The Beyond (1981)

This here's my first exposure to Lucio Fulci, believe it or not. (I know, I'm a sad excuse for an Italian-horror fan.) If this is the best film of his career, it must be a long way down from here. I mean, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the film. It's nothing if not entertaining. It's spectacularly creepy due to the force of Fulci's imagery... but it's also spectacularly silly, as this imagery isn't harnessed to any kind of logic or sense. Of course, the film is about the opening of the gates of Hell, so it could be argued that film isn't meant to be lucid, just weird and nightmarish. But when you have a film that includes the brainwave scene and the acid scene, both titanically ridiculous stretches of film, within ten minutes of each other... well, forgive me if I'm not totally convinced by Fulci's defenders. As for the ending... um, what? (Side note: I have since read a few well-written explanations of the film's bizarre nonentity of a climax. Since Dave and I were goofing pretty hard on this film, I'll admit I may have missed something.) Still, it's got enough atmosphere to almost distract the viewer from the senseless plotline. And it's got great gore and more eyeball violence than you can shake an Andalusian dog at. So I'm still suitably impressed.

Grade: B-