The Beyond/ ...E Tu Vivrai nel Terrore! L'Aldilà/7 Doors of Hell (1981) - Fulci's ultimate vision of surreal horror

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A colorful, psychedelic poster for Lucio Fulci's The Beyond

 
A Louisiana hotel contains a portal to Hell. And when that portal opens ... shit gets ugly!

 
The Beyond is written by Dardano Sacchetti (Quella Villa in Fondo al Parco (1988)), Giorgio Mariuzzo (Aenigma (1987)) and co-writer/director Lucio Fulci (I Ladri (1959)), with inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft (He (1926, short story)) and Clark Ashton Smith (The Black Diamonds (1907)). It is the 2nd film in Fulci's Gates of Hell trilogy, coming after City of the Living Dead (1980) and before The House by the Cemetery (1981). The original title translates to, '... And you will live in terror! The afterlife'.

The Beyond contains: Copious uses of zoom shots; a funky/timely/confusing score by Fabio Frizzi (City of the Living Dead/Paura nella Città dei Morti Viventi (1980)), surrealistic imagery, locations and characters, (among others are Fulci as a bookseller); brutal animals (dogs and tarantulas attack); multiple eye-stabbing and falling scenes and incredibly lax zombies, (perhaps because Fulci only added them to satisfy the German financier/distributor.) The film is stylish and nightmarishly scary, with incredible images (cinematography by Sergio Salvati (Banzai (1997)) and fantastic special effects. The story is somewhat confusing, again perhaps because Fulci was not primarily interested in presenting a developing, traditional narrative.
SPOILER The no-mans-land surreal ending is really something. (And the behind-the-scenes story that the dead, pale corpses lying around are really Italian vagabonds paid in booze to lie there is just awesome film trivia.)
Late film critic icon Roger Ebert snorted at The Beyond and gave it only half a star, proving only that he never understood horror movies. The Beyond is a cult favorite if ever there was one.

 

Related posts:

Lucio Fulci: The House by the Cemetery/Quella Villa accanto al Cimitero (1981) - Underwhelming Fulci horror

City of the Living Dead/Paura Nella Città Dei Morti Viventi/The Gates of Hell (1980) - New England town turns to a gory hell in Fulci's slow shocker favorite 

 

 

Listen to Frizzi's amazing main theme from the film here

 

Cost: Reportedly 400k $
Box office: Uncertain - projected at at least 2.3 mil. $
= Uncertain - but probably a huge hit (projected return of 5.75 times its cost)

[The Beyond was released 29 April (Italy) and runs 87 minutes. Shooting reportedly took place on the basis of a 3-page outline instead of a traditional script, running from October - December 1980 in Louisiana, including in New Orleans, and in Rome, Italy. It grossed approximately 416k $ in Italy and was also released in a row of other markets, including Spain where it was reportedly especially successful. In North America, it was released in 1983 as 7 Doors of Hell, recut, shortening it by several minutes, and with a new score and faulty end credits. This still grossed 455k $ in its opening weekend and reportedly made the distributor a roughly 700k $ profit, which would mean a gross of  around 1.75 mil. $. Together, the film should have a gross of at least 2.3 mil. $ and possibly significantly more. In the UK it was released with an X rating and several cuts demanded by the BBFC, the censor organ who also later included it on their 'video nasties' list. - It was not released uncut in the UK until 2001. Roger Ebert gave it a ½/4 star review, translating to 4 notches under this one. Fulci returned with The House by the Cemetery/Quella Villa Accanto al Cimitero (1981). Catriona MacColl (Horsehead (2014)) returned in Noires Sont les Galaxies (1981, TV-series) and theatrically in The House by the Cemetery; David Warbeck (Craze (1974)) in Fuga dall'Arcipelago Maledetto (1982). The Beyond is fresh at 67 % with a 6.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Beyond?