Beyond Darkness (1990)
"La casa 5" (original title)

A minister and his wife move into a haunted house.

Director:

Claudio Fragasso

Writers:

Claudio Fragasso, Rossella Drudi

Stars:

David Brandon, Barbara Bingham, Gene LeBrock

Cast

Credited cast:
David Brandon	...	Father George
Barbara Bingham	...	Annie
Gene LeBrock	...	Father Peter
Michael Stephenson	...	Martin
Theresa Walker	...	Carole
Stephen Brown	...	Reverend Jonathan
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mary Coulson	...	Bette

Storyline

A minister and his wife move into a haunted house.

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Genres:

Horror

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Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 July 1990 (Italy)

Also Known As:

House 5

Filming Locations:

Otis House, Fairview Riverside State Park - 119 Fairview Drive, Madisonville, Louisiana, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Filmirage, Production Group S.r.l.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Linda Blair was offered a major role.

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Connections

Follows Witchery (1988)

User Reviews

boring and incoherent

There's a reason why this claims to be a part of a series it's not: no one would watch it otherwise!

A collared priest enters a prison to give last rites to a middle aged female serial killer. Somehow she's stolen a number of stout children's souls, and the priest can see them. He's somehow affected by her evil holy book, which has a picture of Satan and a house in it that look much more recent than all the other pages. He turns into an alcoholic who staggers around town. Apparently he is possessed and also having a crisis of faith.

Anyway, another collared priest moves into the house from the book because an older priest gave it to him for him and his family of four. There's a strange giant black swan rocker in the children's room they assume was a gift for the kids. One of the doors has a poorly- bricked and stuccoed wall behind it with a slit that glows. Obviously supernatural bad stuff starts happening soon, but the family for some reason stays. Turns out the older priest knew that the entire family would be in danger, but he thought it would be a good idea anyway for some reason.

The movie is filled with terrible editing, terrible dialogue, and terrible plotting. The special effects aren't so good, mainly the house being full of smoke and red light as the cast has sweaty faces. There's a bunch of somewhat spooky zombie witches. A mixture of witches and innocent women had been burned at the stake on the site years ago. What the connection is to the serial killer is anyone's guess.

It's a poor mix of The Amityville Horror (haunted house), The Exorcist (exorcists, possession and crisis of faith), and Poltergeist (child taken into other world, stuff flying around). Don't bother! Who would actually believe this as a sequel to Evil Dead?