The Beyond

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🎙️ EPISODE 185: 04.11.19 The sepia-tinted intro lets you know that this is the olden times and when the funky music kicks in over the dude's acid-soaked face, it lets you know that The Beyond ain't messing around and is ready to get rolling. The story is still convoluted as could be, but it's much more streamlined than Gates of Hell "Part 1" City of the Living Dead, which is not a direct precursor and you don't need to watch that film to appreciate this one. (This is a trilogy in the loosest sense of the word.) Visually, this ups the ante as well in the (literal) eye-popping gore. However, a perfect example of Fulci's flaws and prowess is on display during the scene when the red-headed little girl goes into the morgue looking for her mother. The shot of her black patent shoes next to the flow of foamy, acid-soaked blood flowing toward them from her mother's corpse is stunning, but the shot devolves into frustration as the little girl just doesn't run out the way she came and in, and how did this magic vat of acid poor directly onto the mother when she was just standing upright seconds earlier?

It's a beautiful blend of continuity errors and stunning cinematography; luscious colors and masterful lighting dance with bad overdubs and plot holes sixteen miles wide. There's a weird and totally out-of-place anti-union bit (Italian fascism, haha) that flows right into a hallmark set-piece where a horde of tarantulas eat a clay mannequin and that feels like it lasts fifteen minutes for no reason whatsoever. And then this hotel horror film becomes a zombie movie and the zombie hospital magically transforms back into the original horror hotel and how many bullets is this guy gonna waste before he realizes they only die when you shoot them in the head? It's a mess, but a wholly lovable mess and I think I love it. The ending is somehow even more batty and way bigger in that enviable swing-for-the-fences kind of way than I could imagine. I recommend this movie!

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 185B - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 186 ⫸

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