This is a creepy horror film plenty of brutal images and gory events . A New Yorker heir ( Katriona MacColl, Fulci's ordinary ) moves an old mansion-hotel in Louisiana and she wishes restore it . She investigates the weird deeds happened in a room and by basement of the old motel that is built on top of the door to the beyond. Bloody and purulent specters roam there. She is confronted with rare happenings as a worker has a lethal fall, the plumber is cruelly murdered and her blind friend is bitten by a dog that breaks his neck. When she escapes to the hospital along with friendly doctor McCabe ( David Wabeck ) she doesn't know what a new horror is waiting there . Early rare deeds begin to happen to them, as they start hearing noises, rare characters and tragic killings. Quote from the book of Eibon: "And you will face the sea of darkness, and all therein may be explored¨.

Chilling Italian terror flick full of screams, chills, thrills and lots of blood and guts. Gory, gruesome , pretty repellent , and ghastly gore feast in which the stumbling stiff dead are reanimated and committing astonishing murders . This is a classic excruciatingly splatter film in which the intrigue,tension, suspense appears threatening and lurking in every room, corridors , cellar , hospital , morgue and many other places . This unrelenting shock-feast packs good make-up and special effects make-up by the maestro Gianetto De Rossi. Produced on a tight budget by Fabrizio De Angelis , Fulci's usual producer and occasionally director. Eerie musical score composed and conducted by Fabio Frizzi . Usual secondary actors as Veronica Lazar , Al Cliver and of course special appearance of Lucio Fulci as librarian clerk . This genuinely frightening story with correct utilization of images-shock is well photographed by Sergio Salvati on location in Louisiana and Italy . The motion picture is realized by one of the most controversial filmmakers of terror movies ,Lucio Fulci in his usual style with flaws and gaps but is professionally made because he is a skilled craftsman . He creates a strange horror thriller that manages to be both scary and skilfully made, deserving its cult status . Reviewers are divided over booth the morals and talents of Fulci (1927-1996) who sometimes directed under the alias ¨Louis Fuller¨. For some critics many of his movies are cruel and shockingly violent, yet their gory surface often conceals religious, social commentaries or intelligent issues. Whether he should be viewed as a cheap sensationalist or just a genius Fulci has a loyal fan base and undeniably has an important and unique influence on the terror genre , creating great works on a low budget such as proved in ¨ The black cat ¨, ¨Manhattan baby¨, ¨Gates of Hell¨, ¨Island of the living dead¨, ¨New York ripper¨ , among them. this is one more imaginative horror pictures in which the camera stalks in sinister style . It's just one long unrelenting guts-feast and passable budget horror movie that still packs a punch for those who like to be terrorized out their wits . This gore-feast that tried to disguised itself under many other titles will appeal to Lucio Fulci aficionados.

• Liza Merril (Catriona MacColl) takes possession of a hotel in Louisiana. She has plans to renovate the place. But a series of seemingly accidental deaths may put a stop to her plans. She's unaware that her hotel has a past. Many years ago, a warlock was lynched in the basement of the hotel. Before dying, he claimed that the hotel was one of the seven doorways to hell and that his death would lead to its opening. Is his prophecy coming true?

• I've never been the biggest fan of Lucio Fulci. Other than a couple of gialli, my experiences with his films have not left me with much of desire to see more (For example, I thought House by the Cemetery was terrible and I walked out of the theater during City of the Living Dead). So, I had never been in a rush to see The Beyond. While it has problems, The Beyond is much more enjoyable than a lot of Fulci's other work.

• Two things work for me in The Beyond - atmosphere and Catriona MacColl. When watching some of his other films, I came away with the impression that Fulci wasn't patient enough to allow atmosphere to build. He always seemed to be in a rush to get to the money shot. The hotel in this movie is filled with a good amount of atmosphere. There is a sense of dread hanging over the place. You can especially feel it when the characters venture into the basement. It's all but palatable.

• As for MacColl, through her acting she's able to pull together the barest of story lines and create a character I could care about. It's difficult to enjoy a horror movie when you don't care about the characters. A little more insight into the MacColl's character would have been very welcome.

• As I stated previously, the movie is not without problems. The biggest is the plot. It's all but non-existent. The actual why's and how's of the doorway to hell opening are never really explored. We only see some of the aftermath. We know that the doorway to hell is in the basement of the hotel, then why does half of the movie take place at a hospital? Furthermore, the weak plot does not allow the characters to be fleshed out as much as I would have liked. I knew so little about most of the characters that I really didn't care what happened to them. The plot seems to matter little to Fulci as its main function is to string together a series of gristly set pieces. And that's always been my biggest complaint about Fulci - he throws tons of gore into his movies, not to advance the storyline, but for the sake of showing gore. Gore does not necessarily equal horror. I'll use the spider attack scene from The Beyond as an example. While I'll say that it certainly was gross and very nicely done,but it's not scary because it happens out of the blue to a character I know nothing about. Gore does not bother as long as it is presented within the context of the story.

• Overall, my experience with The Beyond has made me rethink some of my thoughts of Fulci. I may need to see some of his other films that I've been putting off.

The Beyond is one of Fulci's best films. The film takes place in modern day Louisiana as a woman oversees the the renevation of an hotel that she inherits. Strange and gory things start to happen and poof the hotel just happens to be over one of the 7 doors to hell. Very bloody with a slightly incoherent plot the film is a lot of fun and I suspect that no Fulci fan should be without their copy. Visually I think this is Fulci's best film (that I've seen) and the acting is what you'd expect. 7 / 10: FULCI LIVES