For those of you who like your horror movies with very little plot, lots of
eerie images, and tons of gore, The Beyond is for you.  One of Fulci's best
films, The Beyond serves up scene after scene of paranoia and agony.  It is,
however, a low budget film, and the special effects have aged some.

It starts in 1927 Louisiana, where groups of men converge to trap an artist
in his hotel room.  The men brutally beat the artist with chains, chains
that rip out pieces of his flesh with every blow.  Then he is nailed to the
wall through his wrists, and the men throw acid in his face.  And Fulci
brings us all this action straight on - no punches pulled.  The opening
scenes are shot in sepia, and are very beautifully done.  Turns out that the
hotel is built on top of one of the seven gateways to Hell, and the artist
found the key.  That can't bode well for the rest of the film.

Fast forward to 1981, and the heir to the hotel wants to restore the old
building and open it for business.  Accidents of a gruesome nature ensue.
And a blind girl who foretells of the horrors of staying in the hotel.  Oh,
and there's zombies.  You see, once a gate to hell is open, the dead shall
walk among the living.  Or something like that.

There really is no plot.  Just that the hotel is on top of a gateway to
hell, and lots of people suffer for it in bizarre ways.  The gore is the
main draw of this film.  There are scenes of torture, of eyes being poked
out, of flesh-eating, of heads exploding, of glass impalings, of tarantulas
who squeak as they dine on eyeballs and tongues.  There's one odd scene
where a little girl is trapped by a moving pool of flesh blood and acid that
was her mother.  Overall, the acting's not too bad, and there are some cool
camera angles/movements.  But, it is a low budget movie.  The effects, while
most impressive for their time, are dated and not as effective.  And the
story and ending leave much to be desired.  However, "The Beyond" is a must
see for all you gore-hounds out there.

Note:  My version of the movie was entitled "Seven Doors of Death", which is
the heavily-edited US release of the film.  I can't imagine what scenes were
cut out if the ones I saw were the ones they kept!
 
 

Quality: 2.5  Visuals: 6.5  Intensity: 3.5 Gore: 8.5 
OVERALL RATING: 5.3