From Beyond (1986)

Sometimes as a reviewer it’s difficult to isolate and review a movie without unconsciously including some extra baggage into the review.  Case in point:  The first time I watched Calvaire.  When I first watched Calvaire I watched it after a particularly terrible day at work.  It was one of those days where nothing went right and ya just wanted to crawl into a corner in the fetal position and wish you could disappear.  As a result I absolutely hated it.  I found it tedious, pretentious, and a waste of time.  At an urging of a friend to “give it another chance” I reluctantly gave in and re-watched it.  The second viewing found me in a more neutral mood where nothing good or bad happened that day, and I found that I really loved it.  Calvaire went straight to my “Best of the Decade” list and stayed there.

With From Beyond I find myself in a similar situation of not being able to completely unpack all the baggage I have associated with it.  I remember having a sleepover when I was 16 years old and my buddies and I planned an all-night horror movie marathon.  We included such classics as Fulci’s City of the Living Dead, Lenzi’s Cannibal Ferox (although back then it was released as Make Them Die Slowly with the words, “Banned in 31 Countries” splayed across the cover), Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, Kaufman’s Class of Nuke ‘Em High, and Gordon’s From Beyond.  I’d seen most of these already (I was way more “educated” than my friends who had much stricter parents), but it was From Beyond that I hadn’t yet seen.  The owner of the Ma & Pa corner video rental store (there were no huge sole-sucking Blockbusters in existence yet) told me I definitely needed to see that one.  That was all it took; she hadn’t steered me wrong yet (I, in fact, owe her a huge debt of gratitude for helping me see all the “classics”).

So all those movies we watched that night are infused with a very warm feeling of male bonding, sneaking our first beers from dad’s stash, trying to find dad’s porn mags, and being scared shitless.  But out of all of them From Beyond stands out.  We watched that one last; it was about 3 or 4am and only myself and two others were still awake.  I was mesmerized by what I was seeing unfold on the screen.  The same team who gave us Re-Animator the year before again hit oil.  They proved that lightening can indeed strike twice.  I write this long introduction for you, the reader, as a “full disclosure”:  From Beyond is an incredible movie but this review is also coming from a place inside me that creates a warm glow of nostalgia from my childhood whenever I think of it.

All that being said; From Beyond is without a doubt one of the best genre flicks of the 1980’s or of any decade.  It’s another twisted tale from H.P. Lovecraft adapted and tweeked somewhat by Stuart Gordon, Brian Yuzna, and Denis Paoli.  (On a side note Gordon and Yuzna, two of horrors greatest minds, went on to write 1989’s Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and Paoli’s writing credits include such genre favorites as Re-Animator, Castle Freak, Dagon, and The Dentist).  From Beyond also brought back the talents of Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton and brilliantly added Ken Foree, who was “Peter” in Romero’s classic Dawn of the Dead.  But just having good actors doesn’t guarantee a great movie, right?  Absolutely not.  But here the chemistry between the actors and the filmmakers can be seen and felt in every scene.

The story:  Dr. Edward Pretorius, played by Ted Sorel (who also starred in Basket Case 2), and his assistant Crawford Tillinghast (LOVE that name), played by Combs, are experimenting in an isolated house.  Pretorius has built a resonator to stimulate the pineal gland, which he believes was the seat of a dormant 6^th sense.  His experiments worked all too well and what he discovered was the pineal gland, when stimulated, helps us tap into another reality that is all around us but can’t be seen without it.  Unfortunately it’s not a very peaceful reality and the creatures that inhabit it want to attack and make us their bitches … er, lunch.  During the experiment the good doctor’s head is twisted off and eaten by one of the creatures and Combs’ character is blamed for the murder and thrown in the nut house.  And all of this happens before the opening credits!!

This movie will grab you from the first scene and will have you glued to the screen until the end credits.  Combs plays his standard “mad doctor” role with a reserved intensity that only he can pull off.  After the opening credits we meet Crampton’s character Dr. Katherine McMichaels, who wants to recreate Pretorius’ experiments in order to clear Combs’ name and because she thinks the resonator is the key to curing schizophrenia.  Bubba, Ken Foree, goes along for the ride as the cop to protect Crampton just in case Combs really is a maniac. 

The pacing of the story is fast, the dialogue is great (Tillinghast:  “It ate him... bit off his head... like a gingerbread man!”), and the f/x are some of the best you will see … not just of the 80’s, but of all time.  There’s absolutely no CGI here folks.  This is all done using puppets and animatronics.  Its movies like this that make ya long for the days of real creatures before CGI ruled the landscape and allowed the SyFy Channel to pump out endless shitty flicks.

Unfortunately for our cast, but lucky for the viewer, one side effect of a stimulated pineal gland is that … well, it kinda makes ya horny for some S&M.  This is where Crampton gets to earn her “Horror Babe of the 80’s” title.  I won’t give away too much, but she ends up dressed in tight black leather with her hair all teased out.  Very yummy!!

Crampton also becomes obsessed with the resonator and keeps returning to it even knowing she could kill them all.  We get an amazing assortment of creatures, the best being the ever evolving “New” Pretorius.  He is the creature who wants to break into our reality and take over.  This is one fun ride folks!  The Pretorius creature changes every time we see him, and director Gordon captures some truly terrifying Lovecraftian images that come straight from his, and your, nightmares.  Combs also ends up evolving a “super pineal gland” that protrudes from his forehead and seeks out living brains to consume.  Wait a minute; this movie even flirts with zombies??!?  This has everything!!  (We even get to see Ken Foree in nothing but tight underwear; and when he gets thrown in water ya get a very good look at his package.  See, there’s even something for the ladies). 

There of course is the inevitable fight between Pretorius and Tillinghast that is one of the classic genre fights ever.  Pretorius is just a huge mass of evolving “flesh”, and at one point he swallows Combs only to have Combs rip him apart from the inside out.  But Pretorius doesn’t go down so easy.  It’s a “must-be-seen-to-be-believed” moment if there ever was one.

Yes there are parts that could have been polished up a bit.  In one scene, the tighty-whitey-wearing Foree tackles Combs down a flight of stairs and the viewer can see the obviously white stunt man’s body paint smearing against the walls as he falls down the steps.  And in other scenes you can catch glimpses of the f/x guy’s foot or leg inside the creature suit.  But trust me, you will be so engaged in what is going on on screen that chances are you won’t see any of these errors (I’ve only caught them because I’ve seen this movie about 20 times!!).

So yes, nostalgia rears its head when I think back to how much I love this film, but the bottom line is that this is one badass movie!!  You will watch it over and over again and find yourself revisiting it every few months.  Everything from the script, to the acting, to the soundtrack (with original music by Richard Band, Charles Band’s brother who produced this movie and is president of the famous Full Moon Productions company), to the special effects will floor you and have you glued to the screen.  Don’t miss this one people.  They don’t make them like this one anymore!!!


My Summary:

Director:  Stuart Gordon

Rating:  5 out of 5 stars

Gore:  8 out of 10 skulls (mostly creature f/x)

Zombies:  1 out of 5 (for flirting with the idea of zombies)

I can't help it; I just hate movies that suck.

Last updated: 2010-01-08 19:30:03 by AnythingHorror