The Beyond (1981)
"...E tu vivrai nel terrore! L'aldilà" (original title)

A young woman inherits an old hotel in Louisiana where after a series of supernatural 'accidents', she learns that the building was built over one of the entrances to Hell.

Director:

Lucio Fulci

Writers:

Dardano Sacchetti (story), Dardano Sacchetti (screenplay),

Stars:

Catriona MacColl, David Warbeck, Cinzia Monreale

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Catriona MacColl	...	Liza Merril (as Katherine MacColl)
David Warbeck	...	Dr. John McCabe
Cinzia Monreale	...	Emily (as Sarah Keller)
Antoine Saint-John	...	Schweick
Veronica Lazar	...	Martha
Anthony Flees	...	Larry
Giovanni De Nava	...	Joe the Plumber
Al Cliver	...	Dr. Harris
Michele Mirabella	...	Martin Avery
Gianpaolo Saccarola	...	Arthur (as Giampaolo Saccarola)
Maria Pia Marsala	...	Jill
Laura De Marchi	...	Mary-Ann

Storyline

The cellar of an old hotel is built on top of the door to the beyond. Bloody zombies roam there. A young woman who is heir of the hotel wants to restaurate it. She is confronted with strange events. A painter has a lethal fall, the plumber vanishes and her friend breaks his neck. When she escapes to the hospital of a friendly doctor she doesn't know what a nightmare is waiting there...

---

Plot Keywords:

hotel | hell | doctor | painter | plumber | 

---

Taglines:

Behind this doorway lie the terrifying and unspeakable secrets of hell. No one who sees it lives to describe it. And you shall live in darkness for all eternity.

---

Genres:

Horror

---

Certificate:

X

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian English

Release Date:

1 March 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

Seven Doors of Death

Filming Locations:

Incir De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

$400,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$113,795 (USA) (11 September 1998)

Gross:

$126,387 (USA) (13 November 1998)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fulvia Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min 80 min (R-rated) 82 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby (US version) Mono (original version)

Color:

Black and White (Sepia) Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Lucio Fulci:  when David Warbeck answers the phone at the Jazz saloon, the director is reflected in the mirror behind him.

---

Goofs

When Warbeck and MacColl enters the elevator at the hospital when they are escaping from the zombies Warbeck starts to reload his gun. Just before the elevator doors close we can clearly see that he put the bullets down the gun barrel as a joke and both him and MacColl starts to laugh.

---

Quotes

Schweick: Be careful what you do... because this hotel was built over one of the Seven Doors of Evil - and only I can save you!

---

Connections

Featured in Necrophagia: Through Eyes of the Dead (2002)

User Reviews

A true masterpiece from a legendary master of horror!

A couple of years back (late 90's), I had the pleasure of experiencing Fulci's The Beyond the way it was meant to be watched...on the big screen at the Angelica Movie Theater in Soho (NYC) at midnight, in all of its uncut glory (thanks to Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder Films).

For a couple of hours, I was taken aback to the greatest days of horror! It even had previous of movies like 2000 Maniacs, The Evil Dead and Zombie (aka Zombie 2) before the movie started. To truly appreciate this movie, one has to remember the era it came from. The post Exorcist and Dawn of the Dead period saw many imitations, especially from Italy. However, there were a handful of filmmakers that had actual imagination, skills and creativity to set their pictures apart from the rest. Of the bunch, Argento, Bava (father and son), and Fulci stood quite apart from the rest, each with their own talents.

Fulci was perhaps the most prolific of them, adding a flare of his own Art to his works. His movies each played like paint on canvas from beginning to end. The Beyond was his greatest Masterpiece, combining a better plot than most of his works, with the high quality level of gore Fulci was and always will be well known for.

The Beyond starts with a Warlock being executed in the 1930's by a lynch mob. Little do they know that the hotel where the act takes place happens to be one of the seven doorways to hell. Flashing forward about 50 years later, Liza inherets the hotel and decides to restore it. From there all hell breaks loose. The ending is as disturbing as it gets, and the deaths are both unique and horrifying (vintage Fulci).

I remember walking to the subway station that night, still thinking about what my eyes had just seen (occasionally looking over my shoulder) - realizing I had been genuinely scared and disturbed by a movie that at the time was about 17 years old. Man I miss the "Hey-Day" of horror, and the true masters of it!