FROM BEYOND

The action opens at night in the basement of scientist Pretorius’ (Ted Sorel) secluded mansion, where he and his assistant Crawford (Jeffrey Combs) are furtively testing out their latest creation: a machine called the ‘resonator’, which aims to stimulate the pineal gland in an effort to open one’s senses to the wonders of a parallel universe. A gateway to the elusive sixth sense, if you will.

The two men are amazed to seeing flying fish-like creatures appear before their eyes. But Crawford panics when he realises the machine is running itself and refuses to be switched off – he wants to shut it down. Driven by the surge of power he feels, Pretorius resists Crawford’s pleas … and ends up laid in a pool of blood, seemingly dead.

Their scene is intruded upon by a neighbour searching for her wayward dog. Not surprisingly, she calls the cops and Crawford’s subsequent story results in him being thrown into the nearest loony bin.

Enter Katherine (Barbara Crampton), a repressed doctor who visits the asylum looking for a subject to interview and study. Dr Bloch (Carolyn Purdy Gordon – director Stuart Gordon’s wife) selects a few potential cases for Katherine. Rather than choose the naked bloke furiously wanking in his padded cell, she opts for Crawford – complete with his stories of having helped create a machine that summoned creatures which bit off his partner’s head "like a gingerbread man".

Intrigued by Crawford’s nervous insistence, Katherine has him released under her supervision and coaxes him back to Pretorius’ abode. Along the way, they recruit inquisitive detective Bubba (Ken Foree). The three of them set up camp at Pretorius’ mansion and set about preparing to recreate the experiment that led to the scientist’s mysterious demise.

But this deed affects each of them in unexpected ways, the resonator tapping into parts of their psyche that they never knew existed. How could Katherine know, for example, that beneath her quiet bespectacled demeanour was a leather-clad dominatrix bursting to come out?

As if that wasn’t enough for them to contend with, Pretorius comes back to confront them … but stronger, beastlier and more sinister than ever before …

As producer Brian Yuzna remarks on the disc’s audio commentary track, the cinematography relies on exceptionally rich colour schemes for the interior scenes (Combs calls it ‘lush’, and he’s on the ball). This results in a highly stylised, distinctive look for the film – one that both gives it a very ‘80s’ aesthetic, and yet helps the film to look much bigger budget than it was ($4.5 million) and therefore age very well indeed.

Another facet that helps FROM BEYOND stand the test of time is its spectacular FX work. The ambition in some of the creature prosthetics and, in particular, the ethereal visuals of the computer-generated beasts appearing from the ‘other side’, is awe-inspiring.

Interestingly, for a film that came heavily truncated in this department upon its initial release, there is very little gore: as Gordon states in the commentary track, the filmmakers favoured slime over blood in the vain hope that they’d get more grisliness past the censors. It didn’t work, at least not back in the 1980s.

In terms of pacing and Dennis Paoli’s script (adapting a HP Lovecraft story), there is very little to criticise: Gordon and his team of regulars clearly grew tight on the shoot of RE-ANIMATOR and are firing on all cylinders here. The film is lean, linear and filmed with a knowing confidence that gives it natural energy throughout. Richard Band’s score is a huge asset too, reeking of ambient class.

Even the cast are more relaxed here, Crampton and Combs having fun with playing characters who are more-or-less polar opposites of those they portrayed in RE-ANIMATOR. Gordon’s background in directing theatre productions is evident once again, with everyone being steered into delivering broad performances. This brings even more energy to the fray as well as some welcome humour, although there is a campiness to some of the sexier scenes that borderlines on the downright silly. And Foree, lovely chap that he is (as any Dead By Dawn attendee of a few years’ back will attest), can’t act for toffee. At times the performances of the three central protagonists get so OTT that you can’t help but think this film lacks the inclusion of a Bruce Abbott to anchor it.

Kinky, wild, often visually breath-taking and blessed with unbridled performances, FROM BEYOND is a truly weird but effortlessly entertaining ride. It holds up so well because it improves on each viewing. It’s nuts, and we love it all the more for that reason.

Second Sight bring FROM BEYOND uncut to UK blu-ray in a stunning 1080p HD transfer which preserves its original aspect ratio. The film looks amazing.

Complete with its original MGM logo at the start, the print used here is immaculate and the transfer is pin-sharp. There’s so much detail in the close-up scenes, it’s beautiful. Elsewhere, colours are vivid (a crucial factor in FROM BEYOND’s look) and blacks are solid – there are no complaints, other than a couple of scenes which are slightly soft in presentation. But that’s me nit-picking.

English audio comes to us in choices of PCM mono and a rousing DTS-HD 4.0 mix. Both are excellent, but the latter should blow you away particularly. English subtitles are optional and easy to read.

The disc is equipped with an animated main menu and animated sub-menus. Pop-up menus include a scene-selection menu allowing access to the film via 16 chapters.

A plethora of truly enhancing bonus features gets rolling with a commentary track from the laid-back and jovial Gordon. He’s a commentator who has an incredible amount of relevant detail to offer, making this a true treasure for fans of the film. Joining Gordon on the track are Yuzna (another fountain of trivia regarding the film’s making), Crampton and Combs. Expect laughs aplenty, along with lots of well-remembered stories.

Gordon can’t help but repeat some of this in the following 20-minute featurette "Stuart Gordon on FROM BEYOND", especially when discussing the film’s themes. He also broadens his scope to speak of his early influences – Lovecraft; Todd Browning’s DRACULA – and how he started off in theatre before moving into film. This offers a mix of film festival audience Q&A footage (with his wife in tow) and new talking head material.

Paoli is interviewed in "Gothic Adaptation", discussing how he was always primarily a sci-fi fan (as opposed to horror) and how he came to work with Gordon on adaptations of Lovecraft’s work. This makes for an insightful and engaging 16-minute chat.

"The Doctor Is In" is one of my personal highlights of the disc’s extras: a 14-minute interview with Crampton. She still looks hot (surprisingly young-looking too) and speaks with sincere affection towards the film and her colleagues from the shoot. She also touches on her infamous ‘head’ scene from RE-ANIMATOR, and the great thing about this is that it’s complemented by a HD clip from that film: from this, it looks like Second Sight’s RE-ANIMATOR blu-ray is going to look amazing. Rejoice!

The 20-minute "Monsters and Slime" sees FX artists John Naulin and Anthony Doublin waxing lyrical about the ambitious make-up and creature effects work in the film. Again, we also get some HD clips from RE-ANIMATOR – which they both also worked on – and the tease of a great transfer to come becomes almost unbearable.

All of the above are new featurettes, presented in HD and in 16x9 widescreen.

A handful of previously seen extras follow:

MGM’s 9-minute "Director’s Perspective" featurette is still a good proposition, but seems a tad redundant in light of the aforementioned new interview. But I’m not grumbling about its inclusion here …

"Lost and Found" delves into MGM’s reinstatement of previously edited material for what became Gordon’s ‘director’s cut’. This is 5 minutes in length.

A 4-minute interview with Band sees the composer expanding on how he tailored his music to the film’s mood and madness.

A well-edited photo montage of stills runs for just under 5 minutes and is set to snippets from Band’s atmospheric score.

Finally we get an 82-second "Storyboard-to-Film Comparison" feature, with an on-screen introduction from Gordon.

You can tell in all of the extra features, new and old, that the makers of this film have retained a lot of love for it. And you can tell from this overall package that Second Sight have viewed this release as a labour of love too.

If you’re a fan of this film, I guarantee you will be delighted if you upgrade to this stunning new release. It even comes in Steelbook packaging.

Review by Stuart Willis