• Home
• A-Z index
• RSS

The Beyond (1981)

Reviewed by Matt
Posted on August 17, 2005 
Filed Under Italian, Nasties, Zombies

Following the success of Zombie Flesh Eaters Italian director Lucio Fulci clearly didn’t believe in rocking the boat too much. The Beyond is another zombie splatter film, which again features innocent bystanders stumbling on an ancient and mysterious curse that causes the dead to come to life - this time in an old Louisiana hotel, neatly merging zombie carnage with rather more atmospheric haunted house overtones. Cue lots of breathless running around, gore and rather unconvincing dubbing.

Okay, so maybe one doesn’t watch a Fulci film for its artistry, but his directorial style, whilst a essentially a refinement of what he was doing in Zombie Flesh Eaters, has come along in leaps and bounds, and is at times quite beautiful. Whilst the earlier film was ragged but with some brilliant composition and reveals, here he pulls out all the stops, with focus zooms, unusual angles and extreme close-ups which add up to give The Beyond an almost dreamlike ambience. In particular, a scene with a little girl being menaced by some red ooze in a hospital morgue is masterful, and the sepia tinged opening sets up the action well. Surprisingly, the acting isn’t half bad either, and whilst the redubbing of some of the lesser characters’ dialogue is a little stilted and odd-looking, Katherine McColl as Liza is a great lead who more than compensates. Only Sarah Keller lets the side down by over-egging her performance as the blind Emily; her excessive enunciation exposes how ropey the whole mystical Book of Eibon aspect of the story is.

In fact, the only thing that hinders The Beyond is the sloppy script, which is incredibly careless in its introduction and disposal of the various characters. Martha’s death would have significantly more impact if we knew who she was or why she was so suspicious of the hotel’s basement, and a number of other characters are set up with no real resolution - who is the mad guy living in the hotel? Why does the bookseller laugh so much? And what’s with the blindness? These are too clumsily handled to be effective red herrings, and end up making the plot more confusing than enigmatic.

In any case, there’s plenty of gore to stop you feeling short-changed. In particular, Fulci seems to have a thing about eyes; the stake in the eye was Zombie Flesh Eaters’ most notorious “yuk” moment, and here we have eyes being poked out, squished and eaten left, right and centre. An attack by some hungry tarantulas is particularly effective, compensating for some rather limp zombie scenes around the middle of the film that lack any real menace. The final showdown is great, making me think I’d like to see more zombie movies set in hospitals (suggestions below please). Fabio Frizzi’s music is brilliant, if a little more melodious than his previous work, and really adds to the atmosphere. It’s just that script that stops it being a classic; ultimately, The Beyond is a good movie, but could have been so much more.

Comments