The Beyond (1981)

Apocalypse now... 

Once in a while I come across a horror film that leaves me in awe. The Beyond is such a film. It’s such an immense experience that I have to write this review just to exorcise my thoughts.

The Beyond starts off immediately. Lousiana 1927. A bunch of people rowing. Men on a mission. Where are they going? A girl at hotel during a stormy night looks down at the mysterious book of Eibon. A painter, Schweick, adds another stroke to his dark and desolate painting. He is staying in room 36. Schweick is played by the characteristically looking actor Antoine Saint-John, perhaps better known as the killer in The Killer Must Kill Again.  The men arrive at their destination. The fragmented clips are merging. It’s an exceptional opening. Sad and somber tones play as the mob passes the hotel clerk, who silently follows each of the men with his eyes. It is a small revelation to behold. The mob and the painter come to a confrontation. Anyone unfamiliar with the works of Fulci is likely to raise an eyebrow as the whipping and crucifixion of the painter progresses with gratuitous zoom-ins on the carnage. It really sets the tone for the level of violence we can expect during the next 80 minutes. It also makes you wonder just what this man has done worthy of such a punishment. They end it by throwing something that melts his face. Here lies my only real objection to the opening. The music used during the face-melting is too funky. It’s great, but I feel it goes against the dark tone of the rest of the movie. Fortunately, this is immediately followed up by what is probably the finest opening credits I’ve seen in a horror film. The dark and melancholy tones are marching on, while fire burns in the background. The vocals practically screams: Welcome to Fulci’s apocalypse.

The film then cuts to the same hotel in the year 1981. The sun is shining and things seem much more pleasant. This lasts for about a minute. Catriona MacColl, playing Eliza, has come to restore the hotel back to its former glory. Her and David Warbeck’s performances really elevates the film, even if they make some odd choices, but more on that later. Enter Joe the Plumber. Surely they could have spared a couple of extra minutes of coming up with a more original name, not that I’m complaining. He goes down into the basement. Never go down in the basement! Needless to say, Joe never finishes the job. Instead, we are treated to some of Fulci’s trademark gore in such a fashion that I can’t help but grin. The mysterious blind girl Emily warns Eliza about the place. The lenses she’s wearing looks great and creepy and it’s all about the small touches! Though I’m not entirely convinced by their choice of name for Emily’s dog either, Dickey. As Joe’s wife comes to see his body, their child is left waiting in the hall. She is by the way an exceptionally ugly child. Sorry, but I had to get that out of my system. As she waits we’re treated to a torturous scene of a body being wheeled down the hall accompanied by screeching noises sending chills down your spine. It’s kind of "pleasant" to have such a disturbing, non-graphic scene in the film. Now Fulci is famous for his trademark gore. Personally, I love it. However I find it frustrating and rather ignorant whenever people say that that is all Fulci is. His earlier films show clearly just how talented a filmmaker he was. But I think his gore epics, like The Beyond, House by the Cemetery and City of the Living Dead are way better made than he is credited for. Sure all these films have an incoherent narrative (though The Beyond is pretty clear), but that is also what makes them so great. These are hellish visions. And I for one think that the vague/fragmented narrative combined with extreme gore works great in expressing what Hell is truly like. I haven’t seen any film, including Hellraiser, portray Hell as well as Fulci.

Then there is the famous spider attack. A lot of people criticize it for being cheesy, but I think they should rather acknowledge what Fulci is trying to accomplish with his exceedingly gruesome ways of killing people. And boy does he take his time with that scene! Fulci even outdoes Argento’s dog attack from Suspiria! And then there is the generous head shot at the end. And the list goes on.

                                           Another one bites the dust. 

The Beyond is not perfect. There are things that seem odd. Like, why Eliza doesn’t leave when she sees the crucified Schweick in his room leaves me a bit baffled. John’s failure to realize that you have to shoot the undead in the head is another one. At first you think he’s just a lousy shot, but no such luck. Then there is minor stuff such as hospital signs that read: Do not entry.

Fulci has undoubtedly made some sloppy films, but The Beyond is in the other end of the scale. A big part of what makes it so great is the moody and often brilliant cinematography. Just check out the wonderful point of view shot as one of the ladies is being pushed by a zombiefied Joe onto a nail. The scene ends so gruesomely that anyone I’ve showed this film to has started laughing in disbelief. The Beyond really does go all the way. Another great image comes as Eliza and John runs away from the hotel and we see shadows of undead moving about inside. Hell is literally loose. In addition to this the there is the lighting. There is an image of Emily in the hotel, while lightning strikes outside is just one of many scenes showing off how skillfully this has been put together. Add to that some careful editing and tremendous sound effects and you’ve got yourself a masterpiece.

I really cannot express how great The Beyond manages to create a wholly unique atmosphere of pending doom. There is great sadness in the film, yet somehow it all feels oddly uplifting in lack of a better word. The image as they enter The Beyond remains, in my opinion, one of the single greatest shots in all of horror cinema, or movies in general for that matter. The desolate, barren wasteland where no life can exist is simple, but so very, very effective.

Stuff of nightmares: The nothingness of The Beyond 

The horrified expression on Warbeck’s face as oblivion that is The Beyond is taking over his mind and body is truly the stuff of nightmares. Hell has come. I could go on and on because I’ve only mentioned a few of the treats in the film, but the end is near.

A final thought: The Beyond never holds back on the ugly and horrible, yet I’ve never heard anyone comment on just how beautiful it truly is.

10/10

Edge of Sanity (1989)

Another psycho… 

Anthony Perkins plays Dr. Jekyll who after a lab incident caused by his guinea monkey turns him into the sinister Mr. Hyde. Soon the bodies start popping up all over London.

The story is well known, but we get a little twist here. The twist being that Mr. Hyde is actually Jack the Ripper. I really liked the fusing of these two stories. It gave the film another dimension to it. Edge of Sanity is a surprisingly sleazy film too, thank goodness. One J.P. Félix is one of the two writers credited with the screenplay. This Félix is apparently actually one of smut peddler Jess Franco’s many pseudonyms. It’s hardly surprising then that we get regular doses of nudity and some not overly gratuitous violence. We even get the odd humor on occasion. Just watch as the rabid Mr. Hyde has bent a prostitute over the table inspecting her butt and we see her bored face. He’s just another weird customer with a fetish. The script is pretty good, but without knowing exactly what, I still felt that a certain something to put it over the top was missing.

Anthony Perkins shines as the star of the show. He balances nicely between the two personalities. Perkins has a very charming side, as we’ve seen in Psycho, which can change in an second. In this film his psychotic features are enhanced with make-up, giving him more of a wax figure look. It looks supremely creepy. In several instances he reminded me of the zombified Stephen from Dawn of the Dead (1978). The story is really a sad one. Dr. Jekyll is only a man traumatized during childhood years and his decent into madness starts off as an unfortunate accident. Jekyll is more a victim of circumstance than anything. He accidentally inhales the smoke from the broken glasses unaware of what the mix will do to him. Unfortunately for the good doctor the effects have fatal consequences. Jekyll’s smoking device looks like a crack pipe. This film came in 1989, which was at a time when crack was at its height in the US. Edge of Sanity appears to be a cautionary tale covered in layers of filth. We see Perkins trying to resist it, but his demons get the better of him. His spiral downwards is very well depicted. We see the raving madman and a cold and calculating monster that is Mr. Hyde gradually taking over Jekyll. This is perfectly realized in a party scene, where the topic of freedom is brought up. Jekyll wonders what anyone really knows about freedom. “I thought I was free?” retorts one of the posh ladies. The doctor starts talking about freedom to do whatever we feel like. You see something you like and you take it. The other guests are a tad upset by this, but Jekyll rages calmly on. “You all act as if our manners, our morality, were handed to us by God.” With skeptical eyes she replies: “But they are.” Perkins continues: “No madam, they’re not. We made them up by mutual agreement. But what if I don’t agree?” He goes from the dinner table leaving the others in shock. There is a distinct flavor of Nietzsche’s philosophy here, which is the rejection of morality as an absolute truth. I doubt Nietzsche would have approved Mr. Hyde’s thoughts of doing whatever one feels like, but accepting that life is essentially meaningless is key. The other dinner guests’ refusal to accept this makes them passive nihilists. The active nihilist on the other hand sees opportunity to build something instead of hiding in fear behind religion. Jekyll/Hyde is somewhere in between. He rejects God and morality, but instead of building he tears the world apart. And, fortunately for him, in a society as judgmental as this, who would expect that any well educated person could possibly be behind such atrocious crimes?

The technical aspects of Edge of Sanity are simply outstanding! The camera work is impeccable with lots of crooked angels, intruding close-ups of Mr. Hyde and smooth dolly shots. The lighting and use of colors are strong and vivid adding additional delirium. There are gorgeous set-pieces to feast our eyes on. You really couldn’t ask for more. In a lot of ways this has an adult Tim Burton feel to it.

Edge of Sanity is a nice and creepy horror film. For some reason, despite all its accomplishments I still felt slightly detached to it all. That however, shouldn’t deter anyone looking for a sleazy horror with originality, a menacing Perkins and production values far beyond your normal fright flick.

7/10

A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

Take it away Franco!

Christine arrives at the small town of Montserrat to meet her estranged relatives and for the reading of her father’s will. Already before she gets there she is told at the hotel that there are no people living in Montserrat. Well, there certainly isn’t anyone with a pulse anyway. Upon her arrival at the castle a series of increasingly strange events start to unravel. What is going on and why is everyone so cold?

A Virgin Among the Living Dead starts off incredibly dull. While I always have a certain fascination when seeing scenes filmed out in the real world at those moments in time, the imagery is desolate and uninteresting. The look of the hotel makes the movie feel dangerously close to a dogme film. That’s okay I suppose, but was it the intention? It doesn’t look like any effort has been made in lighting or props of any kind. The cinematography, or should I say camerawork, is bad. The man behind this is José Climent whose credits include 6 of Franco’s films and very little else. Zooming can be a good thing in a movie. It is however not a good thing when used as frequently as here. And by frequently I mean all the time. He zooms in. He zooms out. He zooms while moving the camera. My guess is that he thought it would make everything seem more important. It doesn’t and it frequently took me out of the movie. To be fair he does have a couple of moments.

The film, while not exactly abundant, has a fair amount of nudity and some kinky situations. Christine walking in on Carmenze and another woman was pretty great. At first I thought Carmenze was merely trying to trim her pubic hair and had accidentally cut herself. It turns out this is not the case! Our main character also enjoys sleeping in the nude. Why wouldn’t she? It is after all pretty hot!

Christine discovers that dabbling in the occult can be perverted fun.

Bruno Nicolai provides a score I found at times annoying, but way more often pleasingly funky. You can usually rely on a movie with a title as lurid as this to provide the groove. A Virgin Among the Living Dead is no exception.

What surprised me with A Virgin Among the Living Dead is that it actually gets better along the way. Franco is great when it comes to creating eerie, dreamlike atmospheres and while it takes some time it eventually breaks out of its chains. A couple of scenes with Christine and her dead father are particularly great. It does strike me as odd that the cinematography here is inspired when the rest of the movie is pretty lifeless in those terms. “Your tortured mind can no longer recognize reality”, says a voice as Christine is drawn farther and farther into the abyss. The movie takes on a sad and quite haunting tone. It’s too bad Franco ventures into this territory all too briefly at the end.

Is A Virgin Among the Living Dead art? I would say yes. A movie is individual artists coming together. The music is an element. The writing is an element and so on. Some of the artists working here fail and drag down the overall result. Still, it proved to be better than expected. Ultimately you did good Franco.

6/10

Aquanoids (2003)

After watching Aquanoids I told myself that if I was going to see this one again it would be solely for the purpose of reviewing it. Seeing as how I’m writing this it means I have indeed done such a thing. 

As Aquanoids opens you spend a couple of minutes taking in the fact that this truly IS a low-budget film. REALLY low-budget. It’s an amateur film. They open with an aquanoid attack in 1987 then jump 16 years in time. We later learn that 17 people were killed during that summer. Our heroine, looking like a bustier, less talented Eliza Dushku, is still mourning the loss of her mother that summer. She knows an aquanoid when she sees one and starts her crusade to close the beaches and stop the ferocious aquanoids. Vanessa says the aquanoidS are back, but we don’t really see more than one at the time. The aquanoid costume probably represented one of the bigger posts on the meager budget. We should respect that.

The mayor of course doesn’t want the threat to leak out and takes a few precautionary measures. We also have some inquisitive reporters that don’t really add much to anything. It’s influence from superior films like, Jaws, Humanoids from the Deep and others are obvious. They even mention several of its predecessors. At least that shows the movie is self conscious. Not that it helps much, but a little.

So just what’s the deal with Aquanoids?

Well, there are plenty of things to notice and reflect upon when watching it. Laurence Hobbs playing Jackson is one of the great things about this movie. Seeing his costume, a pair of pants and a grey t-shirt I can’t help but wonder if that was what Hobbs put on when getting up that morning. Just put on whatever you have. His acting style is relentless! Jackson is utterly hilarious when exclaiming: “I can’t believe it got into Lovers Cove!” Like that is something unbelievable. Was that a fact so terrible your mind simply refused to comprehend it? Jackson also witnessed one of the aquanoid attacks back in 87. He just happened to be standing at the beach with binoculars… at night. But, hey, so was I!

Another wonderful scene is when Vanessa’s friend at one point asks her for an opinion on something. She’s made an impressive sign on the computer reading: DANGEROUS WATERS! ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK! Vanessa says: “I think that will work!”. That is truly brilliant stuff!

The evil mayor and father-of-the-year award winner at one point tell his daughter: “Now look, I don’t want any alcohol at the party. We don’t want to pump your stomach again!” He’s playing the role of the concerned parent. While being evil! In all fairness he does singlehandedly represent all the acting credibility in the movie.

Trying to earn it a higher rating we get a half-assed gory autopsy. I think we’ve seen enough scenes in other movies with an iron-stomach pathologist who eats while doing his thing. Do something else. At the end Vanessa learns that Jackson is in fact her father. She is shocked and I am shocked that she was shocked. We were both shocked. What shocked and disappointed me even more was her inability to get topless. I expected that from a title like Aquanoids. Others do though, in very random fashion.

The technical aspects are quite, shall we say puritan? Whenever we have some underwater shots you can’t help but think it’s a pity the BBC wildlife photographer must have slept late that day. They make a daring attempt at split-screen. They even dazzle us with three different images at the same time! The scene itself isn’t half-bad, with a somewhat dynamic car chase. A couple of times I could see their attempt to create a certain something in tone and even though the execution for the most part didn’t work, it felt sincere.

Bottom line is that YOU could probably make this film. It’s quite possible to do. Just use whatever you have and improvise the rest. Aquanoids is by no means good, or particularly competent, but I’m still happy someone put an effort into making a horror movie, even if it was a pretty bad one.

4/10