 Thank you for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 1981 film the Beyond it is a Lucio Fulci film and if you don't know if you didn't watch the first Review in this trilogy series. I'm doing I am doing the entire gates of hell Trilogy by Lucio Fulci. The first one was City of the Living Dead. That's already posted on my channel This is the second installment the beyond and then I will be doing the third Which is the the house in the cemetery so look forward to that one. So I'm gonna be able to do some comparisons here, so a Little bit of information. I already had in the beginning of the one for City of the Living Dead So it's a little bit repeating but shouldn't be too much written and directed by Lucio Fulci this film He also did don't torture a duckling zombie the New York Ripper and a cat in the brain Bunch of those I actually haven't seen yet because City of the Living Dead was the very first Lucio Fulci yet film I've seen now this the beyond is the second But I'm gonna keep going. Don't worry. It was also written by Dardano Siketi or Siketi I don't know how to say last name. I'm not sure I'm gonna say Siketi He's he's written demons demons to 1990 the Bronx warriors, which is on shutter the scorpion with two tails a Bay of Blood and cat and nine tails Also on shutter. That's an Argento film. So you know the directing is good Also written in portion by Giorgio Mariuso Who also was involved in writing some of the house by the cemetery? Sorry before I said the house in the cemetery. It is the house by the cemetery This the beyond is the second installment in the Gates of Hell trilogy Obviously, it's City of the Living Dead that came out in 1980 then the beyond and the house by the cemetery Which both came out in 1981 which I feel like it's kind of a really fast turnaround for completing that trilogy But hey, you do what you want The film was shot in and around New Orleans and then they had some of the you know other shots Especially internals done in Rome in a studio in Rome Italy. It's an Italian film. It's dubbed over much like City of the Living Dead That typical time frame, you know 60s 70s 80s There were Italian horror films that were just being shot and immediately dubbed in English. So if you can't stand No, you know lips not matching up. Sorry, this film's not for you then or any of these It was released in the United States at with the title of seven doors of death With different music and several minutes cut out of it Its original cut was actually shown in 1998 then by Quentin Tarantino by his grand grind house I think it's grand house releasing or releases or something like that not like ground house picture grand house pictures I don't know But at any rate the version on shutter that I watched and it is available on shutter at the moment The version on shutter is the grind house one from Quentin Tarantino's company that was from 1998 So thank you Quentin Tarantino for being a steward of these films trying to get them in their original form It was also released in Germany under the title the ghost town of zombies Which is like a terrible terrible name I mean is seven doors of death. Yeah, seven doors of death is better But why didn't they just call it the beyond wherever they go? This is such like a weird thing to me where the titles just change based on the country I mean, I know it's like a marketing thing, but it seems weird This is actually considered to be from what I've read online considered to be one of Fulci's best films which I liked it, but I Liked City of the Living Dead more to be honest So for me it does not resonate as one of his best films and I've only seen two of his films now, so I don't know I'm gonna I'm gonna keep going on. I've heard don't torture a duckling is really good So I have a feeling that's gonna be one of his best films most likely, but you know and full chi I'm learning just through two films full chi is a Style over substance type filmmaker, which I enjoy from time to time As long as the visuals are done really well, and I do think he does a good job with visuals He also has some cool very inspired scenes, especially around like deaths and and you know interesting paranormal stuff That happens just like in this film real quick. I am doing spoilers for this because it's an old film I feel like I always have to say that It was intended for the trilogy to be quote Connected by the trope of hapless mortals literally living on top of an entrance to hell and then inadvertently falling into it I Mean that's the story the plot for City of the Living Dead and the beyond I assume it's gonna be the same for the house by the cemetery and like I said These films are light on story. These films are very light on story. It's about the visuals. It's about the gore It's about the music. It's about anything but story pretty much. It's super light So it's rumored no surprise here It's rumored that full chi didn't have a full script for this film when he started shooting it He just had an outline that he was working from and if you know that information and you go into the film Watching it you'd be like yeah, that makes sense because it just seems kind of aimless in the way It's put together. It's kind of like okay now. We'll do this now. We'll do this now. We'll do this There's no story there's almost no story I mean there is there is like an actual story and it does tie in the City of the Living Dead, but it's it's so loose It's such like a broad Idea of a story that doesn't get into too many specifics. And so it it's almost like it's not there to be honest Fabio Friesi's did the score for this film and it is a very good score And in fact, it was ranked by Rolling Stone magazine as the 11th best horror film score And this is something that they ranked in 2016 so almost, you know four years old at this point but the 11th best horror film score it is a really good score and I kind of feel like I Don't want to say I feel like it was wasted on this film because I just I don't know I just feel like the score is better than the film is like the film itself Underperforms for how good the score is the score should have been and the backdrop of something much better much more interesting Something more like like Argento's deep red or something like that I mean he has great scores anyway But you know something in the same vein of like the same good writing as like deep red This film was put on the video nasties list in the uk No big surprise here when you see the amount of gore in it, especially the uncut version So it happens Everything is is a vintage yellow in the beginning of this film Which is in my opinion a really cool way to kind of replicate the look of old photos as they've aged You know really old photos the black and white ones turn very very yellow as they get older And I think I'm just speculating here. I think that was kind of the intent of starting the film as Uh that yellow color to kind of make that that comparison to draw that parallel And I say that because it's set in the past It's giving you the backstory on you know There was this person here who was using the book of aben and he was doing this demonic kind of painting And there's a gate of hell here and then he was killed and yeah, you know, we we all know we've watched it But I'll talk more specifics But I just thought that was cool that that kind of color usage and you don't see that color used Like at all like this is the first time I've seen anyone do a scene in that like yellow coloration But I thought it was cool the beating uh The opening beating and brutality gives you the signal that uh, it'll be ramping up gore considerably in this film Especially in comparison to city of the living dead Uh, and that's a long take of a face melt to be honest when that guy who's doing the painting gets killed first he's like getting beaten with a chain and It's very gory and then I was just like, oh man They're really stepping up the the brutality violence in gore And then it goes like even further and they're like throwing the acid on him And it just like sits there and makes you watch like his face getting melted not to you know Not to even say that like the crucifixion was really really graphic as well and I mean Practical effects in this were quite good For the most part, although I will talk about one of the practical effects thing. I was also like Okay But you know, we'll talk about that in a minute But that face melt scene was pretty long They probably should have cut that down because it just seemed like it took a little too long Not from like a gross out fact uh standpoint just Timing wise it's like I'm getting a little bored watching this Um, there are plenty of shady looking and acting characters in this film especially In the beginning like the the caretakers of the house martha and arthur like They're just crazy crazy shady and they also kind of like don't have emotions really in this film Which is really really weird especially when um I I got the idea. I don't think it was explicitly said but like joe the plumber Who shows up? He seems like he's like martha's husband or something Like they have some sort of close bond, but then when she finds his body She's like no reaction to it so like some of these characters are very poorly written and poorly thought out and That's why it kind of makes sense the rumor of you know, falsely not actually having a full script But I mean regardless of that I would think that when martha finds joe's body That he would just be like you have to act like this is a terrible thing you have to scream and Nothing, she's just like yeah, yeah another body Well, what are you gonna do? The hand popping out of the wall and taking joe's eye out when in the scene where he gets killed is really good Well, first of all the basement like that flooded basement looks super creepy They did a really good job making it look the way it needed to in that and it's like super super flooded Great great scenery and then the moment when like the the wall kind of like the water takes the wall away and then I mean that was creepy enough and then like the hand flying out and like popping joe's eye out I was like, oh man, and that scene looked really good like that effect of the eyeball being pulled out Would definitely make some people squirm Um, yeah, like I said, I like how martha finds joe's body. It's just like me Emily was actually not able to see during this film. I had to let you know the Emily the the blind girl who had you know, you see her eyes close up and they're just like totally um I think it's like it looks a little yellowish, but I think it's just supposed to be like white over her corneas and retina and or cornea and pupil, sorry And uh, yeah, like I think that's I think it's supposed to be white, but it looks like kind of yellow So they hand painted those contact lenses apparently And her and then later on the kid and I think a few other people had to have them in and they legitimately could not see Like they could not see past the paint in there and That would be kind of rough to work with on a set to be honest Not just from the standpoint of the actors, but from the standpoint of the director as well Fulci probably had a hard time because you know, you got to keep people safe too Why would they hook a six year old dead body up to a heart monitor? That's one of the things in this film that does not make any sense when they find the old body of the painter Um, who's all messed up and in really good shape They make a statement that it's a six year old dead body But for some reason in the morgue they have it hooked up to a heart monitor Which like I get it for the visuals of the film and it gives you that moment or like Oh, it's coming to life because it shows like the heartbeat on the monitor at one point But it makes absolutely no sense. Why would you hook a six year old dead body up to a heart monitor? It's stupid So there are some of those things in the film that you're just like, huh? The squeaking gurney in this film in in the morgue is way too much Um, it is crazy Ear piercing Uh, I had to turn the volume down really fast on that it legitimately hurt my ears My cat freaked out because she didn't know what that noise was and it is so shrill. It is so piercing They needed to take that down quite a bit. They really needed to take that down Uh, the girl at the morgue the redheaded girl, uh I didn't understand when she like busts in when her mom got the out Like she got I guess she got like knocked out and then like the acid, uh bottle tips over and she um And it's like going on her face and it's melting her face like the girl just stands there She's just like standing there watching it and she's just like Wouldn't like first of all, wouldn't you do something? Like if that's your mother which they're that's what they were saying insinuating is that was her mother Like you would go and try to help or you would run for help or you would do something She just stands there and stares at her mom's face being melted and I'm just like this another moment makes no sense Makes no sense Fulci is not big on actual story man. I'll tell you Uh, you might not want to continue to pursue turning the house into a hotel When two people die the very first day that you're there That's another thing liza the main character liza. She's trying to remake this house into this nice hotel Originally was a hotel, but she's trying to like, you know revamp it renovate it and make it a hotel again But when two people die, I I'm assuming the painter who fell off the scaffolding dies because he was like You know vomiting up a lot of blood there was a lot of blood coming out of his mouth And people also seem to not really be freaking out about that. They were just like oh i'm calling the doctor Don't worry. Okay, and like meanwhile, he's losing tons of blood on their couch nonetheless So i'm assuming these two people died because him and joe And so wouldn't you kind of like put things on hold or reevaluate what you're doing if two people die The very first day you're there that I would I didn't get the whole emily thing by the way Why would liza just take her to her place? um And why and she starts treating her like like a friend immediately And the way they meet is like totally odd You know, she's driving down this road and she's standing in the middle of the road with her seeing eye dog And this person who doesn't know you liza is just like oh, hey, I'll help you out Like I understand the aspect of she's blind. She's lost Help her out like I get that that's fine But then she's just like treats her like she's a friend immediately and she like comes into her house And then all of a sudden she's talking about her like oh, she's my friend like The friendship aspect just came out of nowhere. It was so forced once again Not good writing if there was writing regarding that at all. So it's just weird Uh, you gotta love the fake tarantulas the the tarantula scene was a cool idea And it worked to a degree But you can see where there's real tarantulas, but then there's the fake ones and the fake ones just move just like They just like teeter from side to side and it looks so funny and stupid um And the noise the noise of them moving is so over the top and that's one of the things with this film The sound design is not that good in the sense of like the foley work Like using a sound of like crunching gravel for the tarantulas walking is very mismatched The the crazy shrieking of the gurney is way too much. That was overdone and it was just not good Um, so I wrote down that I thought the tarantula scene was very very laughable I did laugh out loud at this scene because it is extremely laughable, especially with how long The scene goes on it's another one of those moments of just it goes on too long And this is something that's happened throughout the film Just stretching these scenes too long. It's something that happened in city of the living dead as well I guess it's just a fulcrum thing. So I was like, uh The nail through the back of the head scene and pushing out the eyeball is quite a good one I think that was that was martha. I believe when she finally got it Which she deserves it for not reacting appropriately to joe being dead When like he's got her face and he like shoves her head Up against the nail sticking out of the wall and it just like goes in the back of her head And it pops out the front and her eyeballs at the end of it. That's a great scene. That's really inspired Looks at outstanding. They did such a good job putting that one together And that's one of the things with this like I said like the gore looks good in the film The practical effects are good. They're inspired moments inspired scenes to it and that's one of them It's funny that emily's dog is named. I think dicky I think that's what it sounds like and it's also funny that he bites her throat out And the amount of blood that just comes gushing out is over the top It's kind of comical, but it makes it funny and fun. And I actually like that. It was just like It just kept going and I was just like, yeah And then uh, you just I mean, I'm sure she didn't expect to have her dog turn around on her and just rip her throat out But the other thing is like she was telling her dog to attack these zombies Like she had to know it wasn't actually gonna work You know and also does she actually love that dog? Because if she did she just cut him loose and she'd be like, well, I know I'm gonna die Dog might as well get away. She likes tries to sacrifice it for herself What a jerk. I'm glad he ripped her throat out Uh, and then where's this dude getting all these bullets the the guy who's Who's fighting against the zombies at the end in the in the morgue As they just keep coming at him and just keep shooting these His revolver keeps regenerating bullets magically The other thing is the effect that they use for the bullets It just looks like they just splattered a little bit of paint Like it's just like a dot of red pretty much on when especially when they do the head shots like it doesn't look good to be honest and They just keep showing him shooting over and over and over It's another one of those things where they just keep going and going and going and it's like, okay We get the point. We're done with this now. It doesn't even look that good And there's no way he still has bullets. You ran out of bullets a long time ago, buddy Tension to detail Um, so again, just like city of the living dead, it's a slow overly drawn out ending But the girl getting her head blown off looked really good And it was unexpected the girl with the red hair that then ends up having her eyes glazed over I did not see it coming when her head just goes Which that guy didn't even have the bullets to do that. But whatever, you know, like But like I said, it was slow overly slow totally drawn out city of living dead the exact same thing They the endings seem very similar between the two films too I do like how they end up in the landscape at the end That was like the landscape that was in the painting that this, you know, demonic painter was was doing from inspiration from the book of aben Um I like that the they they try and roll in more of a roll with the book of aben into this one As opposed to city of the living dead in city of living dead. It's just kind of like, hey, there's this book Okay And in this one they try to, you know, put more of the book of aben lore into it And I think that worked a little bit better, but you know Still so light. All right, so let's talk about some thematic stuff and whatnot So since there are seven gates of hell, I actually assume they could have made four more movies in this Trilogy would have been a trilogy at that point But they could have made four more movies than they did because they even say in the film that there are seven gates of hell So I'm like, hmm, maybe someone can pick this up nowadays And go with it although it might be done in comics because I know there's A comic company called aben press that is going off a bunch of fulci stuff So I don't know if they're working with the gates of hell's Storyline if they are that'd be pretty cool and I might actually want to check that out The final film scenes were supposed to actually be shot in an amusement park initially But the logistics of actually getting it done were so Tough that they decided to take a pass on it The music was one of the best things about this film Like we already talked about the music by fabio frisi really really good excellent The sound design like I was saying is so off There are noises that are too over the top for what they're supposed to be The tarantulas we already talked about the insane popping Noise during the blood that's raining down in the basement scene It's so off for what it is like I was saying the fully work is just not matching the scene And then like we talked about that ear piercing squeaking gurney totally inappropriate No way Like city of the living dead there are lots of interestingly framed shots and nice fluid camera movements and panning So it looks really good. It's very cool But I feel like it also just borrowed a lot of stuff from city of the living dead I mean some some prime examples even though they're kind of small Uh an exploding window they use the basically the exact same thing there also In city of the living dead when there's these exploding window and then the glass is sticking in the wall And then it starts bleeding They did the exploding window in the beyond and then they also did like the painting Bleeding just like the wall was bleeding. So they just kind of like reuse some stuff So for that reason I actually didn't really like the beyond as much as I like city of the living dead to be honest But I still like the beyond. I thought it was good. So But like I said, you know, there's not a whole lot story wise So out of five stars with half stars in play. I'm gonna give it three stars I believe I gave city of living dead three and a half I'm gonna go three on the beyond and we will see where the house by the cemetery ends up coming in on this I know that that is actually the most profitable one Of the three I believe so I don't know if that translates to it actually being better or not, but we'll find out so Hopefully everyone enjoyed this. Hopefully everyone enjoyed the review for city of the living dead And if you haven't seen it go go watch it. It's on my channel Put some comments down here. What are your thoughts about this film or all the films to be honest And then please hit that subscribe if you're not already subscribed If you are subscribed hit the like just to let me know you're still watching And if you're not subscribed, please hit the subscribe because that motivates me to keep it going Because I don't make money doing this or anything and you can also hit the like if you want it as well So but anyway, thanks everyone for checking this one out and until next time keep it brutal