The Beyond

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One of the finer installments in Lucio Fulci's works as for the good old controversy surrounding it firmly and intact, The Beyond is the cheesy '80s horror that is either quite easy to appreciate for the relentless, "You Seriously Think I Give A Dime With Two Lost Holes In It?" exploitation attitude it exhibits, or you simply take this flick for the massively sorrowful testament other enjoyers consider it to be: a Black Hole beacon where Fulci's movie language permanently compromises by, an unfortunate development fueled throughout a suspected urge of the director to satisfy the era's hunger for gore gravitated brainsplatter suffering. We are in 1980, one year after Zombie - Flesh Eaters on the chronological filmography, mind you I - though I still think we won't ever see a crappier Fulci or Zombie movie than the one we just mentioned.

The interesting thing is this: The Beyond might rely on but a massively limited tool set for storytelling considerations, yet I would not agree with the view that the piece delivers significantly less and/or noticeably weaker in this regard as similar outputs of the era do. In fact, some cautious parallels could or even should be drawn between this particular movie and The City of the Living Dead, also between The House by the Cemetery. These three installments have a loose yet noticeable interconnection between them, giving you some Hellgate-Fixation from Fulci's part that is similar to Dario Argento's Suspiria cycle with the sinister witches all around. Both buildups are weighting in as trilogies in the long run, though La Terza Madre to conclude the Suspiria saga certainly reformed my reality tunnel via the most improbable ways I dared, even better or worse: feared to anticipate.

Strangely 'nuff, the onion is even to oppose the statements of the Fulci Thing himself, who voiced his views about how he had no intention whatsoever to deliver plot - he wanted to deliver gorefest excellence, rampant, blatant. He managed to come up with an acceptable/accidental story buildup in the process nevertheless, do NOT listen to what he is saying in the related interviews. Yet bear witness to The Beyond, as this one has a definite charm to it, and boosts an end sequence that multiplies the effectiveness of the movie by a number of 666, at least.



- Dude, you ARE weary! Bring ya anything?
- Naaah, nah! I'm GOOD, thanks!

Assumptions are nice and easy: we have our causal protagonists personified by an average beauty of the '80s and a rather mediocre Clint Eastwood imitator. The girl inherited The Seven Gates Hotel, - marketing is a DEFINITE factor by the era - yet customers of the establishment have a tendency to not to check out after they started to spend their first night in their rented shelters. Probably will shock you considerably when I am to inform you that the establishment is silent-ancient beholder and relentless keeper-concealer of terrible, gruesome happenings and the most frightening secrets, Fulci even gives you a nice method to cautiously voice these warnings unto present day reality. A contemporary timeflow characterized by the rather fruity presence of the new owner and two highly traumatized, similarly ancient employees. You can't get rid of them: they came as extra, and extras are hardly options you can choose among or live without.

The best aspect of communicating highly sinister supernatural workings that are about to claim manifestation is delivered by a strong supportive character pair. A blind young lady and his guard dog is often to haunt the proprietor, delivering the classical warning messages about grave dangers that are imminent and must be avoided at all cost. By this time we already had the chance to witness oldschool prophorror committed against unsuspecting crash test dummies via acid and trademark Fulci violence, - that equals: you get a superclose zoom on every single wound the assaulted suffers - thus the warnings have both legit content and an inventive voicer to them, as well. The scene where the young blind lady firmly stands at the middle of the highway to voice her supercrucial messages is quite memorable, and it looks like this:



Fulci at least lives up to his statement when chooses not to elaborate way too much with and on further plot elements once some dead bodies were successfully produced. The Beyond massively utilizes dead bodies as fuel cells to sell out the program time, pair particularly inventive creative death sequences to the aforementioned trait and you have a pretty firm general idea of what this statement has to entertain you with. You could easily approach The Beyond as some hilarious horror video clip, - I mean like The Beyond would be the horror video clip, not you, but you are free to converge in case you see fit - in which a very easy plot reigns firmly, yet possesses no particular importance or aim to it than to interconnect the horrific attractions Fulci cooked up and you signed on for to taste.

Acting let alone dialogs are therefore so massively redundant and virtually irrelevant that you remain absolutely good to go with the basic assumption intact in your mind, fortunately though: Fulci does not subject you to all too many of the talkative air molestation either, instead he offers some subtle, yet rather elegant connotations to confidentially hint at Lovecraftian horror creation, and chooses to manifest peek moments via massively casual/methodical - I know, oxymoron, I will explain - visual terror. The Lovecraftian aspect is quite easy to spot and appreciate, thankfully for it's decent realization. A little, a minor thing, really, represented via the cellar system of the hotel, in which Many'O Walls do conceal Many'O Dark Secrets. And thus: many of walls will be foolishly assaulted and forced to give out secrets better off if never revealed.

Fulci's terror in The Beyond is casual, as he shows za groozzzomm ztuff as it would be as natural as grinding chocolate flakes to your massive ice cream balls - and it IS methodical, as he is immensely interested in every single microtrauma the affected skin tissue or organs do suffer.

Fulci's camera is STUCK to trauma.



This particular aspect is the most relevant The Beyond has to offer, not particularly for the enjoyment (?) it delivers, rather because it's trait of showing deconstruction in an absolutely shameless, cozy, senselessly detailed manner. It is truly at the verge of ending up hilarious - you could even say that it DOES step over the border. So if it does - what then? You truly couldn't possibly think that Fulci gives that mentioned dime of ours with the two lost holes in it, yes?

One easily gets under the impression that Fulci makes a fool out of his horror-craving viewer, literally overfeeding him with the much-longed-for input, depicted and served via unprecedented detail, also on a rather thorough timescale. In The Beyond's trademark death sequences you will spend several minutes watching exquisitely sweet, oldschool prop terror punishment, also, rather inventive ways to die we are talking about here. Unprecedented it was until the day it has been created, and I can not recall seeing anything similar, either. Visual terror itself gets exploited here while it's intaker inevitably gets affected via one way or another. Your options are clear: appreciate it's senseless visual stoicism - "bravery?" - and offer the thumbs up for Fulci, or be outraged by the sick atrocities - fact of the matter: either way, Fulci have won already.



- OK. Now EVERY Napoleons - two steps FORWARD, please!

In the long run there are some nice surprises offered via the creative death scenes depicted, the fate of the blind young lady is particularly inventive - at least would be, if Dario Argento would have had NOT deliver a very similar narrative punchline in his trademark effort Suspiria, years prior to Fulci's installment. But he did, and Fulci evidently copied him. Yet this act is so massively crystal clear this time around that it seems rather OK to account this moment as a tribute to Argento from Fulci's part, I think even he would agree with that.



- You should at least take a goddamn BATH!
- I Just DID!

Having no significant qualities as a legit effort as far as storytelling considerations, The Beyond would inevitably weight in as a stable routine horror for an era that had a high curiosity factor for stuff dead and having no clue. As we were hinting at it, Fulci's touch to imbue meritorious traits unto a mediocre narrative buildup resides in the ability and willingness to present the negotiation as a merely casual matter to interconnect the memorable scenes, those that are massively determined to offer death via rather surprising ways and depict related horror via a refined degree of passive, yet, paradoxically: hyperactive attention.

With it's extremely stoic, curious stance towards deconstruction not just shown but thoroughly exhibited and served, The Beyond remains an interesting station not just in Fulci's career, but represents a rare motion picture category in which the dialectic inspection process of trauma administered creates and offers a massively sterilized channel for the free, ultimate, pure interpretation of horror.



- ... and here me do keeps me Weird Tales collections!

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