond, like most horror films that came out between 1978 and 1992, spends most of its time revealing in a shower of blood. Each attack, each death feels like an attempt to not only upstage any previous bloodletting, but an endeavor to find new, creative ways to kill its cast (dogs and spiders going a long way). What The Beyond is crippled by, however, is a completely incomprehensible plot, even by horror standards. To avoid spoilers (for there is still fun to be had with this film), all the audience needs to know is this: ignore following the story. The headache it will induce is far more frightening than the film. There are hotels, zombies, possessions, and gateways to Hell, to count a few obvious turns, but none of it connects very well, and a film like The Beyond is more concerned with the bloodshed than how it gets to the moments of murder.See, I heard about this film from a book I've had for years, "Lurker in the Lobby," by Andrew Migliore and John Strysik, about films featuring either direct, or obvious, H.P. Lovecraft influences. As an avid fan of Lovecraft's I thought I would give this film a look (and to Migliore's and Strysik's credit, they too warned the story was a horror all its own). As a fan of Lovecraft inspired horror, this film still had some merit, and was enjoyable from that view. Sure, it's not entirely cosmic horror (the ending, perhaps, comes closest to being cosmic), but there are enough nods to Lovecraftian tropes that it worked. Would I watch The Beyond again? Not likely, but for the brief hour and nearly a half I was mildly entertained. The Beyond works as a quick Saturday afternoon flick if you are a Lovecraft fan who doesn't mind ignoring a film's story, and not much else.

Probably Italian director Lucio Fulci's best film. Certainly there are no shoddy production values here, the film is edited together well and it all fits together nicely (unlike some other Fulci work). This is the film which led me to accept the fact that Fulci really was something of a genius, as with this film he transcends the boundaries of schlock horror and goes on to create a Gothic, haunting atmosphere. The result is absolutely fantastic. This is one of the four infamous zombie films Fulci made in the late '70s/early '80s and artistically is the best of the four.This film has it all: amazingly gory deaths, great atmosphere, frightening scenes, a sense of dread, even good acting for a change. Catriona MacColl is superb, pretty and sympathetic as the lead. Genre stalwart Warbeck gives it some dry humour to great effect. The characters are interesting and the locations are authentic. The music is awesome as well, the tunes you keep on humming to yourself afterwards. There is a huge fan base for this film and it was even re-released in American cinemas a few years ago. Watch it and you'll see why. THE BEYOND is a must for any Italian horror fan.

I go to a lot of horror conventions and I frequent a lot of horror message boards. I find in my conversations there that most horror geeks go through a typical exploration. You start with the big budget Hollywood horror that was readily available and as your tastes grow more, you start delving deeper into the horror underground. Inevitably, for most horror fans you exhaust the domestic classics and start digging into the foreign films, which brings us to Italian horror and, more specifically, Lucio Fulci.Let's just establish quickly that his films are either going to be appreciated or hated and there is little middle ground. I will admit that it took me a few runs through Italian horror films until I started to "get it" more and appreciate them. Accept right off the bat that you are throwing plot and logic out the window to appreciate imagery. Fulci believed strongly that the best horror should elicit a strong response in the audience and spur them to a feeling or action. It did not have to be a "good story". If you can't get past the fact that the movie doesn't always make good sense, then don't bother. I'm not going to tell you you're wrong because it's perfectly logical to want a good plot in a movie. On the other hand, art doesn't always have to make sense. The art of Jackson Pollock doesn't portray life in the same way as a Reubens portrait might, but that doesn't mean they aren't both valid art.So, with the caveats out of the way, let's talk about the movie. To me, ZOMBIE will always be Fulci's masterpiece and is in my top 50 horror films. This movie is easily his next best. The story revolves around a hotel built on one of the gates to hell, which naturally causes some strange occurrences on the grounds. It's hard to give you more plot than that because...well..there isn't much more. What the movie can provide, though, is good atmosphere and some awesome visual effects.The tone of the movie is consistently creepy. Originally intended to be a haunted house flick, but altered some to make the producers happy, the movie still adheres well to the haunted house feel. From the beginning scenes, there is something unsettling about the house and the events going on and Fulci plays this well by injecting a surreal feeling into things so that it truly feels like a nightmare.The deaths are what you're paying admission for, though. There are some great visual effects here. Gallons of spurting blood, ripping flesh, melting faces, spiders tearing chunks off people. For gorehounds there is a lot of fun to be had here and that's what draws me into this movie the most.Fulci's movies always walk a thin line between surreal and ridiculous. The first time I encountered this movie I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it, but as I've seen it a few more times I've really grown an appreciation for the movie. Set aside your preconceived notions about plot (who needs it) and just enjoy the ride for what it is, a bloody, disgusting, thrill.