I really enjoy Italian cinema and especially their b movies from the 80s, mostly for their entertainment and schock value, when i was searching and browsing movies like that i first time heard for legendary Italian director Lucio Fulci, the first move i have ever watched from Fulci was exploitation dystopian movie The New Gladiators from 1983, horrible but it was fun and starred genial Fred Williamson, it was few years ago. In recent time i started to watch more of Italian horror and zombie movies and i again got in touch with Fulci. City of the living dead was fantastic experience, gore, gritty, but very atmospheric and disturbing and great synth music, also then i have watched Zombie which is like Island of Dr. Moreau mixed with Zombies but it was really good zombie movie one of the best i have watched to date, and then i have watched The Beyond from 1981. It was most well known movie from Fulci and the most admired and talked movie from him, but i must say i was totally dissapointed. It wants to be intelligent and trippy and we can see that with Beyond Fulci wanted to copy Dario Argento style but he failed. There are some good concepts here like entrance to hell is beneath old hotel in New Orleans, and ancient spell book, but wee see this concepts also in the previous Fulci movie City of the Living Dead. The pace of the movies is slow very slow and the plot has a lot of holes and nosense. There is even more gore than in Zombie or City of the Living Dead and The Beyond looks like it was created just fore Gore value, but it doesnt schock me at all it just bores me. The music is also again synth based but somehow it sounds cheap this time, the acting is also not that good, we also have Catherine Mccall in the main role but she was more interesting in City of the Living Dead, David Warbeck was really okay and cool as doctor John, we also have known b movie italian actors in these one also like Al Cliver,Michele Mirabella and others. The Beyond wants to be supernatural psychological horror but in the end it is just another Zombie movie and not the good one, skip this one and better watch from Fulci City of the Living Dead. My grade 4.5/10.
Review of The Beyond
