Beyond the Door III (1989)

An introverted American student of Balkan descent travels to Yugoslavia as part of a school trip to witness an ancient pagan ritual, but the pagans hide a deadly secret.

Director:

Jeff Kwitny

Writer:

Sheila Goldberg

Stars:

Mary Kohnert, Bo Svenson, Victoria Zinny

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mary Kohnert	...	Beverly Putnic
Bo Svenson	...	Professor Andromolek
Victoria Zinny	...	Beverly's Mother
Savina Gersak	...	Sava
Sarah Conway Ciminera	...	Christie
William Geiger	...	Kevin
Alex Vitale	...	Angel
Ron Williams	...	Larry
Renee Rancourt	...	Melanie
Jeremy Sanchez	...	Richard
Igor Pervic	...	Marius
Susan Zelouf	...	Miss Chase
Tania Alexander	...	Air hostess
Mario Novelli	...	Engineer
Ratko Tankosic	...	Coal Stoker

Storyline

A shy co-ed and her classmates travel to the Balkans in Europe to see a rare local ritual. With a satanist/professor with them, he lures them into deadly traps to become sacrifices to Satan. One co-ed is a virgin, the main key to bring Satan back to life. But can the co-ed lose her virginity before Satan controls the world?

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Plot Keywords:

gore | nudity | supernatural | satanic ritual | balkans | 

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Taglines:

Last Train to Hell!

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

Despite the title, this film has nothing to do with Beyond the Door (1974) (aka Beyond The Door), or Shock (1977) (aka Beyond The Door II). When Epic Productions acquired the distribution rights, they re-titled the film Beyond the Door III, to capitalize on the success of the original film.

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Goofs

Obvious model used for most scenes of the train running off the tracks. The grains of dirt and pieces of rock are much too large in proportion to the train.

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Alternate Versions

The US version of this film (released on tape and laser disc by RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video) was severely cut for an R-rating and is missing virtually all of the gore from the death scenes. The Japanese release from Columbia Video in English with Japanese subtitles (and wide screen) features all the the uncut killings but does not offer English subtitles for the extensive Serbo-Croat dialog (though it does offer Japanese subtitles for this dialog). The Australian Columbia release titled DEATH TRAIN is also uncut, full screen (the film was shot open-matte so nothing is missing in the full screen transfer) and offers English subtitles for the Serbo-Croat dialog (as does the cut US version).

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Connections

Follows Beyond the Door (1974)

User Reviews

Beyond The Door III: Amok

This third film in the Beyond The Door series takes viewers to Yugoslavia as a possessed train runs amok killing anyone who dares to get in it's way.

A group of American students from Los Angeles embark on an educational trip to Yugoslavia. Once they land, they are taken by boat to a remote village. Our main character Beverly is a shy girl who seems to have some connection to the pagan rituals the tour guide/professor talks about. One night while sleeping in an old log cabin, the villagers nail shut the doors and set the cabin on fire! Most of the students escape, and hop on a train.

Pretty soon it seems like the train has a mind of it's own and is thirsty for blood! Almost immediately, we see two of the drivers and a conductor all murdered in strange and mysterious ways by the train. Eventually, satan reveals himself to Beverly and tells her that he wants her to join him and become a satanist as it is her birthright. Will she follow his lead, or break free and let the good shine through?

I give Beyond the Door III a ton of credit for it's gore and special effects work on the death scenes. A couple of them, including a very gory decapitation via train, are extremely realistic. The acting was just OK. Mary Kohnert led the way as our heroine, the rest were below average for me. Character development was sorely lacking in this one so I didn't care if most of them lived or died.

My biggest problem was the lack of direction by Jeff Kwitny. We'd get some really cool scenes with gore and action, and you'd think the story might be heading in a sensical direction, but it never did. It was hard for me to keep my interest with this one and I really tried. I saw a version that also didn't provide subtitles, so there were some scenes I just couldn't follow as the locals in Yugoslavia were speaking in their Native tongue.

Overall, I'd skip Beyond The Door III unless you are a masochistic horror completist like myself who needs to see every film in a series (whether it is unrelated or not). It was kind of boring just watching the train attack people for an hour and a half.

4/10

Details

Country:

Italy Yugoslavia

Language:

English Serbo-Croatian

Release Date:

21 April 1990 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Amok Train

Filming Locations:

Belgrade, Serbia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Avala Film, C.F.S. Kosutnjak, Epic Entertainment

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1