The Beyond

Attempts to describe the plot of this particularly grisly slice of Italian horror often come off as mere exercises in futility, and those looking for the clean answers provided by a lot of American horror are advised to quit before the opening credits have ended. Those who are willing to be carried away by director Lucio Fulci’s visions, however, will find a haunted house thrill ride that takes viewers through surreal and metaphysical vistas inhabited by all types of mysterious, otherworldly and unexplained events that continue the themes introduced by his previous film City of the Living Dead. 

Liza Merril is a young woman who has recently inherited the old Seven Doors Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, which she decides to restore and open up for business. What she doesn’t realize is that the hotel was built upon one of the seven doors of death described in the mysterious Lovecraftian Book of Eibon and that it was the scene of the violent lynching and crucifixion of an artist named Schweick who had become aware of the hotel’s secret and thus labeled a warlock by the surrounding townsfolk. As violent deaths and unexplained occurrences increase in frequency around the ill-fated location, Liza is aided by pragmatic and skeptical local doctor John McCabe, while also receiving cryptic warnings from an enigmatic blind girl named Emily, who seems to have some unspeakable connection with the hotel’s darkly shadowed past. The unexplained happenings and gruesome murders continue, eventually culminating in a final confrontation with the undead and leaves audiences to form their own conclusions about the nature of life, death, and what lies beyond.

An absolute classic of early 80's Italian horror, this is not to be missed in a dark room on a big screen with Fabrio Frizzi's soundtrack setting the totally creeped out mood.  Rated R, 87 min.