SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Michael A. Martinez This is a tough film to review.I remember back in 1996 going on the hunt for this movie after hearing about it through various horror/zombie/gore websites on the early days of the internet. Back then, simply finding this movie was a revelation and to see that it was actually professionally made was the frosting on the cake, as most underground horror movies (think FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, etc.) tended to be amateur efforts. This film did not disappoint albeit with many misgivings.After a few decades and many rewatches and re-evaluations, I have to say it's not the easiest movie to watch. Pacing-wise it has the nasty habit of speeding up and slowing down repeatedly, as though the writers and director just didn't really care about things in between the gore set-pieces. As a result, I didn't care much either as most of the dialog couldn't be more banal and the characters more hollow. Both stars Warbeck and MacColl do their best with their lines, but their characters literally come from nowhere. There's even dialog suggesting that one or more of the side-characters may be imaginary. Okay, so if Arthur, Martha, etc. are all imaginary or purgatory souls, etc. why can't the main characters also be imaginary and why don't they act more consistently off-kilter? Is this all some dream? Why care about any of this? A few scenes fleshing out the relationships & motivations would have helped enormously.The scenes involving the blind woman who may or may not be there to help could have been creepy and added some tension, but instead she's the most dull character in Italian horror history, serving up nothing but confusing exposition. Also even though some characters are supposedly not real, they still have the habit of dying horrible, extended deaths.Then come the zombies! Oooh boy does this film take forever to get there. They're not the usual gut-munching variety but seem to shamble around slowly looking for people to grab onto and murder with whatever sharp thing is nearby. It turns out they're just as easy to kill as the zombies in any George Romero movie with a shot to the head, but even the well-armed individuals in this film frequently forget to aim for the brain. I know body-squibs are a lot easier than head-squibs, but good grief it's irritating when characters act like total idiots.I've heard of this film described as the triumph of style over content. Fabio Frizzi's score is certainly celebratory and bombastic (including a chorus), but maybe something lower key in a Tangerine Dream/Jay Chattaway variety would have worked better to keep the pace up. THE BEYOND demonstrates excellent cinematography, editing, and direction similar to Fulci's other films from the time. However I can't really forgive how much of a dull mess the experience of watching this film can be without frequent use of the FF button. It's frustrating in that between this, ZOMBIE, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, and HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, there's a high-water-mark of the 80's zombie horror masterpiece somewhere in there if you pluck out elements and trim the fat. It's all over 6 hours of movie with only 80 minutes of it any good.

Shawn Watson Exactly why Lucio Fulci is regarded as a master of horror is BEYOND my understanding. This is a shockingly amateurish, nonsensical, plodding bore of a movie with no point to make. It feels like a collection of disconnected scenes written by a five-year-old. Though I am sure that a kid could write better dialogue.It begins promisingly with a 1927 prologue in sepia-tone, it has atmosphere and suspense. After that we cut to 1981 and everything falls apart. A woman inherits a hotel where BAD THINGS HAPPEN....OOOOOOHHHHH!!!!!Like Damien: Omen II the bulk of the movie follows this pattern. Some dude has discovered a hidden evil...oh, he's dead. Now she's found the secret crap...oh, she's dead. Now this third person has found the...oh, they're dead. Utter, complete, disjointed, meaningless, total effing garbage. The people involved in making this movie had no talent or ability and it blows my mind that it is even remotely considered a cult film. It's not even entertaining accidentally. Even at a mere 87 minutes it feels long and empty. Many, many scenes could have been trimmed to half the length as there is frequently nothing happening. But they wouldn't have a marketable movie if it lasted for only 44 minutes so be prepared to sit through LOTS of pa-aa-ad-ding.For a movie about a gateway to hell I guess I should give it some credit for making me feel like I had actually went to hell for an hour and a half.

bbickley13-921-58664 It's the type of horror that makes a midnight screening audience laugh out loud as we watched some brilliantly bad English dubbing. A young woman, runs from evil to the sound of a kick ass Italian rock band, and an Italian filmmakers strange love of eye popping terror (literally eye popping). Demons, ghost and zombies all in the same movie in the back drop of New Orleans. A woman inherits a house in the city that just so happens to be one of the seven gateways to hell, bummer. The plot is a hot mess after that is explained, than the movie becomes a series of kills after kills and the lady being lorded around the house looking for an answer that did not really exist.The death scenes are archetype giallo, very slow with scenes cutting back and forth from the victim to the weapon and then very Gory.But I've seen other movies like Suspiria or zombie that have done this a lot better and less cheesy But at this point , that is the fun of the movieNote worthy 12'O clocker

TheRedDeath30 I go to a lot of horror conventions and I frequent a lot of horror message boards. I find in my conversations there that most horror geeks go through a typical exploration. You start with the big budget Hollywood horror that was readily available and as your tastes grow more, you start delving deeper into the horror underground. Inevitably, for most horror fans you exhaust the domestic classics and start digging into the foreign films, which brings us to Italian horror and, more specifically, Lucio Fulci.Let's just establish quickly that his films are either going to be appreciated or hated and there is little middle ground. I will admit that it took me a few runs through Italian horror films until I started to "get it" more and appreciate them. Accept right off the bat that you are throwing plot and logic out the window to appreciate imagery. Fulci believed strongly that the best horror should elicit a strong response in the audience and spur them to a feeling or action. It did not have to be a "good story". If you can't get past the fact that the movie doesn't always make good sense, then don't bother. I'm not going to tell you you're wrong because it's perfectly logical to want a good plot in a movie. On the other hand, art doesn't always have to make sense. The art of Jackson Pollock doesn't portray life in the same way as a Reubens portrait might, but that doesn't mean they aren't both valid art.So, with the caveats out of the way, let's talk about the movie. To me, ZOMBIE will always be Fulci's masterpiece and is in my top 50 horror films. This movie is easily his next best. The story revolves around a hotel built on one of the gates to hell, which naturally causes some strange occurrences on the grounds. It's hard to give you more plot than that because...well..there isn't much more. What the movie can provide, though, is good atmosphere and some awesome visual effects.The tone of the movie is consistently creepy. Originally intended to be a haunted house flick, but altered some to make the producers happy, the movie still adheres well to the haunted house feel. From the beginning scenes, there is something unsettling about the house and the events going on and Fulci plays this well by injecting a surreal feeling into things so that it truly feels like a nightmare.The deaths are what you're paying admission for, though. There are some great visual effects here. Gallons of spurting blood, ripping flesh, melting faces, spiders tearing chunks off people. For gorehounds there is a lot of fun to be had here and that's what draws me into this movie the most.Fulci's movies always walk a thin line between surreal and ridiculous. The first time I encountered this movie I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it, but as I've seen it a few more times I've really grown an appreciation for the movie. Set aside your preconceived notions about plot (who needs it) and just enjoy the ride for what it is, a bloody, disgusting, thrill.