Member-only story
The Beyond ~ Film Review
Many times we as viewers forget the fact that horror movies are art. We are so engaged with the gore and the chase that we seemingly forget each moment of a film is intricately woven into one grand experience.
The Beyond weaves its story differently than others. The storyline is vague and the setting is sparse. The deaths are gruesome, but the ending is blank. We know nothing about the characters nor are we privy to why the events are unfolding the way they are. All we know is that the Seven Doors Hotel in Louisiana was the scene of a horrible death years ago and it is now a gate to Hell. A young woman named Liza (Catriona MacColl) inherited the Hotel and is now trying to renovate it in order to open it back up for business.
Of course, all hell breaks loose (no pun intended), but there is never really an explanation for anything that is happening. If film is art, then The Beyond is avant-garde to the extreme. It is clear that the director (Lucio Fulci) wanted to create a cinematic experience that was surreal, dreamlike, radical and abstract. I don’t normally like linking history with my film reviews, but I believe that The Beyond begs to be compared with other forms of art.
Dadaism began in reaction to the horrors of World War I. It is known for being nonsensical, surreal and intuitive. The Beyond is nonsensical, but it is even more surreal. The…
