| “The seven dreaded gateways to hell are concealed in seven cursed places... And on the day the gates of hell are opened, the dead will walk the earth!” |
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Beyond, The
DVD/APPROX. 89 MINS/1981/ITALY UNRATED
DVD/APPROX. 89 MINS/1981/ITALY UNRATED
10
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In 1979 an Italian filmmaker named Lucio Fulci made one of the most shocking, vilest and gruesome zombie movies of all time, this movie was
called Zombi (released in Australia and the United Kingdom as Zombie Flesh Eaters) and gorehounds straight away crowned this amazing
filmmaker as the “Godfather of Gore”.
Sadly Fulci did not do too much research with the title of his film as the American filmmaker George A. Romero had released his movie Dawn of the
Dead (1978) in Italy under the title Zombi just one year earlier. This ended up causing a bit of a title turf war between these two talented
filmmakers, which Romero ended up winning in court and leaving Fulci to retitle his movie to the title we all know as Zombi 2, just so people
wouldn’t get confused with both movies. Strangely three years later Fulci released another jaw dropping zombie movie called The Beyond which
surprisingly at first was released under another title called “Seven Doors of Death” and weirdly he happened to use a false director’s name Louis
Fuller upon its release. I guess Fulci (or should I say Louis!!!) didn’t learn his lesson the first time as he once again stole the title from another
American movie which was directed by Elmer Clifton who happened to have already released Seven Doors of Death back in 1944. Once again it
wasn’t long until he had to change the title to something else which in the end he chose The Beyond and released it in its true uncut form; but
some of you might not know that Fulci had in mind to create a zombie trilogy called The Seven Gates where The Gates of Hell (1980 - aka. The
City of the Living Dead) was the beginning as The Beyond was somewhat part 2 and to finish up with The Beyond 2 to complete the trilogy.
Clearly The Gates of Hell wasn’t anywhere as good as The Beyond and unfortunately Fulci just ended up losing interest in this idea which resulted
in the trilogy never being completed.
The Beyond starts off in a small village town of Louisiana in 1927, as a group of angry villagers charge their way into an old hotel, heading straight
up stairs to room 36 with metal chains and opened flamed torches, they bust open the door and drag a young talented artist named Schweick
(Antoine Saint-John) down into the hotels cellar for a good old sadistic torture where they whip him with chains with metal hooks on the end of
them, then crucify him to the brick wall and begin splashing acid onto his face. At that time a young woman named Emily (Cinzia Monreale) is
reading a book called Eibon, which explains that the old hotel was in-fact built on one of the seven doors to the gateway to hell.
Now we skip to the year 1980 and Liza (Catriona MacColl) has just inherited the hotel from a relative and decides to renovate the building in hopes
of turning it into a bed and breakfast. It is not long after when the handymen who are fixing up the hotel begin to witness strange events. A
painter who was painting the outside of the hotel falls off the scaffolding after seeing a woman with hazy white eyes, as Dr. John McCabe (David
Warbeck) is quickly called out to attend the injured man before taking him to the hospital. Next we have Joe (Giovanni De Nava) the plumber who
is sent down into the flooded basement to stop the water pipes from leaking, only to be eye gouged to death by a zombie from the pits of hell!
Liza soon meets a blind woman named Emily (Cinzia Monreale) and her faithful German Sheppard on her way into New Orleans as she is standing
in the middle of a long bridge that runs 25 miles over a swamp. Liza drives Emily back to her home where Emily invites Liza into her house, as they
get to know each other Emily warns her to leave the hotel, and go back to where she came from. Not yet to know, that back at the hotel Joe’s
body is taken to the hospital’s morgue where his wife and daughter can pay their last respects.
Liza soon finds herself surrounded by supernatural forces that begin playing with her mind as she finds a corpse nailed to the wall in room 36 one
stormy night. As she sits down and begins to explain what is happening to Dr. McCabe he seems to think that she is under too much stress and
that she feels responsible for the deaths of both handymen who have been working on her hotel. Things start to get out of control as Liza and
McCabe flee the hotel for the safety of their own lives, only to find the streets of New Orleans and the nearby hospital completely abandoned.
While they search the corridors and rooms of the hospital for help, they soon find the dead are slowly coming back to life and hungry for human
flesh.
A few years ago I tried to purchase this movie when Anchor Bay Entertainment released it, at that time it was the alpha release to buy. Well that’s
until now, Grindhouse Releasing has finally re-released a superior masterpiece edition of The Beyond which is completely uncut, restored and
jammed packed with tonnes of extras that will make you want to whip it out and rub one out, just for the hell of it. Just like all their previous
releases, Grindhouse Releasing honestly knows how to look after us when it comes to artwork, presentation, picture quality, sound and extras.
With this little gem you will for hours on end listen to the audio commentary with actors Catriona MacColl and David Warbeck, be blown away with
the sharp hi-definition digital anamorphic widescreen transfer and the crisp 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound. Not to mention you have interviews
with all the cast and crew in a segment called “Voice from Beyond: Memories of Lucio Fulci” which runs for a solid 24 minutes, plus a handful of
different trailers from all over the world. Hell that’s not even the tip of the ice berg.
I don’t think I really have to tell you anything about the gore factor, do I? But for those of you who haven’t seen this movie you are in for one hell
of a treat my friends, as this movie is off the fucking charts. There is a reason why Fulci was crowned “The Godfather of Gore” and after you watch
Grindhouse Releasing of The Beyond you are going to know exactly why Fulci earned that title. Prepare yourselves my fellow gorehounds for your
daily feast of blood, guts and gore as once again Fulci knocks the ball right out of the park with scenes that contain eye gouging, acid melting
death scenes, hairy tarantulas chewing on eyeballs and lips, throat tearing, whipping gashes and so much more….. You won’t be disappointed that’
s for damn sure.
If you happen to already own The Beyond on DVD, well that’s ok, though you would probably have noticed the picture quality isn’t too great on
your new plasma television or the sound isn’t really 5.1 on home theatre set up, this is probably the best reason for you to own a second copy.
You know in the back of your mind you want to get this DVD, and trust me, you will end up pawning off your old Anchor Bay DVD on E-bay just
minutes after you pop this baby into your DVD player. Fulci fans, Grindhouse Releasing fans and gorehounds don’t wait any longer; buy now before
stocks run out.
called Zombi (released in Australia and the United Kingdom as Zombie Flesh Eaters) and gorehounds straight away crowned this amazing
filmmaker as the “Godfather of Gore”.
Sadly Fulci did not do too much research with the title of his film as the American filmmaker George A. Romero had released his movie Dawn of the
Dead (1978) in Italy under the title Zombi just one year earlier. This ended up causing a bit of a title turf war between these two talented
filmmakers, which Romero ended up winning in court and leaving Fulci to retitle his movie to the title we all know as Zombi 2, just so people
wouldn’t get confused with both movies. Strangely three years later Fulci released another jaw dropping zombie movie called The Beyond which
surprisingly at first was released under another title called “Seven Doors of Death” and weirdly he happened to use a false director’s name Louis
Fuller upon its release. I guess Fulci (or should I say Louis!!!) didn’t learn his lesson the first time as he once again stole the title from another
American movie which was directed by Elmer Clifton who happened to have already released Seven Doors of Death back in 1944. Once again it
wasn’t long until he had to change the title to something else which in the end he chose The Beyond and released it in its true uncut form; but
some of you might not know that Fulci had in mind to create a zombie trilogy called The Seven Gates where The Gates of Hell (1980 - aka. The
City of the Living Dead) was the beginning as The Beyond was somewhat part 2 and to finish up with The Beyond 2 to complete the trilogy.
Clearly The Gates of Hell wasn’t anywhere as good as The Beyond and unfortunately Fulci just ended up losing interest in this idea which resulted
in the trilogy never being completed.
The Beyond starts off in a small village town of Louisiana in 1927, as a group of angry villagers charge their way into an old hotel, heading straight
up stairs to room 36 with metal chains and opened flamed torches, they bust open the door and drag a young talented artist named Schweick
(Antoine Saint-John) down into the hotels cellar for a good old sadistic torture where they whip him with chains with metal hooks on the end of
them, then crucify him to the brick wall and begin splashing acid onto his face. At that time a young woman named Emily (Cinzia Monreale) is
reading a book called Eibon, which explains that the old hotel was in-fact built on one of the seven doors to the gateway to hell.
Now we skip to the year 1980 and Liza (Catriona MacColl) has just inherited the hotel from a relative and decides to renovate the building in hopes
of turning it into a bed and breakfast. It is not long after when the handymen who are fixing up the hotel begin to witness strange events. A
painter who was painting the outside of the hotel falls off the scaffolding after seeing a woman with hazy white eyes, as Dr. John McCabe (David
Warbeck) is quickly called out to attend the injured man before taking him to the hospital. Next we have Joe (Giovanni De Nava) the plumber who
is sent down into the flooded basement to stop the water pipes from leaking, only to be eye gouged to death by a zombie from the pits of hell!
Liza soon meets a blind woman named Emily (Cinzia Monreale) and her faithful German Sheppard on her way into New Orleans as she is standing
in the middle of a long bridge that runs 25 miles over a swamp. Liza drives Emily back to her home where Emily invites Liza into her house, as they
get to know each other Emily warns her to leave the hotel, and go back to where she came from. Not yet to know, that back at the hotel Joe’s
body is taken to the hospital’s morgue where his wife and daughter can pay their last respects.
Liza soon finds herself surrounded by supernatural forces that begin playing with her mind as she finds a corpse nailed to the wall in room 36 one
stormy night. As she sits down and begins to explain what is happening to Dr. McCabe he seems to think that she is under too much stress and
that she feels responsible for the deaths of both handymen who have been working on her hotel. Things start to get out of control as Liza and
McCabe flee the hotel for the safety of their own lives, only to find the streets of New Orleans and the nearby hospital completely abandoned.
While they search the corridors and rooms of the hospital for help, they soon find the dead are slowly coming back to life and hungry for human
flesh.
A few years ago I tried to purchase this movie when Anchor Bay Entertainment released it, at that time it was the alpha release to buy. Well that’s
until now, Grindhouse Releasing has finally re-released a superior masterpiece edition of The Beyond which is completely uncut, restored and
jammed packed with tonnes of extras that will make you want to whip it out and rub one out, just for the hell of it. Just like all their previous
releases, Grindhouse Releasing honestly knows how to look after us when it comes to artwork, presentation, picture quality, sound and extras.
With this little gem you will for hours on end listen to the audio commentary with actors Catriona MacColl and David Warbeck, be blown away with
the sharp hi-definition digital anamorphic widescreen transfer and the crisp 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound. Not to mention you have interviews
with all the cast and crew in a segment called “Voice from Beyond: Memories of Lucio Fulci” which runs for a solid 24 minutes, plus a handful of
different trailers from all over the world. Hell that’s not even the tip of the ice berg.
I don’t think I really have to tell you anything about the gore factor, do I? But for those of you who haven’t seen this movie you are in for one hell
of a treat my friends, as this movie is off the fucking charts. There is a reason why Fulci was crowned “The Godfather of Gore” and after you watch
Grindhouse Releasing of The Beyond you are going to know exactly why Fulci earned that title. Prepare yourselves my fellow gorehounds for your
daily feast of blood, guts and gore as once again Fulci knocks the ball right out of the park with scenes that contain eye gouging, acid melting
death scenes, hairy tarantulas chewing on eyeballs and lips, throat tearing, whipping gashes and so much more….. You won’t be disappointed that’
s for damn sure.
If you happen to already own The Beyond on DVD, well that’s ok, though you would probably have noticed the picture quality isn’t too great on
your new plasma television or the sound isn’t really 5.1 on home theatre set up, this is probably the best reason for you to own a second copy.
You know in the back of your mind you want to get this DVD, and trust me, you will end up pawning off your old Anchor Bay DVD on E-bay just
minutes after you pop this baby into your DVD player. Fulci fans, Grindhouse Releasing fans and gorehounds don’t wait any longer; buy now before
stocks run out.
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