Movie: From Beyond (1986). Director: Stuart Gordon. Starring: Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ken Foree, Ted Sorel. Synopsis: Two scientists have created a machine called the Resonator that stimulates the pineal gland of the human brain but it has dangerous effects as it kills one of them and the other is locked up in a psych ward. Thoughts: Stuart Gordon had such great success with his début movie Re-Animator that he decided to keep with the H. P. Lovecraft based themes for his next movie From Beyond which is based on a short story by the revered author. Initially Stuart Gordon wanted to adapt Dagon for his second Lovecraft outing but was discouraged by the reaction of his distributor - Dagon would come much later in 2001 to a mixed reaction - and the director decided to work on adapting a short story instead. The results are a more sci-fi, body horror outing. The movie was shot in Italy with an Italian film crew unlike Re-Animator in order to save on costs. The movie begins with Jeffrey Combs character Crawford Tillinghast experimenting on a machine called the Resonator. After turning it on he sees a creature that attacks him when he tries to get a closer look. He reports to Edward Pretorius what he has seen and they test the Resonator again only to have Pretorius react maniacally to it and it kills him. Tillinghast runs away only to be arrested and locked up in a psych ward. Later on a doctor named Catherine McMichaels visits Tillinghast to discuss what happened to Pretorius and the experiments and come to an agreement to continue the experiments after some testing on Tilinghast to reveal that his pineal gland has grown significantly and proves the scientists theory. A detective Bubba Brownlee - played by Dawn of the Deads Ken Foree - is assigned to them. As with the actors in Re-Animator, the acting in From Beyond is top notch from everyone, especially from Jeffrey and Ted as the scientists, They are just brilliant in their roles. Barbara and Ken also play great parts and everybody is great in their role giving a positive vibe throughout. The plot also builds up really well and does not feel slow at all, in fact it is exciting to see everything unfold during the experiments as it gradually gets worse for the main cast and we see what has become of Pretorius in gruesome fashion. The best thing of all has to be the visual effects and they stand out the most; if you loved the effects in John Carpenters The Thing then the effects in From Beyond will elate you. You get body horror and gore with practical make-up and models like the aforementioned movie. The final result is a very impressive movie that at times is disturbing, quite scary and a lot of fun despite being more serious than Re-Animator was. Although I prefer Re-Animator, From Beyond is a great follow-up and continues to see Stuart Gordon as a great horror director. Score: 4 1/2 out of 5.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 15:24:16 +0000
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