If you fancy yourself a fan of Italian horror...then you can list off The Beyond's most famous scenes off the top of your head. The man getting eaten alive by tarantula, the woman getting a spike driven through the back of her head so that it pops her left eye out, the woman getting her face melted off by acid...all are considered to be classic scenes of gore cinema. But therein lies the problem...the only thing truly memorable about this film are the scenes. As a whole, the film is an incoherent mess with a plot that ranges on the inexplicable and characters who are ultimately worthless. I read that Fulci originally wanted The Beyond to be non-linear. Well...it feels like someone took the disjointed pieces of his nonlinear effort and smashed them together into an unholy jigsaw puzzle. The only things that I could gleam from the plot is that there's a hotel built above one of the seven gates of hell and it accidentally get opened by its new owners, unleashing the living dead on the world. Other than that it's just scene after mismatched scene of gore, violence, and zombies. But if that's what you're looking for in a movie, then The Beyond is your Holy Grail. If not...then it won't do anything other than give you a debilitating fear of spiders.
5/10
Upon a second viewing, I feel compelled to revise my original score. I decided to try and enjoy this film on a purely visceral level instead of trying to comprehend it as a narrative. I must say, I was much more impressed this time around. I found Fulci's visuals and imagery much more striking and bold. Several sequences that left me unphased the first time around felt more disturbing, such as when Liza and McCabe are fleeing through an unpopulated New Orleans. The shot where they leave the house and several silhouettes suddenly appear in the windows was particularly effective.
8/10
Revised December 16, 2012
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