Beyond, The

The Beyond

Credits
Title:	The Beyond
Directed by:	Lucio Fulci
Written by:	Lucio Fulci; Dardano Sacchetti; Giorgio Mariuzzo
Produced by:	Fabrizio De Angelis
Music by:	Fabio Frizzi
Cinematography:	Sergio Salvati
Edited by:	Vincenzo Tomassi
Production
Production:	Fulvia Film
Released:	April 29th, 1981
Rating:	R
Running time:	87 min.
Country:	Italy
Language:	English
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The Beyond is an Italian horror film of the supernatural thriller genre with elements of zombie fiction with an emphasis on extreme gore. It was directed by Lucio Fulci with a screenplay written by Fulci, Dardano Sacchetti and Giorgio Mariuzzo. It was produced by Fulvia Film and premiered in Italy on April 29th, 1981.

Plot[]

In the year 1927, a German artist named Schweick sits in Room 36 at the Seven Doors Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is painting a landscape, which is detailed with images of corpses and dismembered body parts. A lynch mob storms the hotel and marches upstairs to his room. Bursting inside, they declare him a warlock, and beat him with chains before dragging him down into the hotel's basement, where he is nailed to the wall with railroad ties. Elsewhere, a blind woman speaks aloud passages from Eibon - a rare occult volume that prophesizes the opening of a doorway to Hell.

In the year 1981, a woman named Liza Merrill inherits the dilapidated ruins of the Seven Doors Hotel. Hoping to use this as her last chance at financial success, she hires an architect named Martin Avery and a construction crew to refurbish it. A painter named Larry is working on a scaffold when he is stricken by the image of a blind woman staring back at him from inside the house. He falls off the scaffold and suffers severe injuries. Liza and Martin bring him inside, and she commands another worker named Arthur to summon a local doctor named John McCabe. Doctor McCabe examines Larry's injuries and determines that he needs to be taken to the hospital right away.

Liza takes note that the antiquated bell for Room 36 continues to ring, but she dismisses it as a plumber named Joe arrives to conduct an analysis on some flooding taking place in the basement. Joe takes his tools and a flashlight and wades through the labyrinthine basement. He begins chipping away at a section of wall, and unwittingly opens a gateway into Hell. An undead man reaches forward and rips out Joe's eyes. A sour-faced chambermaid named Martha goes into the basement and discovers Joe's corpse as well as the petrified remains of Schweick.

At the morgue, Joe's widow and young daughter Jill come in and the woman redresses her husband's corpse in funeral attire. The woman is startled and falls to the floor and rendered unconscious. Her fall knocks over a jar of sulfuric acid, which pours down upon her, melting her face. Jill curls up in the corner of the morgue, terrified and unable to move.

Elsewhere, Liza is in town where she encounters a blind woman named Emily. She is accompanied by a seeing-eye dog named Dicky. Emily is aware of the existence of the Eibon and warns Liza that she should not re-open the hotel. She accompanies Liza to the hotel and reveals the history of Schweick and the events of Room 36. Emily suddenly becomes startled as she notices blood on her hands and leaves hastily. Liza then discovers the Eibon, as well as Schweick's painting and corpse in Room 36. Leaving the hotel, Liza later meets up with John. They have drinks at a restaurant, and Liza tells him about everything that has been happening.

Meanwhile, Liza's architect, Martin, visits the town library to inspect the hotel's blueprints. The blueprints reveal a large, unexplained space in the basement. Upon discovering this, Martin is knocked off his ladder by an unseen force, breaks his neck, and is paralyzed. As he lies helpless on the floor, tarantulas creep out from the surrounding shadows. Making a hideous squeaking sound, they crawl across Martin's prone body, tearing out his eyes, his nose and his tongue until he bleeds to death.

At the Seven Doors Hotel, Martha enters Room 36 and goes into the bathroom. The bathtub is filled with filthy brown water. She begins draining the tub, only to discover plumber Joe's rotting corpse within it. The corpse rises and advances on her. As she backs away, Joe pushes her against the railroad spike that Schweick's body had been nailed to. The spike drives through the back of her head, and pops out her right eye.

Later, John breaks into the old house where Emily is supposed to live. It is abandoned, but he finds the Eibon and begins to read it, learning that the hotel is apparently one of the seven gates to hell.

Emily returns to her home with Dicky. Inside the house, she senses the presence of several zombies. The animated bodies of Schweick, Joe, the servant Arthur, and several others surround her. Recoiling in fear, Emily orders Dicky to attack them. Dicky succeeds in driving the zombies away, but as he returns to his master, he rips out her throat and then tears her right ear off as well as part of her scalp.

Liza enters the hotel basement once more and is attacked by the undead Arthur. In her escape, she runs into John again at the hotel entrance. Upon investigating, there is no sign of the undead worker and Liza begins to question her own sanity. They drive to the hospital and find it deserted except for a Doctor Harris, Joe's daughter Jill, and a horde of the undead. Armed with a gun, John begins shooting at the oncoming zombies in front of them and behind them. He shoots out a glass window, and the flying glass impales Doctor Harris' face. Jill suddenly turns into one of the undead and attacks Liza, but John blows off the top of her head with a shot from his gun.

John and Liza escape down a staircase but discover they have once again arrived in the hotel basement. John notes how impossible the entire ordeal is, but has no choice other to accept it as real. They proceed through the flooded labyrinth and stumble into a wasteland — the same landscape of corpses depicted in Schweick's painting. No matter which direction they turn, they find themselves back at their starting point. They are ultimately blinded just like Emily, and disappear.

Cast[]

Actor

Role

Liza Merril

Doctor John McCabe

Emily

Schweick

Veronica Lazar

Martha

Anthony Flees

Larry

Giovanni De Nava

Joe the plumber

Al Cliver

Doctor Harris

Michele Mirabella

Martin Avery

Giampaolo Saccarola

Arthur

Maria Pia Marsala

Jill

Laura De Marchi

Mary-Ann

Notes & Trivia[]

The Beyond redirects to this page.
The original Italian title for this film is E tu vivrai nel terrore! L'aldilà. It translates as "And you will live in fear! The afterlife".
The tagline to this film is "The flesh-craving undead return to the land of the living and raise a little hell of their own..."
Production on The Beyond began on October 20th, 1980. Principal shooting concluded on December 15th, 1980.
The original version of this movie is classified as a "Video Nasty" by the Director of Public Prosecutions in the United Kingdom.
Actress Catriona MacColl is credited as Katherine MacColl in this film.
Actress Cinzia Monreale, who plays the blind seer Emily, is credited as Sarah Keller in this film.
Actor Larry Ray, who plays unfortunate painter Larry, is credited as Anthony Flees in this film.
This is Lucio Fulci's seventh horror film as a director. The plot of this film involves opening ht seven gates to Hell. The name of the hotel in this film is the Seven Doors Hotel.

Beyond, The

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Cast[]

Notes & Trivia[]

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