The Beyond (1981)

- E tu vivrai nel terrore - L'aldilà
"Woe be unto him who opens one of the seven gateways to Hell, because through that gateway, evil will invade the world.", 1 May 2005

Liza Merril (Catriona MacColl) takes possession of a hotel in Louisiana. She has plans to renovate the place. But a series of seemingly accidental deaths may put a stop to her plans. She's unaware that her hotel has a past. Many years ago, a warlock was lynched in the basement of the hotel. Before dying, he claimed that the hotel was one of the seven doorways to hell and that his death would lead to its opening. Is his prophecy coming true?

I've never been the biggest fan of Lucio Fulci. Other than a couple of gialli, my experiences with his films have not left me with much of desire to see more (For example, I thought House by the Cemetery was terrible and I walked out of the theater during City of the Living Dead). So, I had never been in a rush to see The Beyond. While it has problems, The Beyond is much more enjoyable than a lot of Fulci's other work.

Two things work for me in The Beyond - atmosphere and Catriona MacColl. When watching some of his other films, I came away with the impression that Fulci wasn't patient enough to allow atmosphere to build. He always seemed to be in a rush to get to the money shot. The hotel in this movie is filled with a good amount of atmosphere. There is a sense of dread hanging over the place. You can especially feel it when the characters venture into the basement. It's all but palatable.

As for MacColl, through her acting she's able to pull together the barest of story lines and create a character I could care about. It's difficult to enjoy a horror movie when you don't care about the characters. A little more insight into the MacColl's character would have been very welcome.

As I stated previously, the movie is not without problems. The biggest is the plot. It's all but non-existent. The actual why's and how's of the doorway to hell opening are never really explored. We only see some of the aftermath. We know that the doorway to hell is in the basement of the hotel, then why does half of the movie take place at a hospital? Furthermore, the weak plot does not allow the characters to be fleshed out as much as I would have liked. I knew so little about most of the characters that I really didn't care what happened to them. The plot seems to matter little to Fulci as its main function is to string together a series of gristly set pieces. And that's always been my biggest complaint about Fulci - he throws tons of gore into his movies, not to advance the storyline, but for the sake of showing gore. Gore does not necessarily equal horror. I'll use the spider attack scene from The Beyond as an example. While I'll say that it certainly was gross and very nicely done,but it's not scary because it happens out of the blue to a character I know nothing about. Gore does not bother as long as it is presented within the context of the story.

Overall, my experience with The Beyond has made me rethink some of my thoughts of Fulci. I may need to see some of his other films that I've been putting off.

7/10