The Beyond

In director Lucio Fulci's atmospheric 1981 horror classic, The Beyond, we are introduced to a realm replete with nightmare-fueled and grotesque imagery, where the boundaries of life and death are blurred. The movie stars Catriona MacColl as Liza Merril, David Warbeck as Dr. John McCabe, and Cinzia Monreale as Emily. The film was shot in Italy with Fulci at the helm and is a part of his unofficial "Gates of Hell" trilogy. Having established himself as one of the prominent figures in the Italian horror genre, Fulci brings his unique vision and unconventional approach to the narrative.

The Beyond opens with a chilling prologue in Louisiana, 1927. A mob of vigilantes kill a man named Schweick (Antoine Saint-John), whom they believe is a warlock and is supposedly opening one of the seven gates of Hell located in the basement of the Seven Doors Hotel. The film then fast-forwards to the 1980s, where Liza inherits this rundown hotel and decides to renovate it, in hopes of starting a new life.

As Liza embarks on the renovation project, she encounters several eerie and unexplainable incidents. Among these odd occurrences, she meets a blind woman named Emily (Cinzia Monreale), who discourages her from persisting with the restoration of the hotel. Emily, who claims to have some knowledge about the property and its dark past, warns Liza of ominous consequences should she continue her project, expressing fear that the work might unlatch the doorway to the underworld.

Liza also encounters Dr. John McCabe (David Warbeck), a local physician who becomes an ally to her cause, though his skepticism puts him at odds with Emily’s uncanny dire warnings. Events begin to take on a decidedly darker turn with accidents and mysterious deaths connected with the hotel. It quickly becomes apparent that there is more to the Seven Doors Hotel than what meets the eye. The audience will be taken on a gripping journey where reality is twisted, and an undercurrent of dread permeates the atmosphere, levitating the suspense to palpable levels.

Fulci's The Beyond is not a traditional horror film that relies on a coherent plot. Instead, it is an impressionistic masterpiece, a relentless phantasmagoric horror, meticulously designed to provoke discomfort and dread. It can be viewed as a piece of abstract art with loosely connected scenes of grisly imagery and macabre set-pieces that stimulate one's primal fears.

The narrative is intersected with moments of gruesome terror and supernatural encounters that Fulci captures with his uncanny ability to create a genuinely menacing atmosphere, pushing the boundaries of visual horror. The film's special effects team, led by Germano Natali, also plays an integral part in the final product. The bleak and lurid visuals, the grotesque physical effects, and the shocking gore might seem excessive to some, but they serve to augment the palpable anxiety and terror dripping from each frame.

Helping to further the impact of the chilling narrative and haunting imagery is a potent score courtesy of Fabio Frizzi. The overwhelming sense of dread and fear is amplified by the ethereal, synthesizer-heavy music, a critical atmospheric tool that skillfully underscores the movie's chilling moments. The acting ensemble, in particular Catriona MacColl and David Warbeck, also offer solid performances, effectively serving the narrative's chill-inducing requirement, without undermining the intended impact.

While The Beyond is not a movie for the faint-hearted, for ardent lovers of the horror genre and Fulci's followers, it's a commendable showcase of the late auteur's extreme aesthetic and cinematic vision. It explores fears of the unknown, the afterlife, death, and the supernatural, while presenting an overwhelmingly bleak depiction of mortality and an impending doom.

From the engaging opening sequence, through the shocking, grotesque moments to the evocatively eerie climax, The Beyond remains an emblematic work of 80s horror cinema, a visually stunning odyssey into a terrifying otherworldly dimension, an unforgettable journey to the darkest corners of fear.