Product Details

• Actors: Catriona MacColl, David Warbeck, Cinzia Monreale, Antoine Saint-John, Veronica Lazar
• Directors: Lucio Fulci
• Writers: Lucio Fulci, Dardano Sacchetti, Giorgio Mariuzzo
• Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Aquarius Releasing
• DVD Release Date: October 10, 2000
• Run Time: 89 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (215 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305972052
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #168,942 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "The Beyond" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Lucio "King of the Eyeball Gag" Fulci made his name with a series of gory, gooey horror epics, and The Beyond stands above all as his outré masterpiece. The largely incoherent plot has something to do with a turn-of-the-century curse and a doorway to hell in the cellar of an old New Orleans hotel. Fulci shows his usual sensitivity with wooden acting, clumsy dialogue, and buckets of oozing blood and pus, but don't let that get in the way of enjoying this mad tale of zombies from hell invading Earth and eating their way through a cast of humans: crucified martyrs, blind visionaries, creepy hotel handymen, befuddled cops, and a plucky pair of heroes desperately fleeing a horde of hungry undead. The blood-red art direction is eerily beautiful, and Fulci's relentless long takes, punctuated by jolting shock cuts and eruptions of grotesque violence, create a mood of sheer paranoid horror right down to the final, mind-bending image. And don't forget the Fulci claim to fame: eyes are gouged out, eaten away, melted with acid, and (shudder) popped out by a spike through the back of the skull. Yech! If you dare ignore such piddling details as narrative logic and let yourself get carried away on the creepy visuals, it's a deliciously stylish treat, an edgy bit of gothic gore pitched in all its bone-crunching, flesh-ripping, organ-splatting glory. This sadistic, sanguinary hell-spawn tale is for gore-hounds only.

The DVD features chatty but largely jokey commentary by David Warbeck and Catriona MacColl and an alternate German credits sequence featuring Fulci's preferred sepia-tinged prologue (but no alternate footage). --Sean Axmaker

Review

"A full-throttled supernational splatter classic. A perfect 10!" -- The Conoisseur's Guide to Contemporary Horror Films

"A towering masterpiece... one of the most compelling, audacious and hyper-gory zombie films of all times. THE BEYOND rocks pure and simple." -- Chas. Balun, GOREZONE

"Lucio Fulci's masterpiece. The screen's scariest zombie movie ever! " -- Tony Timpone, FANGORIA

"THE BEYOND does not disappoint." -- Roger Ebert, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

"Unrelenting excitement... a truly original haunted house thriller." -- Tobe Hooper, director of THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE

See all Editorial Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this before you decide which version to buy. October 27, 2000

By Amazon.com Customer

European Cinema was the first to release THE BEYOND on DVD. Then Anchor Bay put out their version. To compete with the studios that have more money, Diamond Entertainment released THE BEYOND under its old American title, THE SEVEN DOORS OF DEATH. They did NOT use the old, butchered print of DOORS. Diamond used the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio print that European Cinema used, which is the same one Anchor Bay used. I have all 3 of these DVD's and the title and extras are the ONLY difference. There is NO missing footage in any of these releases. Some people post their comments based on old VHS movies they saw years ago. If you want the economy priced version of THE BEYOND, then get SEVEN DOORS OF DEATH. If you want the version with the audio commentary, you'll have to buy Anchor Bay's version of THE BEYOND. I'll say it once again: This version of SEVEN DOORS OF DEATH is exactly the same, scene for scene, as Anchor's release of THE BEYOND, only the titles and extras are different.

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars ~~~DA~DADA~DALADA~~~DA.DA.DA.~~~DA~DADA~DALADA~~ October 22, 2008

By CLINT BRONSON

Format:DVD

Love this flick(sorry J.J.I.)and is ONE of my favorites in HORROR! Easily
in my top 30 and Clintster is talking from 1919-2008 TOP 30!!! This is the story of a old New Orleans hotel built upon one of the 7 gateways to hell, and no we are not counting the one in Brooklyn Heights ala THE SENTINAL!

This movie has fantastic music and keeps at a steady pace with beautiful
cinematography and GORE galore. Though this is shot on the cheap, this has moments of surreal beauty in its TERROR and if I may still some vocabulary from my dear friend NO LONGER DEVIL has a sepia-tinted opening. Watch for the incredible shot of light shining through a hole blasted through a little girls head(yes Fulci does not play by the rules of HORROR either and like HENRY-WHO CAN KILL A CHILD & JAWS kiddies are not safe :) I feel this was a homage to Sir Argento's INFERNO and if it was then Messier Fulci has great taste. By far my favorite Fulci film and Amazoner's that's saying a lot(again sorry J.J.I.)

p.s. Stay far away from the heavily snipped copy of The Beyond titled The 7 Doors of Death

35 of 44 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "The critics don't get it, and the critics never will." February 1, 2002

By Robert P. Beveridge HALL OF FAMEVINE™ VOICE

(Note: the subject line is taken from the DVD booklet, and is all too true.)

The Beyond (Lucio Fulci, 1981)

Many hardcore fans of Italian horror cinema consider The Beyond to be Lucio Fulci's best film; more than one will likely opine, if you ask, that The Beyond is the finest Italian horror film ever made. While that's probably stretching the case more than a little (I still prefer Fulci's raw, almost unbearably campy Zombie), there's a whole lot to be said for The Beyond as loads of fun. Without doubt, it is one of Fulci's brightest moments. (Note that all description below is from the uncut version on the Anchor Bay limited edition DVD, and as I've never seen the cut version released to theaters, some of what is described below may not sound familiar to those who have already seen the movie, which had a theatrical re-releases in 1998 as Seven Doors of Death.)

The Beyond takes place in the Louisiana bayou country. It opens with a scene in 1927 detailing the brutal lynching of Sweik, an eastern European of some sort who the natives believe has placed a curse on the town. During his lynching, Sweik protests that, in fact, he's the only person keeping the town from falling under the curse. Needless to say, they mob doesn't listen to him, or a very short film we'd have. We then skip to 1981, as our heroine, Liza (Fulci regular Catriona MacColl, seen most recently in the well-received 1998 film A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries), inherits the hotel where Sweik was staying at the time of his unfortunate demise. The place is haunted, especially Room 36, Sweik's room. As well, the basement is constantly flooded, and no one can figure out why. A plumber is dispatched to find the source of the water, and in his attempt he instead finds the source of the hauntings. Complications, as they say, ensue.

The Beyond works in no small part for the same reason that John Carpenter's contemporary film The Fog works--the events are presented with absolutely no context. The filmmaker hands up a plate of hot, steaming horror and raises no questions as to why any of this is happening. This is an important distinction; whether the film itself raises unanswered questions is often the difference between the success and the failure of a venture like this one. Fulci doesn't raise the questions, and The Beyond works. Argento doesn't raise the questions, and Suspiria works. (Argento tried to raise the questions in Inferno, and boy, did it ever not work.) Fulci throws us an extra bone, however, in
allowing one character to raise one question that no one in the film is capable of answering. Very nice touch, that.

Beyond (no pun intended) the film itself, the DVD release falls apart a bit, which is somewhat surprising in any Anchor Bay release, and is especially troubling in such an expensive, limited disc. Most of the extras that come with the release are either soundless (which is quite annoying when the extra is, for example, an interview!) or have a harsh soundtrack overlaid onto them. Might have been nice to use Fabio Frizzi's score for the film, which is up to the usual Frizzi standard and even surpasses it in places.

The film itself is definitely worth watching, both for fans of Italian horror specifically and the more general horror-fan population alike. However, you may want to wait for a non- limited release from Anchor Bay or Elite before picking it up on DVD. **** for the film, ** ˝ for this particular release of it, so we'll compromise and say ***.