Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

Every single lucio fulci film has been re-issued but this,anchor bay blue-underground please re-issue this classic fulci film with tons of extras im tired of waiting.great film very creepy.

When it comes to Lucio Fulci I always say either you'll love him or you'll hate him. Fulci's style isn't for everyone; some will hail him as a master of horror and others as a no talent hack who can only deliver on the gore. I do understand both sides of the argument; Fulci's splatter era while fun films were often very incoherent, which does at times bring the product down.

I'm a pretty big fan of Lucio Fulci, but people often forget he was a filmmaker who can actually tell a story that makes sense and that is very suspenseful without the over the top gore his later films would feature. Seven Notes in Black AKA The Psychic and Don't Torture a Duckling are prime examples of his talents as a filmmaker that I urge even people who have disliked his work to search for. The Beyond is hailed by many as his masterpiece, but I still go with Don't Torture a Duckling.

As I've gone back and searched for Fulci's early to mid 70s work I have found myself starting to lose patience with his splatter era. Movies I once loved I now think are alright and I say to myself what happened to this filmmaker who did such amazing work? The Beyond does suffer from the typical 80s Fulci problem. The plot is very incoherent and nothing ever is really explained thus making it for me a little frustrating.

If you want gore though you will very much find it here. Giannetto De Rossi did the gore F/X and this just might be his very best work of his amazing career. You have eyes being ripped out, a face melted by acid, tongues ripped out, ears ripped off a throat ripping that features a fountain of blood and gun blast to the head, which leads the head being blown to pieces. This is where the reputation of The Beyond stems from; this just might be Fulci's goriest and the F/X are just as good as any out there and are a million times better than any CGI.

But the fact so little is explained plot wise does for me take away from the film. The screenplay written by Dardano Sacchetti, Giorgio Mariuzzo & Lucio Fulci isn't very good. This might be a low budget 80s horror flick, but still not a logical excuse. While the plot is interesting nothing is ever really explained. The characters are quite stupid, some more than others and while there is a hint of a plot had things been better explained it easily would have made up for any flaws.

As director Lucio Fulci does put together some nice scenes of suspense and his gore shots are wonderful. Fulci's most popular run is from 79-82 and while this is one of his stronger outings from that era I wouldn't rate it as one of the best. While The House by the Cemetery might be just as incoherent that one has an eerie feel that I felt was lacking at times here. That's not to say there isn't any suspense and or tension, there's plenty of that, but I just felt it was lacking at times.

The late David Warbeck played Dr. John McCabe and has to be one of the dumbest characters I've seen. And when I say dumb, I don't mean in a fun way. He shoots the zombies in the body than finally does a headshot, which kills the zombies. The next few are headshots than for whatever reason he begins to shoot them in the body than the head. That was just damn annoying.

Warbeck though does a solid job despite playing a rather idiotic character. The rest of the cast is also good; one time Fulci regular Katherine MacColl stars along with Antoine Saint-John, Cinzia Monreale (under the name Sarah Keller) and Fulci regular Al Cliver.

The Beyond despite all the flaws does make for a fun time. The pacing is pretty good so you'll never be bored and the gore is simply amazing. This one is insanely gory. Like I said I do enjoy The Beyond and I do very much enjoy Fulci's splatter flicks, but after watching some of his earlier work and seeing what a terrific filmmaker he was (not to say he wasn't in the 80s), but after seeing how he can tell a coherent story that was well written my patience aren't what they once were with his splatter era. But again despite any flaws The Beyond remains one his stronger efforts and makes for a great double feature with City of the Living Dead as both deal with the gates of hell.