THE BEYOND a.k.a. …E tu vivrai nel terrore! L’aldilà (1981)
(Note: this text was published 12 years ago on my former blog, Cinematic Nightmares)
From 1960s until the 1990s the Italian genre cinema rapidly developed. Horror, giallo thrillers, westerns, and comedies flooded the Italian market. Before that, horror barely existed in Italy, but several Italian directors would, in the following two decades, create some of the best horror films of all time. Thanks to names like Mario Bava, Dario Argento, Pupi Avati, Ruggero Deodato, Lucio Fulci, Michele Soavi, and others, horror in Italy continually evolved. Many of these films relied on the power of dreams and the subconscious, played with human perception of reality, shocked viewers with extreme scenes of violence, or delved into surreal images of bodily horror and depictions of forces “from beyond,” attempting to penetrate the world beneath the surface of everyday life and reveal new landscapes, both physical and spiritual. They found beauty in the uglyness (in its traditional definition), liberation in destruction, and new beginnings in the endings of the old ways.
One of the directors who achieved his best moments in films advocating the relativity of the earthly matter and the fragility of humanity is Lucio Fulci. He directed his best films in the late 1970s and early 1980s (ZOMBI 2, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE BEYOND, and HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY). Among them, THE BEYOND, shot in 1981, stands out as his most cohesive work (in terms of overall impression, not the story, which is barely existent). The film revolves around a hotel where a warlock (Antoine Saint-John) was murdered in 1927, having foretold the world’s doom and an impending apocalypse. According to the legend, the hotel was built over one of the seven gateways to Hell. Several decades later, Liza (Cathriona MacColl), the hotel’s heiress, arrives to restore it and start a business. She is constantly obsctructed by the unpredictable events related to the hotel and its staff. Together with her friend, a doctor (David Warbeck), she uncovers the dark past of the building.
Here, Fulci pays no attention to a linear narrative. The scenes are loosely connected, and the only common element is the setting around which everything revolves – the hotel. However, Fulci intentionally refrains from excessive explanation, opting instead for a dream-like structure. Anything can happen at any moment; no one is safe or privileged. What seemed unreal several moments ago is now here, present, very real and tangible. Fulci masterfully builds an atmosphere of impending doom. Whatever actions the protagonists take quckly turn out to be futile. The horror of this film is Lovecraftian: a forces rising from the depths of the sea, earth, or the universe are unstoppable, and madness and destruction are inevitable. Unforgettable horror sequences continually unfold, giving us no relief. A man searching for the hotel’s plan in the library falls from a ladder, only to be devoured by tarantulas after becomeing paralyzed. A dog guarding a blind girl suddenly leaps at her and tears her throat (this scene is also a fine homage to Argento and his famous scene from SUSPIRIA with the blind pianist and his dog). A plumber turns into a zombie and subsequently attacks the hotel maid, gouging her eye with a spike (one of the scenes Fulci varied several times throughout his films). It’s evident that Fulci is very interested in body horror (another element of Lovecraft’s work, but often adapted differently for the screen). The excellent effects of body horror are created by Giannetto De Rossi (who also worked with Fulci on ZOMBI 2 and HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, as well as on Alexandre Aja‘s outstanding film HAUTE TENSION). Thus, the human body in Fulci’s films is subjected to various extreme modifications. While he had a strong element of raw brutality combined with realism in his earlier giallo films, here he fully immerses himself in grotesque and surreal body horror nightmares that shatter the fragile corporeality and confidence of the characters.
As I mentioned, scenes of bodily horror are continuously shown: the aforementioned classic scene of the eye being impaled with a spike, the dog biting into the throat, and the tarantulas devouring flesh, as well as the scene of the murder of the warlock at the very beginning of the film, featuring close-ups of torn skin and flesh and the body dissolving in lime, the scene of facial skin being torn apart by chemicals spilled from the laboratory, and other scenes belong to the very pinnacle of visceral horror on film. The fragility of the human body connected with the impossibility of defense against inhuman forces are clearly emphasized. This is just one way of depicting the inexorable downfall. Fulci’s suggestion is that our world is an illusion and that beneath the surface of ″ordinary world“ lie unexplored realms and inhuman forces, a concept very close to Lovecraft’s work. Paths and passages appear as a leitmotif in the film, symbolizing the connection to the unknown and inhuman territories. Additionally, various clues point to an awakening of the underground world: the book of the warlock who was killed (The Book of Eibon, by Clark Ashton Smith) and remnants of his body that Liza sees. She alone sees the blind girl, who was seemingly once connected to the warlock, and who, it appears, has emerged from the depths of Hell and knows the secret of the passage upon which the hotel was built (here, Hell is that unexplored space, as the quote from Eibon at the end of the film states: “And you will face the sea of darkness, and all therein that may be explored.”).
So, Fulci turns to the terror of the unexplored and inhuman, as well as body horror, to create a film that, through its imagery and the implications, will shock the viewers and immerse them in a unique mood of fear and wonder at the revealed landscapes. It is a process of re-evaluating humanity’s role in this material world and depicting the transience of such a world. Although these elements are also present in CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD and HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, THE BEYOND remains the best example of this philosophy.
The overall impression is significantly enhanced by the music of Fabio Frizzi, as well as the cinematography of Sergio Salvati, Fulci’s longtime collaborators. The main musical theme is particularly effective. It appears at the film’s beginning, in the scene with the tarantulas, as well as “Vocci dal Nulla,” which is varied throughout the film, achieving its best effect in the final scene depicting Hell. Fulci and Stivaleti actively engage in bringing horror to the viewers: whether it involves body horror or subtler hints of the unexplored, or depictions of Hell, the camera does not shy away from horrific imagery; instead, it strives to “pull” the viewer into the unfolding events on screen and provide a genuine sense of dread.
The screenplay was written by Dardano Sacchetti, Fulci, and Giorgio Mariuzzo. Sacchetti collaborated with Fulci on several other films (ZOMBI 2, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, SEVEN NOTES IN BLACK, NEW YORK RIPPER, and MANHATTAN BABY). The issue with this screenplay can be the occasionally clumsy dialogue, although this is not a big problem. In fact, it can be viewed from another perspective: the dialogue in those moments consists mainly of banal exchanges related to the characters’ everyday customs, thus leaving more room for the horror scenes that follow and their implications. Some characters are barely sketched, while others are more developed. It seems that all of this was done intentionally, rather than out of negligence or ignorance, proportionate to the roles these characters play in the film. For most characters, when it comes time for the scenes of confrontation with the inhuman forces and the violence, the effect on the viewer is strong. Here, Fulci is primarily interested in building the world beyond our own, and the human characters interest him less, although they are mostly satisfyingly written or at least sketched, as much as necessary for this type of approach. The part explaining the hotel’s past and the fate of the building and the main characters is very well written, and like the prose that inspired it, exudes an anticipation of inevitable downfall. Occasionally poor synchronization may be distracting, but not excessively so. I watched the English version of the film, though there is also an Italian version, which might be a better option.
After this film, Fulci made several interesting works (very good HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, solid NEW YORK RIPPER, and MANHATTAN BABY) and a few watchable ones (AENIGMA, A CAT IN THE BRAIN) but devoid of the spirit of his earlier films and that old energy which characterized his main horror films (ZOMBI 2, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE BEYOND, HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY) and giallo works (SEVEN NOTES IN BLACK, LIZARD IN WOMAN’S SKIN, DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING). His golden period (in terms of horror and giallo) encompasses films from the 1970s and early 1980s, and his contribution to these genres, especially horror, is undeniable and is felt most notably in many later gory horrors. Despite this, it is certain that Fulci deserves even more recognition.
Rating: 4+/5
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