Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

Firstly let me say that this film is supposed to be a horror film. Myself and my extended family( 5 adults and no kids (PS this film is not for children)) and I sat down to watch it recently and we knew what to expect from the beginning...ie- 1)no real plot, 2)bad acting, 3)bad dubbing, 4)over the top ridiculously fake gore and 5) a Fulci movie that would be so bad it would be comical. I mean what an opportune time to watch this film... we started laughing hysterically when the doctor was introduced...his character name...John McCaine. John McCaine kept us laghing throughout the film... I mean I remember the main female character running into a hospital with McCaine, she is hysterical because of all the zombies and McCaine raises his hand infront of her face to tell her "It's OK, I'm a doctor".....oh well that makes everything alright then I guess...lol. McCaines magical revolver is also amusing... firstly for those of you who do not know about guns, a standard 1980's revolver would hold either 4 or 6 bullets depending on the caliber of the weapon. Judging the size of the weapon McCaine uses in the hospital scenes it is a standard 6 shot revolver... McCaine upon first using the weapon is able to fire 9...count em 9 shots from the 6 shot revolver before its empty. He then retreats into a hospital room, and upon the zombies breaking in and may I add without reloading the gun, he is able to fire 9 more shots at the zombies before the gun is empty again. After this Mcaine and his girl retreat into an elevator and he states that he has to reload the gun...... we were laughing to the point of tears when Mcaine is briefly viewed reloading the gun by putting 1 bullet down the barrel....... this movie was just as ridiculous as the above described scene throughout...... we gave it a 5 star review because we have never laughed so hard in a long time.

I already reviewed The Beyond so if you wanna see my thoughts on the film itself just go through my reviews until you find it. This review is mainly for the DVD.

Many people hail Lucio Fulci's The Beyond his masterpiece though I would have to disagree with that and go with Don't Torture a Duckling, but The Beyond was a solid flick in the career of Lucio Fulci, which is best remembered for the crazy amount of gore, which believe me this film has plenty of. While I did enjoy The Beyond as I've gone back and watched some of Lucio Fulci's movies from the 70s I've sort of lost patience with his splatter flicks. While I still enjoy The Beyond and some of his other movies from the splatter era, but when compared to such movies as Don't Torture a Duckling, The Psychic and even Zombie his later work fails a bit in my opinion. But with that said The Beyond is still a solid movie by Fulci.

The new DVD released by Grindhouse Releasing is the same released a few years ago by Anchor Bay. Anchor Bay released two versions on DVD. They released a standard DVD with very little in the way of extras and they released a limited edition tin chock full of extra features. Grindhouse Releasing has re-released the limited edition tin (without the tin case) and normally I would give a negative review due to it being the same exact disc. But the reason I'm giving this DVD release such praise for one reason; the Limited Edition is now long out of print (same for the standard DVD).

Getting yourself a copy of The Beyond isn't easy to do that goes for both the Tin and standard DVD and if you are lucky enough to come across either you'll have to shell out a lot of money. While it would be nice if The Beyond had some new extras it's really not a very big deal since the DVD is very hard to come by now. For those of you out there that have the Limited Edition Tin there is no reason to buy the new DVD as long as the DVD you own is in good condition. All you are getting here is new cover art and that's it; for those with the regular DVD if you liked the movie a lot than I would recommend buying the new disc.

Some features include Images of The Beyond, which is a collection of stills from the movie as well as stills from the making of the movie, the score plays over the photos. There are also brief interviews with David Warbeck, Catriona MacColl and Lucio Fulci. Than we have Voices of the Beyond, which features interviews with several members of the cast and crew.

Voices of the Beyond is highly enjoyable, but truth is you won't learn anything new on Lucio Fulci. This seems to have been done at a horror convention and sections of this also appear on the Media-Blasters DVD for Zombi 2 (though they the interviews are different, but in both they pretty much say the same thing about Fulci). I suppose those who know nothing of Lucio Fulci will enjoy this more, but even we fans who already know about him will still find this enjoyable even if again nothing new is learned. There is also an audio commentary by David Warbeck and Catriona MacColl, which was on both Anchor Bay DVDs, but anyways, the commentary track is one of the very best out there. You learn a lot about the film and it's actually quite funny at times.

The DVD list an onset interview with Lucio Fulci, but the interview is actually from the set of Demonia. We also get the lost German pre-credit sequence, which can also be viewed in English. All the extras on the DVD are excellent and a must have for fans. The only new feature is a brief introduction before the movie with star Catriona MacColl.

As for the picture and sound I believe it's the same as the Anchor Bay release. I previously owned the Anchor Bay VHS so I cannot compare the Grindhouse DVD to the Anchor Bay DVD, but I do believe it's the same exact transfer. Overall this is an excellent DVD and once again Grindhouse Releasing proves why they are the very best for horror films. The Beyond DVD is a must own for all fans, but like I said if you have the Tin and it's in good condition there's no reason to buy this. Despite the Grindhouse Releasing being the same I'll cut them some slack since the DVD from Anchor Bay was very tough to come by these days.