Lucio Fulci's undead epics, with their over-the-top depictions of graphic violence, fall squarely into this splatter category, or so it seems, at first. Actually, there is a little something more going on: a demented, despairing metaphysical speculation.
The Beyond (1981)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 16
Fresh: 9
Rotten:7
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Runtime: 90 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis: A young woman from New York named Liza (Katherine MacColl) inherits a Louisiana motel that has been unoccupied for nearly 60 years. While restoring the old building, many of the workers meet... A young woman from New York named Liza (Katherine MacColl) inherits a Louisiana motel that has been unoccupied for nearly 60 years. While restoring the old building, many of the workers meet mysterious and untimely deaths, each more ill-fated than the next. Furthermore, Liza is visited by a blind specter named Emily (Sarah Keller) who lectures from a 4000-year-old book of collected prophecies that explains the motel is situated above one of seven portals to hell. As her sanity dwindles, Liza finds some much-needed stability in a local doctor named John McCabe (David Warbeck), who is determined to find a rational explanation for the recent state of affairs. Nevertheless, the protagonists are led through a maze of bizarre confrontations with beings beyond the realm of the living, and into an apocalyptic world of unknown horrors. THE BEYOND is at once the quintessential Lucio Fulci film and a staple in the overall Italian horror genre. The director's epic masterpiece is a blend of atmospheric surrealism and nightmarish visions (a grisly tarantula attack, flesh-melting acid spills, a softball-sized gun blast through the skull of a young zombified girl, and an eyeball impaling, or two) that are definitely unsuitable for those with weak stomachs. [More]
Starring: Katherine MacColl, David Warbeck, Sarah Keller, Veronica Lazar
Starring: Katherine MacColl, David Warbeck, Sarah Keller, Veronica Lazar, Antoine Saint-John
Director: Lucio Fulci
Director: Lucio Fulci
Screenwriter: Dardano Sacchetti, Lucio Fulci, Giorgio Mariuzzo
Producer: Fabrizio De Angelis
Composer: Fabio Frizzi
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Reviews for The Beyond
Atmosphere alone can’t keep this creaky pseudo-zombie flick from rapidly decaying into confusing, derivative tedium.
Even by Argento standards, Fulci's film is nonsensical to the point of distraction.
It's never clear what's happening, where the characters are running to, why corpses are hooked up to EKG machines and why "imaginary" characters are prone to the sufferings of the flesh.
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