Cheap Seven Doors Of Death - A.K.A. The Beyond (Widescreen Edition) (DVD) (Catriona MacColl, David Warbeck) Price

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Customer Reviews of Seven Doors Of Death - A.K.A. The Beyond (Widescreen Edition)

Grand guignol nastiness but lacking in style.
The hype surrounding this movie is undeserved. <
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>Firstly, you will find it hard to believe that The Beyond dates from just 1981, as it feels like an amateurish effort from at least a decade earlier. The picture quality, even though allegedly "remastered", is poor and glitchy, as is the crudely dubbed sound. The standard of acting varies from mediocre to cringingly embarrassing, and the score sounds like something from a cheesy 1970's soft-porn movie. Then it is, of course, hugely derivative, owing a great deal to the Romero classics. <
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>Whereas Romero had the genius to inject huge dollops of subtle irony and black humour into his movies though, Fulci takes it all far too seriously. His heavy-handed and unsubtle direction results in an irritatingly fragmented stop-start plot, containing more holes than a zombie's string vest. How one mouldering cadaver is somehow transported from the morgue to a bath full of filthy water is never explained, and some of the shenanigans with versions of the cursed book are just plain baffling. <
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>The gore is undoubtedly gruesome. Fulci is, admittedly, quite an expert at the old dissolving face routine but, when analysed, it is really little worse than when the Nazi guy gets his comeuppance at the end of Indiana Jones! Flesh being ripped by chains, demonically-possessed dogs or tarantulas is quite nasty, but certainly no worse than say the extended flogging scene in The Passion of the Christ. The old popping eyeball gag works much better in The Evil Dead too! <
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>Above all, what this film lacks is any panache or style, with its unsatisfyingly flimsy plot merely used to string together a series of gory set pieces. There is no tension and no genuine shocks. And that does not a good horror movie make! Any of the Romero movies or even the stylish campness of the Abominable Doctor Phibes movies is infinitely more satisfying than this. <
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>If, as is claimed on the box, this is Fulci's best movie, the others he churned out must be unbelievably bad. <
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>All in all, a huge disappointment. Off to the local DVD exchange with this one! <
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'Beyond' Is One Of Fulci's Best (Or The Best)...
THE BEYOND is the best, or one of the best, Fulci efforts. This guy really likes his movies about zombies. We have ZOMBI 2; we have CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD; and now, we have THE BEYOND. Fulci really went all out for gore on this one. One of the best elements of the movie are the two leads who actually are much better than leads in his other movies (although CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD came close with Catriona MacColl). David Warbeck and MacColl really play their roles with vigor, and thanks to the mostly very suspenseful moments, it is obvious that they won't meet a grim end (but it won't be roses either). Sarah Keller also played great acting as the blind mystic Emily, and her grim fate was very disturbing. MacColl inherits a New Orleans hotel, which supposedly is one of the seven gateways to hell. The beginning of the film features one horrific beating of a supposed satanic artist who is melted away by acid, and the scene is just gruesome. After the man in the basement (waterboy if you will) tears down a wall and then his eyeballs are gouged, it's anybody can go at that point and the mayhem begins (is Fulci obsessed with gouging eyes out or what?). This ultimately sets off a series of gruesome events as zombies start to spring up everywhere, and now Warbeck and MacColl must fend off the flesh-eaters in order to survive. It was sad to see Emily get torn to pieces by her own dog after he socked the rest of the zombies in the scene where she gets surrounded by them. I guess maybe dogs are not man's best friend? The scene where the little girl gets her head blown off was just gruesome, just absolutely gruesome. You gore aficiandos will be very satisfied with THE BEYOND. You horror buffs with either like it or hate it, but THE BEYOND is a strong horror film that benefits from suspense, scares, and mucho gore. Fulci sure likes his violence juicy. That scene where the guy gets attacked by tarantulas was gross. The semi-downbeat ending featured our leads finding what must be "the beyond" and ultimately they, much like Emily, turn to blind people and the look on their faces are of pure terror. I was just a little let down by the ending, but still you can't go wrong...this is a good, good horror movie. <
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>Fulci sadly died of a diabetes related illness sometime in the 80s, and his legacy in the Italian horror genre is most assured by his movies. He has an eye for all-out, gross-out gore and some nauseating special effects. He also has some grip on suspense in most of his films, and the terror is real. If you want satisfying Italian horror, you can't go wrong looking 'BEYOND'.

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Not too impressive
Having enjoyed 'Zombie' and read quite a bit about Lucio Fulci that impressed me, I went into this one with pretty high expectations. I won't say I was flat-out disapointed, but the film kind of dissolves towards the end, with the story being kicked to the side in exchange for Fulci's trademark gore. And the ending? Bah. <
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>That being said, the film is not bad, but not great by any stretch of the imagination. Good special effects for the most part, and I loved the windup spiders, just nothing really special here.