AKA The Seven Doors Of Death

" And you will face the sea of darkness...and all therein that may be explored..."

It’s quite difficult to know where to start when reviewing The Beyond because the film itself isnt exactly a mish mash of plot twists and revelations, but basically just a series of things that happen with a paper thin plot to carry it along. But don’t think that this is unintentional because Fulci himself has said that it is a very visual film that doesn’t really make much sense.

But the plot centres around the gorgeous Catriona MacColl’s character, who gets her hands on an old hotel in Louisiana, and while she re-decorates it and gets things back in to shape strange occurrences begin to happen. She befriends a local doctor played by David Warbeck and a young blind woman who lets her know all she can about what's going on. Eventually we find out that the hotel contains one of the seven gateways to hell and this is where things really start to go bad for the cast.

The Beyond contains some of Fulci’s most memorable set pieces and splatter scenes and once again prays on the fear of how the eyes are extremely vulnerable. The most memorable scenes for me are the spider-eating scene, where a man is eaten alive by ravenous tarantulas.  Another great scene occurs when Joe the plumber appears little by little in the bathtub as the dirty water drains away from it, and then rises as an eyeless zombie, all done with Fulci’s trademark low slung camera angles, used so effectively before in Zombie Flesh Eaters

But by far by favourite scene in the movie is the last, where a hospital is over run by the living dead and MacColl and Warbeck have to fight them off. All leading up to one of my favourite endings and anti climax’ of all time (which I’m not going to spoil for you). The Beyond is seen as Fulci’s masterpiece by most of his fans and being one myself I would have a hard time arguing that point. Fulci obviously take liberties with some of his ideas in The Beyond, borrowing from Argento in the style of haunting visuals with little story like his own 1980 movie Inferno. And the idea of a gate to hell in an apartment block had already been used in Michael Winners The Sentinel. But none of that really matters because its Fulci’s flair with gore and keen eye for atmospheric set pieces that sets this apart from being just another rip off.

This is a fine place to start if you want to get into the works of Fulci, and has just recently been re-released on the classic video nasty label Vipco (and  I believe It’s a fully uncut version).

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