Michael A. Martinez This is a tough film to review.I remember back in 1996 going on the hunt for this movie after hearing about it through various horror/zombie/gore websites on the early days of the internet. Back then, simply finding this movie was a revelation and to see that it was actually professionally made was the frosting on the cake, as most underground horror movies (think FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, etc.) tended to be amateur efforts. This film did not disappoint albeit with many misgivings.After a few decades and many rewatches and re-evaluations, I have to say it's not the easiest movie to watch. Pacing-wise it has the nasty habit of speeding up and slowing down repeatedly, as though the writers and director just didn't really care about things in between the gore set-pieces. As a result, I didn't care much either as most of the dialog couldn't be more banal and the characters more hollow. Both stars Warbeck and MacColl do their best with their lines, but their characters literally come from nowhere. There's even dialog suggesting that one or more of the side-characters may be imaginary. Okay, so if Arthur, Martha, etc. are all imaginary or purgatory souls, etc. why can't the main characters also be imaginary and why don't they act more consistently off-kilter? Is this all some dream? Why care about any of this? A few scenes fleshing out the relationships & motivations would have helped enormously.The scenes involving the blind woman who may or may not be there to help could have been creepy and added some tension, but instead she's the most dull character in Italian horror history, serving up nothing but confusing exposition. Also even though some characters are supposedly not real, they still have the habit of dying horrible, extended deaths.Then come the zombies! Oooh boy does this film take forever to get there. They're not the usual gut-munching variety but seem to shamble around slowly looking for people to grab onto and murder with whatever sharp thing is nearby. It turns out they're just as easy to kill as the zombies in any George Romero movie with a shot to the head, but even the well-armed individuals in this film frequently forget to aim for the brain. I know body-squibs are a lot easier than head-squibs, but good grief it's irritating when characters act like total idiots.I've heard of this film described as the triumph of style over content. Fabio Frizzi's score is certainly celebratory and bombastic (including a chorus), but maybe something lower key in a Tangerine Dream/Jay Chattaway variety would have worked better to keep the pace up. THE BEYOND demonstrates excellent cinematography, editing, and direction similar to Fulci's other films from the time. However I can't really forgive how much of a dull mess the experience of watching this film can be without frequent use of the FF button. It's frustrating in that between this, ZOMBIE, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, and HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, there's a high-water-mark of the 80's zombie horror masterpiece somewhere in there if you pluck out elements and trim the fat. It's all over 6 hours of movie with only 80 minutes of it any good.

Michael Ledo A hotel in Louisiana is built upon one of the seven gates of hell. It was walled up in 1927 and was real;eased later in 1981. This was supposed to be satanic, but the zombie like walking dead would classify this as a zombie film. I was rather bored with the film.The restoration was excellent, which allowed us to know how horribly dubbed it was. Not worth a rental.

amesmonde A woman inherits a hotel where one of the seven gates of hell has been opened, she must discover its secret before the world ends.Director Lucio Fulci presents a Louisiana opening set in 1927 in sepia tone, as a lynch mob descend on a hotel. An artist Schweick is busily painting a vast apocalyptic painting in room 36. Thought to be a warlock the artist pleading only he can save them as the hotel is built over the seven doors of hell, is taken to the basement and gruesomely murdered. As a woman reads a prophecy from the book Eibon which sets alight leaving her fate, for the moment unknown, prompting titles over Living Let Die, Terminator 2, burning flames. Incidentally, I also viewed an erroneous bluray version (which the distributor have kindly since sent a corrected copy) where the opening was miss-coloured in a Night of the Living Dead, Universal classic black and white. Regardless of which version the wince enduring killing opens one of the Seven Doors of Death.1981 present day workers go about fixing up the hotel for Liza Merril played by Fulci's City of the Living Dead and The House by the Cemetery actress Catriona MacColl. Its not long before the trades men have a series of accidents and Liza is introduced to David Warbeck's Dr. John McCabe. Fulci pulls no punches, but pulls focus on the camera with close ups of nails blurring our main characters and Sergio Leone-like eye close ups. When plumber Joe arrives at the hotel to stop a flood creepy Martha advises him where to go and it's not long before he uncovers Schweick's reanimated body who pops poor Joe's eyes out.In contrast to Zombie Flesheaters (1979) straight forward story, here writers Dardano Sacchetti, Giorgio Mariuzzo and Fulci explorer a metaphysical concept in which the realms of both the living and the dead bleed together. It spent some time on the UK video nasty list before being removed without prosecution. Though it was released in Europe in 1981, The Beyond did not see a U.S. release until 1983 under the alternate title "Seven Doors of Death." The Beyond is debatably Fulci's finest film, The City of the Dead appears to have been a practice run. The Beyond has a surreal edge, with a milky eyed blind woman (a look that American Horror Story Coven borrowed), a spectre appearing in a road, the woman who assists Liza is none other than the Eibon reading lady from 1927.Cadavers, autopsies, bodies coming back to life, it's all odd creepy stuff. Fulci can be heavy handed at times, notorious jarring cuts, dubbed dialogue nuances synonymous with his work, but The Beyond is finely shot, with top notch composition. It's appears Fulci is paying homage to his idol, the French playwright Antonin Artaud with The Beyond being less about linear plot and more about imagery and symbolism with its exploding windows glassing a man's face, corpse writhing in body bags, creaking gurneys, acid attacks and melting faces oozing blood, it's gruesome practical effects by Giannetto De Rossi retain a timeless horror charm. Cinematography from Sergio Salvati on the backdrop of New Orleans gives it a distinct feel, with jazz playing in the background. The icing on the cake is Fabio Frizzi's piano lead orchestral and vocal chants score which is outstandingly powerful during the eerie scenes and death setups.Liza walks around the oil lamp lit house encounters the blind woman Emily and entities. Of course New Yorker Liza ignores Emily's warnings and won't leave the hotel she's inherited. Shafts of light, dusty rooms, shadows, pianos playing by themselves, creeks may not amount to much, but Fulci build up tensions and jump scares with inexplicable lightening and crusty bony bodies on occasion nailed to the wall. Later while Liza tries to find out more about her hotel and missing book her friend Martin visits the public library to find the hotel's blueprints only to be attacked by a horde of hungry tarantula's who bite at his eyes and face - its gruesome stuff, with icky sound effects. Yes, there's lapses in logic, but it adds to the off beat creeps and sadistic torture and gore it delivers.David Warbeck is great as John (and equals Carlo De Mejo's lead Gerry in City of the Living Dead). John breaks into Emily's house, which appears to have been abandoned for years to find the book Eibon there and you realise, if you already didn't know that Emily is a ghost of sorts. Back at the hotel Martha is killed by zombie Joe (probably still annoyed at Martha inadvertently sending him to his death) and we're headlong into the final act with more dread-filled surrealism. Emily doesn't want to go back to hells gate with Schweick and sets her guide dog onto him and the zombie victims who inexplicably appear and disappear before her own dog turns on her, ripping her throat out in a graphic blood filled scene.To the writers credit the ending to this nightmarish extreme Italian horror is an unconventional brave one as Liza an John flee a hospital overrun by reanimated cadavers. Holding the hyper real effects and scripts shortfalls together are Warbeck's and MacColl's grounded performances. John goes all Dirty Harry shooting at the undead and Schweick's crusty corpse. Rushing down a set of stairs the couple find themselves back in the basement of the hotel and stumble through a labyrinth into a supernatural wasteland of dust and corpses mirroring Schweick's painting. Nihilist endings don't come much better than this - and Fulci simply out does himself. No matter which direction they travel, they find themselves back at their starting point and are ultimately blinded just like Emily stuck in hell - as they dissolve, cue Fabio Frizzi's pounding dramatic score.Excellent atmospheric horror, Fulci at his best.

TheRedDeath30 I go to a lot of horror conventions and I frequent a lot of horror message boards. I find in my conversations there that most horror geeks go through a typical exploration. You start with the big budget Hollywood horror that was readily available and as your tastes grow more, you start delving deeper into the horror underground. Inevitably, for most horror fans you exhaust the domestic classics and start digging into the foreign films, which brings us to Italian horror and, more specifically, Lucio Fulci.Let's just establish quickly that his films are either going to be appreciated or hated and there is little middle ground. I will admit that it took me a few runs through Italian horror films until I started to "get it" more and appreciate them. Accept right off the bat that you are throwing plot and logic out the window to appreciate imagery. Fulci believed strongly that the best horror should elicit a strong response in the audience and spur them to a feeling or action. It did not have to be a "good story". If you can't get past the fact that the movie doesn't always make good sense, then don't bother. I'm not going to tell you you're wrong because it's perfectly logical to want a good plot in a movie. On the other hand, art doesn't always have to make sense. The art of Jackson Pollock doesn't portray life in the same way as a Reubens portrait might, but that doesn't mean they aren't both valid art.So, with the caveats out of the way, let's talk about the movie. To me, ZOMBIE will always be Fulci's masterpiece and is in my top 50 horror films. This movie is easily his next best. The story revolves around a hotel built on one of the gates to hell, which naturally causes some strange occurrences on the grounds. It's hard to give you more plot than that because...well..there isn't much more. What the movie can provide, though, is good atmosphere and some awesome visual effects.The tone of the movie is consistently creepy. Originally intended to be a haunted house flick, but altered some to make the producers happy, the movie still adheres well to the haunted house feel. From the beginning scenes, there is something unsettling about the house and the events going on and Fulci plays this well by injecting a surreal feeling into things so that it truly feels like a nightmare.The deaths are what you're paying admission for, though. There are some great visual effects here. Gallons of spurting blood, ripping flesh, melting faces, spiders tearing chunks off people. For gorehounds there is a lot of fun to be had here and that's what draws me into this movie the most.Fulci's movies always walk a thin line between surreal and ridiculous. The first time I encountered this movie I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it, but as I've seen it a few more times I've really grown an appreciation for the movie. Set aside your preconceived notions about plot (who needs it) and just enjoy the ride for what it is, a bloody, disgusting, thrill.