The Beyond (AKA: E tu Vivrai nel Terrore – L’aldila)

Note: This is the third of five reviews chronicling the masterpieces of Italian horror movies. The preceding reviews covered Mario Bava’s Black Sunday and Dario Argento’s Suspiria.

Lucio Fulci is sick–just plain out of his mind sick. The best of his films (Zombie in 1979, House by the Cemetery in 1981, and New York Ripper in 1982) are easily the most over-the-top gore-fests ever filmed. The attention to blood is nearly pornographic–newly inflicted wounds are given full-screen close-ups and the squirming, squishy soundtrack is cranked high in the audio mix. For casual horror fans, Fulci is beyond comprehension. But for gore-thirsty shock-cinema veterans, Fulci’s movies represent the absolute apex of the gore film. Like him or not, Lucio Fulci was the master of gross-out. His 1981 film, The Beyond, is filled with enough death and rotting viscera to fill a dozen American slashers from the same time-period.

Throughout The Beyond’s brief 87 minute run time, we’re treated to some unbelievably grisly carnage: Crucifixions, eye-gougings, impalings, dog bites, and–perhaps most famously–some hungry tarantulas feasting on a man’s face. Set to bouncy, 70’s-style organ music, The Beyond’s portrayal of violence and gore borders on fetishism. As the film progresses from one absurd slaying to the next, Fulci’s methods begin to seem less realistic, even taking on an artful, painterly quality.

The plot is ridiculous: Liza (played by Fulci regular, Katherine MacColl) inherits an old hotel from a distant relative. She moves down to New Orleans and hires a team of workers to begin the renovations. But something is amiss. Carpenters fall from the scaffolding, strange Italian women with thick cataracts start popping up at odd-hours, and the plumber goes missing in the ridiculously dank and expansive basement. The dialogue and exposition are unintentionally funny (keep an eye out for a sign in the hospital that reads, Do Not Entry) and none of the chronology makes the slightest bit of sense.

That’s really all I can tell you without spoiling the fun. Don’t expect a well-crafted script or deft acting–The Beyond has no pretensions of being anything other than a gore-fest. That being said, Fulci took the gore film to new heights, blending art-film and horror-film in the process. The Beyond is sick, yes, but it’s also visually stunning and one-of-a-kind.