From Beyond (1986)

Now THIS is more like it!



From Beyond (1986)
Directed By: Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator)


The Prologue
When I started watching From Beyond I'll be honest with you. I had no idea the man who made Re-Animator  made it, but I new it had that same vibe. It also had a lot of the same cast, thus the reason for the vibe. From Beyond was a movie I remember seeing on DVD racks for years, yet I never picked it up. I do indeed regret waiting so long to do so now because I really liked what I saw from it. If you want a creative mind trip, this one is for you!



The Movie
Based off of some H.P. Lovecraft, From Beyond tells the tale of Scientists named Crawford Tillinghast and Edward Pretorius who create a resonator to stimulate the pineal gland (sixth sense), and open up a door to a parallel (and hostile) universe. Once the door is first opened and Edward loses his head over it. Crawford is locked away for being crazy until test prove otherwise prompting a new Scientist (and Wonder Girl) Katherine McMichaels to believe Crawfords wild story and enlist the help of officer Bubba Brownlee (Ken Foree) to help re-create the experiment. This of course leads to very very bad things.

The Beyond is an effects fan's wet dream. All great effects with 99.9 of them being natural. These days something like this would be ruined by CGI. Thankfully in 1986 that wasn't the case and the worst we had to deal with was a little bit of clay here and there. The clay being the small side of the percent of the effects we see in this movie. But you just can't watch gore like this without getting that classic, old school feeling.


Also maybe it's the Lovecraft but this story is a really cool one here. It also packs the same wit and charm from film maker, Stuart Gordon that was on display with Re-Animator the year before. Everyone does a great job playing their parts but I really did love the performance of Ken Foree. I just don't think that man get's enough credit and he always beings it when making fun horror films. It's just a bit of a shame he isn't the main guy here. Not that Jeffrey Combs does a bad job. It's just that Ken (red speedo and all) just seems to outshine him here.


Also rounding out the cast is the hot Barbara Crampton as Dr. Katherine McMichaels. I think they just want to always find ways to keep this chick naked in films and they'll get no complaints from me. But the girl isn't just T & A, she's great on the screen as well. That may be due to her history as a day time soap star, I dunno. But whatever she has going for it works wonders.

I can't state enough how much of a Re-Animator feel this film has and I hate to have this film in the shadow of it, because it's well and fine on it's own. However, I can safely say if you liked or loved Re-Animator you will for sure like this. It's got action, it's got weird stuff going on that is just as much cool as weird. It's got great gore (brains beings sucked out of eye sockets). It's got some boobs and it's just got some out of this world effects. A classic for sure!


The Conclusion
I'd say go see it for sure! Anything it may be lacking on (perhaps a small repetitive problem with the plot) it more than makes up for in the gore and what you see on screen. I think you should at least watch it once as it's Lovecraft done right. Even if maybe it's not 100% true to the source, which personally I don't know.


The Rating (7/10)