Product Details

• Actors: Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ted Sorel, Ken Foree, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon
• Directors: Stuart Gordon
• Writers: Stuart Gordon, Brian Yuzna, Dennis Paoli, H.P. Lovecraft
• Producers: Brian Yuzna, Bruce William Curtis, Charles Band
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• DVD Release Date: September 11, 2007
• Run Time: 86 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (108 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000RPCK2O
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,054 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "From Beyond (Unrated Director's Cut)" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Director Stuart Gordon followed his gleefully gruesome Re-Animator with From Beyond (1986), another freewheeling H.P. Lovecraft adaptation that blends classic mad scientist tropes with a hearty dose of polymorphous perversity and gallons and gallons of gore and goo. Gordon's stalwart leading man Jeffrey Combs returns to the laboratory as a research scientist working with the grandiose Dr. Pretorius (Ted Sorel) on a device that stimulates the pineal gland in order to supercharge perception. Unbeknownst to them, the machine has a few (quite literal) kinks in its design: not only does it bring the user into contact with extra-dimensional creatures with an appetite for humanity, but it also supercharges both evolution and desire, transforming Pretorius into a gelatinous, megalomaniacal libido monster while reducing Combs to a psychopath with a taste for brain matter. While From Beyond does not command the same cult following as Re-Animator--it lacks that film's coal-black humor, which tempers its explosions of morbid autopsy-room splat-shtick--it's also an outrageous experience unto itself. It more than matches its predecessor in terms of bloodshed while also conjuring a heady brew of Frankenstein references (Pretorius name-checks Ernest Thesiger's sexually ambiguous medico in Bride of Frankenstein), Cronenbergian body horror, and a quivering mass of Freudian peccadilloes, all filtered through Gordon's own avant-garde theater sensibilities and '80s-era grindhouse aesthetics. It also benefits from a remarkably game cast, led by the unfettered twin forces of Combs and Sorel and abetted by fellow Re-Animator alum Barbara Crampton, who kicks out the jams as a strait-laced psychiatrist who discovers her libertine side through their invention, and Ken Foree (the '78 Dawn of the Dead) as a brawny detective whose pro-football past proves no match for the picture's array of monsters.

Scream Factory's Blu-ray presentation offers the director's cut of From Beyond along with a host of new and previously released supplemental features. Lively commentary by Gordon, Combs, Crampton, and producer Brian Yuzna has been ported over from the 2007 MGM DVD release, as have interviews with Gordon and composer Richard Band, while the new material includes a second commentary track with cowriter Dennis Paoli, who reads selections from the Lovecraft source material, as well as interviews with a very funny Combs, Crampton, and producer Charles Band. A featurette on the four special effects companies that labored on the film, as well as a gallery of production stills and advertising material and the original trailer, round out this typically top-notch Blu-ray from Scream Factory. --Paul Gaita

Product Description

The second H.P. Lovecraft adaptation by Stuart Gordon FROM BEYOND is pure Lovecraftian science-terror. Out-there scientist Dr. Pretorious (Ted Sorel) and his assistant Dr. Tillinghast (Jeffery Combs) are working towards breaking through earthly perceptions and revealing a new alternate universe. They do this by stimulating the pineal gland of the human brain which enables people to see the strange creatures that inhabit a parallel dimension. Unfortunately these creatures can now see humans as well and they are none too pleased with it. Dr. Pretorious is killed by the floating monstrosities but the police blame his assistant for the murder and lock him up. Only Dr. Katharine McMichaels (Barbara Crampton) believes the insane tales of Dr. Tillinghast and it's up to her to shut down the experiment that threatens to unleash the other-dimensional creatures on this universe forever. Great special effects and solid performances by Combs and Crampton complement a near-perfect realization by Gordon of Lovecraft's vividly detailed and chilling vision of scientific possibilities.System Requirements:Running Time: 85 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: R UPC: 027616085504 Manufacturer No: M108550

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

115 of 124 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars FINALLY, love this movie June 18, 2007

By Michael

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

It is about time they released this gem on DVD, or at least, release a "real" USA version instead of the cheap version from China with the subtitles that would not GO AWAY. The guy selling the german bootlegs on amazon (you might have noticed his posting just above this one when you searched "from beyond") must be crying like a baby. I have searched for this movie for the past five years, like once or twice a month waiting for it to show up, and that german copy has been there for months now with fans like myself paying for a crap version.

Anyway, the point, another H.P. Lovecraft gem staring Jeff Combs and Barbara Crampton, both of which rocked in Re-animator, are back for another cool blood soaked romp. Other dimension worms, exploding heads,and brain eating. What more could you want. The plot moves fast, the story is interesting, the special effects are cool, especially for the day, and once again Jeff and Barb bring humor and intensity to this cult favorite

BUY it. not to be missed

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally September 12, 2007

By N. Durham HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

After years of waiting, Stuart Gordon's From Beyond is finally out on DVD, and be thankful that it is. Undoubtedly one of Gordon's (Re-Animator) best films and one of the best H.P. Lovecraft adaptations ever filmed, From Beyond revolves around survivor Crawford (the great Jeffrey Combs) of an experiment gone hideously awry. A psychiatrist (Barbara Crampton) however wants to continue the experiment, and returns to the house where everything went wrong, along with Crawford and a cop named Bubba (Dawn of the Dead's Ken Foree). Naturally, things don't go very well, but in Gordon's hands, the otherwise predictable story and events are frequently gross, and frequently entertaining. There's plenty of gorey, slimy moments to be had, as From Beyond is finally restored in all it's uncut glory after years of only being able to see it as a butchered, MPAA approved version that floated around on VHS. The DVD itself has some great special features as well, including an insightful commentary from Gordon, and a couple featurettes as well which detail the making of the film as well as it's re-editing for DVD. All in all, it's so great to finally have From Beyond in all it's uncut glory on DVD; and it's needless to say that if you're a real horror fan, this DVD belongs on your shelf.

106 of 122 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Way Stuart Gordon Intended it to Be. July 11, 2007

By TorridlyBoredShopper TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Scientific endeavors to reach the other side work and the results - they leave an enigma splashed all over an upstairs laboratory and a man in the custody of a lovingly cozy straightjacket. Here you have an assistant accused of killing his protégé with an axe, a young researcher that wants to exploit the possibilities of findings that still exist in a house with a now-grizzly past, some muscle to keep Jeffrey Combs from trying to escape while helping arrange this - and while trying to prove to people he isn't crazy, and a host of things that become transparent when an experimental machine is fired up and something "from Beyond" returns.
You really have to love the work of Stuart Gordon, and moreso now that it comes complete to you in a form you haven't been allowed to see.

For the longest time this item was only available in the US on VHS, and even then it was available only in chopped up variations that made you want to wince. The same can be said for the versions that appeared on bootlegged DVD - there were qualities issues that abounded, terrible dubbing issues to contend with, and there were also the irregularities that seemed to occur depending on what version you had. This was a sad fate considering this was one of the Gordon "big three," too, and the idea that such a good Combs movie could be overlooked seemed almost impossible. Lately rumors began to surface about a DC of the movie, though, and the suicidegirls did an interview that confirmed that the movie would be coming out. So, it took 21 years for someone to see the point in that, but after 21 years you have a DVD feature of one of Stuart Gordon's better films - and one that he did in the height of HPL remakes and j. Combs stardom.

So, what does it mean to have a director's cut of the movie. Well, according to Gordon, the MPAA castrated his film when it was first rated and made a mess of it. Much like movies that wer ebeing imported at the time and even movies like Evil Dead, the MPAA wanted no part of horror. That meant that they hacked random pieces - a lot of goes and story as well - just to finalize a product they agreed with. Although there were just a few minutes that were added back in, the pieces that were added back took the campy nature of the film and gave it more power. The result - something you should check out because it has been needed for far-too-long. So, if you are a fan of Gordon, are a fan of Combs, or simply want to watch some horror when horror was good THen you need this.
I recommend this o so strongly.