Complete credited cast: | |||
Juliet Mills | ... | Jessica Barrett | |
Gabriele Lavia | ... | Robert Barrett | |
Richard Johnson | ... | Dimitri | |
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Nino Segurini | ... | Dr. George Staton |
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Elizabeth Turner | ... | Barbara Staton (as Elisabeth Turner) |
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Barbara Fiorini | ... | Gail Barrett |
Carla Mancini | ... | (credit only) | |
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David Colin Jr. | ... | Ken Barrett |
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Vittorio Fanfoni | ... | Mr. Francis |
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Gino Marturano | ... | (as Luigi Marturano) |
Pregnant with her third child, the young English mother of two, Jessica Barrett, is living a happy life in San Francisco with her respectable record producer husband, Robert. Puzzled with her strange pregnancy, more and more, Jessica finds herself affected by this unnatural situation, exhibiting erratic and violent behaviour, while talking with a deep, almost demonic voice. Could she be possessed? As blood-curdling incidents threaten the family's peace, an old friend from the past arrives, claiming that he has all the answers. But, who is this new and appalling Jessica? Written by Nick Riganas
I won't waste time summarizing the plot for this film since the other users have done quite a good job themselves. Basically, you've got just one more in a stream of films that cashed in on the success of William Friedkin's 1973 classic "The Exorcist". I can only recommend "Beyond the Door" to those who enjoy these types of movies. Director Ovidio G. seems to be the Italian version of William Girdler, who directed his own "exorcist" knock-off that same year with "Abby", a blaxsploitation version that was actually taken out of theaters after two weeks due to a lawsuit filed by Warner Brothers for plagiarism. If I'm correct, "Beyond the Door" was also attacked by Warner Brothers but I'm not sure what the outcome of that one was. It did manage to stay in the theaters though and actually did good at the box office. "Beyond the Door" copies "The Exorcist" in almost every way and you will either hate it or love it. This time, instead of a young girl, we have Juliet Mills (Nanny and the Professor, Passions) who levitates, vomits, spins her head around, and curses like a sailor, saying things like "lick the whore's vomit" in a demonic voice. Sound pretty familiar? "Beyond the Door" was marketed during it's theatrical release as being filmed in Possess-O-Sound, which was basically the same thing used for the Sensurround effect in the film "Earthquake"; huge speakers with the bass turned way up. To sum things up, this is not a well-made movie at all. I was especially turned off by the devil himself doing a little narration at the beginning of the film. You will, however, have a good time watching it and be entertained if you like this kind of thing. There's a few lines of dialogue from the girl playing the daughter that are a hoot and have to be heard to be believed. I'm pretty sure that whoever wrote this script was smoking some of the wacky tobbacy. I voted 7/10 for entertainment value and being one of those movies that are bad in a good/fun way. Otherwise, I give it only a 3.