← Back to Reviews
in
The Beyond, 1981
Liza (Catriona MacColl) has just purchased a run-down hotel in Louisiana, unaware of the building's dark history, including a man named Schweick (Antoine Saint-John) being killed in his room for practicing the occult. As strange and deadly events begin to unfold in the hotel, Liza and Dr. McCabe (David Warbeck) must get to the bottom of things.
I am a perpetual (and at this point unabashed) multitasker when I watch films. Ironically, I seem to engage better with stories when I can do something else as I watch them: folding laundry, reading a book, etc). But I will say this about Fulci: his films demand all of your attention.
This is probably my favorite of what I've seen from Fulci in terms of combining visuals and story. Yes, of course there is plenty of eyeball trauma and melting faces. But there's a real coherence to the hotel "reviving" and the effect it has on the recently--and not so recently--dead. Most people tend to talk about Fulci's more, um, excessive displays of gore (maggots anyone?), but I found that my favorite scares here were more of the slow-burn variety. My favorite shot was of a reanimated corpse slowly using his finger to rip a hole in his body bag.
What probably appeals most to me about this one was the way that it captures the intimidating "magic" of a dream/nightmare. Things happen that are strange and don't make sense, and the characters are struggling to fit those things into some kind of reality. And rather than try to explain away what is happening, the movie lets everything hold together loosely.
I also thought that the ending of the movie (no spoilers!) was bold and unexpected and kind of beautiful in a weird way.
The Beyond, 1981
Liza (Catriona MacColl) has just purchased a run-down hotel in Louisiana, unaware of the building's dark history, including a man named Schweick (Antoine Saint-John) being killed in his room for practicing the occult. As strange and deadly events begin to unfold in the hotel, Liza and Dr. McCabe (David Warbeck) must get to the bottom of things.
I am a perpetual (and at this point unabashed) multitasker when I watch films. Ironically, I seem to engage better with stories when I can do something else as I watch them: folding laundry, reading a book, etc). But I will say this about Fulci: his films demand all of your attention.
This is probably my favorite of what I've seen from Fulci in terms of combining visuals and story. Yes, of course there is plenty of eyeball trauma and melting faces. But there's a real coherence to the hotel "reviving" and the effect it has on the recently--and not so recently--dead. Most people tend to talk about Fulci's more, um, excessive displays of gore (maggots anyone?), but I found that my favorite scares here were more of the slow-burn variety. My favorite shot was of a reanimated corpse slowly using his finger to rip a hole in his body bag.
What probably appeals most to me about this one was the way that it captures the intimidating "magic" of a dream/nightmare. Things happen that are strange and don't make sense, and the characters are struggling to fit those things into some kind of reality. And rather than try to explain away what is happening, the movie lets everything hold together loosely.
I also thought that the ending of the movie (no spoilers!) was bold and unexpected and kind of beautiful in a weird way.