Those wacky bastards Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna return, just one year after their epic horror undead-fest RE-ANIMATOR (the greatest horror flick of all time to me), with FROM BEYOND, another flick for Charles Band's Empire Pictures studio. Once again, they also work off the basis of the H.P. Lovecraft story of the same name, that of course being "From Beyond", which was published in a magazine series originally. Also with RE-ANIMATOR, Yuzna and Gordon don't stay too true to the original Lovecraftian vision, opting instead to start off with it as a base for the movie, then run wherever their momentum takes them... and boy does it take them to a fucking twisted land of Oz! The special FX are decisively gooey, as slime rains down in buckets and waves! The creatures are all like things plucked from Rob Zombie on a bad acid trip and the cast, well, it's '80s horror nirvana! Not only do we see the returns of Jeffrey Combs (still my all time movie God) and Barbara Crampton (still my all time movie fuck fantasy) who worked with Y+G on RE-ANIMATOR, but we also see the baddest brother of all, Ken Foree! Horror fans remember Foree from DAWN OF THE DEAD and LEATHERFACE: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III, and total masochists will know him from DEATH SPA and "Keenan and Kel". This is the kind of cast my fantasies consist of! Note, when I speak of fantasies, I'm not talking sexual ones. The last thing I need to see is Crampton getting double-teamed by Forree and Combs while Yuzna and Gordon work "behind the scenes". Don't get me wrong, seeing Crampton get her holes filled would be great, but not by these two. They're cool, but hey, they're also ugly. Ok, enough about gangbangs...

Our story opens in the attic laboratory of Dr. Edward Pretorious (think "prick" and "clitoris", as in: he's a prick who likes clitoris) and his trusty lab partner Crawford Tillinghast (Combs), as they play with their latest creation: the Resanator. The Res was created by the two to stimulate the latent pineal gland, opening humans to a whole other sense, this being the "sixth sense" I guess, which allows them to experience new pleasures and sensations that the normal five senses just can't live up to. They do this by utilizing colored lights, weird sounds, and high pitch frequencies of vibration... hey, I know plenty of things that vibrate that girls already use to derive pleasure, so this isn't anything too shocking to me! While sampling the Res's powers, somehting goes terribly wrong, and when the scientists' fat neighbor arrives to investigate the light show and find her runaway poodle, she's greated by terror, the world's most proficient butler, as she sees Tillinghast, brandishing an axe and in a state of panic! The cops arrive in time to find Crawford off his rocker and confine him, as inside the old fat chick's poodle finds something more interesting and lip smacking good: Dr. Pretorious's headless body! Did Crawford go crazy and lob off the good doctor's cranium, or is it true that something really did bite off the old guy's head, "like a gingerbread man"? That's for oversexed nympho psychologist Dr. Katherine McMichaels (Barbara Crampton as a nympho?! I told you this was fuckin' Nirvana) to find out!

Intrigued by Craw's story, Dr. Kathy persuades the state to release him into her care, so she can take him back to the scene of the slaughter and find out if his story's for real, or just an excuse to get free (padded) room and board. You don't think Kathy would do something crazy like go back to a allegedly psychotic guy's house alone with him do you? Well, even if you said "yes", the answer is still "no", because along as her back-up is undercover cop Sgt. Bubba Brownlee (Foree), who's there not only as physical presence and witness, but he also knows how to crack eggs and jokes! A man who cooks and can make us laugh, reminds me of the Iron Chef guy, the one in the funny red coat who gets possibly the worst dub job on that entire program! So, to sum up the cast we have the "man trying to put his evil past behind him" Crawford, the "chick exploring the possibilities of new 'sensations'" Kathy, and the "bad ass with a chip on his shoulder and on his dinner" Bubba. Oh, and soon enough, we see the return of the new and improved "methamorphisizing pervert genius who jumps between dimensions" Dr. Pretorious. it's not long before Crawford has been convinced by Kathy to get the Resonator back up and running, and when he flips the switch it's back to the psychosis!

The Resonator is a fairly simple machine (yeah, like quantum physics is just simple algebra) tha tutilizes vibration waves to bring our dimension together with another. This other dimension (full of flying eels, flesh eating ball barings, and gooey old hairy guys) in always there, as are it's inhabitants. But, it's takes the frequency of the Resonator to bring our dimension's state into harmony with the other dimension's, allowing us to see the creepy airborne demons that live there... and vice versa. Not only does the thing bring us into harmonious conflict (I love making up shit like that) with otherworldly invertebrates, but it gets people worked up better than any so-called "Spanish Fly" ever could! 23 ounces of gin couldn't do what the Resonator can! This is illustrated when Craw gets something he'd never get normally: Kathy's tongue down his throat! Finally Jeffrey Combs gets some tail! During the initial trial run, Dr. Pretorious also makes himself know to us, as he reappears, looking not all that bad for a guy who got his head lobbed off clean at the shoulders! But, when he tries to molest Kathy, that's when our heroes decide the machine's got to be shut down. So, if you feel disappointed there isn't any freaky monster sex, blame the guys.

Having now witnessed the machine's powers and the appearance of the not-so-good Dr. Pretorious, Craw and Bubba decide that's enough and the case can be wrapped up.. and Bubba can make more breakfast! But, Kathy kinda liked the whole experience, providing her with excitement and feelings she hadn't had since I broke up with her in high school... I was such a fool. So, Kathy goes back to the attic, juices up the machine again, and has a little chat with Dr. P... who tries to rape her! Meanwhile, Bubba and Craw, unable to unplug the demonic water heater from inside the room, instead head to the basement to take out the power supply. While down there the guys (Bubba in all his red underwear glory... burn out my eyes please) wrestle with a giant flesh eating worm. The worm gets ahold of Craw, but Bubba assaults the fuse box in time to save both Craw and the now fondled Kathy. Sadly though, despite the fact he survived with minor burns and no hair on his head, Craw lost his Miskatonic University T-shirt! Good ol' Miskatonic U, I wonder if my frat Gonna Eata Pi is still around. I still have my jersey from when I was on the Fighting Metapods! Alright, so I stole it from a far more athletically inclined person, but that just makes my victory all the sweeter! As for our trio, they prepare to leave the house, when suddenly Kathy gets really gooey and drippy... and I don't mean she's a monster either... if you know what I mean and... ah screw it! She gets really horney alright! She straps on some kinky leather duds and tries to rape an unconscious Crawford! Bubba interjects though, undaunted by Kathy's attempts at seduction, all of which is interuppted when Dr. P turns the Resonator back on, FROM BEYOND! This time though, Bubba is turned into a pile of mutilated bones with bits of flesh hanging loosely from them, chowed on by a swarm of flesh eating ball barings! Kathy snaps out of her lustful ways in time to freak out at Bubba's death, then she does what any woman would do in a time of stress: grab a fire-axe! Then she hacks up the power cords to the machine and escapes with Crawford into the van.

When they make it back to the psychiatric hospital from whence they first came, the two are instantly committed by Dr. Bloch (Stuart Gordon's wife Carolyn, who also had a quickie shot in RE-ANIMATOR!), who has always hated the intimate and perverse way that Kathy's supposedly handled herself and her patients... wish she'd handle me! While Kathy gets signed up for some radical shock treatment (Richard O'Brien's curse still haunts me even at times like this...), Crawford grows a large asparagus from his head... This being his overly stimulated pineal gland, Craw can now see in distorted heat vision-like "sixth sense" mode. Whether or not it allows him to see ghosts is still to be determined, but it does give him a craving for brains! In the confusion caused by the cranial muncher's antics in the hospital, Kathy manages to escape her predicament. She vows to return to the ill-fated house with some heavy duty explosives and blow the place to the ground, denying anyone the experience of slimy monster sex every again! Of course the maniacal Crawford and his head probe head for the house too, probably to get another fix from the Resonator. He corners the babe, but she lashes out at him, biting his celery stalk right off of his forehead! This brings Craw back to his senses and allows him to fight off the returning Dr. P (back in yet another monstrous form that devours Crawford whole!) while Kathy drops the bomb and runs like a virgin on prom night, jumping out the window to safety... and likely several broken bones. As the top floor goes up in a cloud of flames and prompts the fire department's quick reply, Kathy is left sitting on the front lawn, driven completely mad and unable to do anything but sit and laugh maniacally at Crawford's fat lady neighbor... who's STILL wearing those damn curlers and bathing cap!

FROM BEYOND is often overlooked when people think about the great horrors of the '80s. It's main problem is that it didn't live up to the expectations of many who were hoping Gordon and Yuzna would put out another RE-ANIMATOR. Then again, people like me and my few friends thought that FROM BEYOND was still excellent, despite it's lack of subtle black humor that RE-ANIMATOR had, going more for the excessive goo factor, like the EVIL DEAD series with it's mass buckets of viscous red fluids. The cast is a H.O.P.E.L.E.S.S. dream come true, retaining the RE-ANIMATOR factions, just replacing Dan Abbott with Ken Foree, and since I hate the first and love the latter, the casting is just all that much better! Though there were some decidedly cheesy lines that you gotta love, FROM BEYOND did falter on the humor aspects, going more for serious scares, which just helps to show off Gordon's varied talents. .. and I don't mean his sagging man bossoms either. The soundtrack by Richard Band is as fun as always, continuing to show why he's my favorite low-budget composer. What can I say, FROM BEYOND was just an all around great movie that didn't need a blockbuster budget to work for itself! And don't forget, It Came From the '80s!

Sequels: None

If You Liked This Flick, Check Out: RE-ANIMATOR or EVIL DEAD