Note—From Beyond was released in 1986 with an
R rating. Years later, the deleted material was
rediscovered and edited back, into the unrated DVD. This
is the version the filmmakers originally hoped to release.
Unfair as it may be,
From Beyond will likely be compared with director
Stuart Gordon’s earlier movie,
Reanimator. Reanimator may well be better
but don’t let that blind you to what’s good in
From Beyond.
People may feel–not much of a story.
From Beyond feels like more of a rush
job–not enough time available to develop the plot, the characters.
But that’s not such a big deal; Its focus isn’t plot so much as
breaking down barriers.
What sort of barriers? First, barriers
in the scientific sense; the search for new dimensions, hidden
sensory awareness, concealed worlds.
Second, breaking barriers simply by creating
its outrageous plot and characters.
Like a peeping tom, you get to watch people
change, as they surrender to forces from their subconscious.
As Bubba Brownlee the streetwise detective says, “It’s
changing us…and not for the better.”
Detective Brownlee; streetwise but unprepared for the
Resonator’s effects
Like
Reanimator, this movie is based on a short story
by the horror/fantasy/science fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft.
Lovecraft died fairly young in 1937. Unlike most of
us, he was alive when Einstein published his Theory of Relativity,
the Wright brothers flew the first plane, physicists gained
insights into energy levels within the atom, and many more
scientific ideas came to light.
Like another excellent writer of that era,
Algernon Blackwood, (The
Willows, The Wendigo), Lovecraft became intrigued
with other dimensions. People are still fascinated with
these questions years later—remember the
Little Girl Lost episode on
Twilight Zone, (1962) expanded in 1982 as
Poltergeist.
Like Poe and Ambrose Bierce, Lovecraft
ventured deep into dark, grotesque environments. A cynic
could say that Lovecraft’s fiction is not ideal movie material
because it’s virtually lacking in sex and humor. Both
Reanimator and From Beyond add
sex by the shovel-full, and also a bit of humor. Still,
these movies (and Gordon’s later Dagon) manage to
capture Lovecraft’s spirit better than anything before or since.
From Beyond is not
particularly strong on ideas. I doubt very much this is
what the filmmakers had in mind. In one revealing interview,
Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, the director’s wife, summed it up:
“Stuart’s approach is: ‘Too much ain’t enough.’” The
filmmakers are fixed on being as outrageous as possible.
Aiming more at a series of shocking scenes than a well-told
story. This approach is not that different from Dario
Argento’s, although its style is quite different.
The story’s message, perhaps: Until you
really get your shit together, there are places you need to stay
out of.
Two scientists, Pretorius and Tillinghast had
created a resonator, with the power to expose them to another
dimension. Pretorius, the more reckless, has had his head
twisted off, and returns as a slimy mass able to change his form
at will. (Most of the special effects are quite good, especially
given the limited budget.)
But Pretorius, like so many people you’ve
known, finds that his massively increased powers don’t solve his
sexual and ego problems. Despite all he’s seen and his new powers,
Pretorius is still the same loser as before. Tillinghast,
who knows him best, describes Pretorius as sexually impotent and
fixated on S&M.
Now Pretorius has monstrous powers, but he has
remained an abuser. He only talks a better game.
Dr. McMichaels is a psychiatrist assigned
custody of Tillinghast, whom the authorities believe murdered
Pretorius. Her brief journey into black leather doesn’t
teach her much either. Probably she managed to keep her
sexuality in check before. Now she is unable to control her
wilder urges. But as you would expect, being touched by
someone as slimy as Dr. Pretorius brings her only disgust.
I don’t want to let ourselves, the viewers,
off the hook so easily either. The bizarre, sleazy sexuality
we view allows us to indulge our idle curiosity, our morbid
fantasies. Remember how innocent Dr. McMichaels looks at
first, in her white dress and large eyeglasses.
Hard as it is to admit, I bet many of us have
tried to picture sex between such a woman, and a shapeless, slimy
creature from another dimension. That lots of us, riding a
train, perhaps sitting at a business meeting, have had similar
fantasies about someone dressed in perfect style and revealing no
emotion. The more sophisticated, out of reach, and straight
out of Elle or GQ they
look, the more intense our daydream. I suspect that we’ve
had fantasies of being Dr. Pretorius for a day (remember his
classic piece of dialogue: “Humans are such easy
prey.”)
So many of Lovecraft’s short stories begin or
end in insane asylums, with a character’s mind blown-out,
overwhelmed by the enormity of their experience. In
From Beyond, Tillinghast (the closest thing to a
traditional hero) is accused of murdering his colleague, then
diagnosed as schizophrenic.
Dr. McMichaels’ professional reputation gives
her the authority to take Tillinghast back to Pretorius’lab.
The only condition; they go accompanied by a police
detective, Bubba Brownlee.
Here’s where you get a taste of
the bizarre imaginations of Gordon and screenwriter
Dennis Paoli. In a scene worth the price of admission, Dr.
Pretorius, believed dead after having his head torn free of his
body, reappears. Transformed into a mass of unknown life
form.
Pretorius tells them he did not die…only
“passed beyond.” Adding “I am master here.”
Then changing the subject, “Who’s the lovely woman?” The same
imagination and flair that made Reanimator such a
revelation.
Dr. Pretorius–not dead, but…passed beyond
Unfortunately, Dr. McMichaels has developed a real
taste for the resonator’s effects. Tillinghast and Brownlee
are convinced it is dangerous, much like a physical addiction.
But McMichaels’ interest in the pineal gland, and in the
resonator’s ability to erase sexual inhibitions overcomes her
caution. While the two men sleep, she turns the
resonator back on, its force blowing her dress away from her.
When Tillinghast comes upstairs, she kisses him
passionately.
Then Pretorius is back, part human,
part…something from the next dimension. He pulls her against
him, licks her cheek, feels her breasts with slimy, elastic,
elongated
Dr. McMichael’s sex fantasy… turned really ugly
Tillinghast runs down to the basement to
disconnect the main power source but is attacked by a huge
worm-like creature. Pretorius transforms into an organism
with an orifice that envelopes McMichaels’ head. Both
creatures seem inspired by incarnations of
The Thing, made only a few years before.
Finally Tillinghast is able to cut the power, shut down the
resonator.
While Suspiria is well known
for its bright blues and reds, From Beyond uses a variety of
pinks, magentas, violets and purples to underline its atmosphere.
These shades do the job, lending each of these scenes a
bizarre, out-of-control feel.
What other scenes make
From Beyond such a powerful experience?
Take a look at the scenes where the pineal glands take
people over. (This gland is not fiction; it is a
small structure located in the brain. After much research,
its functions became understood, but not until the 1950’s.)
But in this movie, the pineal gland functions
like an id running berserk. Pretorius and Tillinghast’s
enlarged pineal glands actually resemble small snakes poking out
of holes in their foreheads.
Tillinghast wakes up in the hospital and
begins to stagger around with a sudden appetite for human brains
(best served raw). At first, he has to settle for getting
diseased brains he finds in hospital waste bins. Shots from
Tillinghast’s point of view show things around him in bright,
iridescent colors— more vivid because the real corridor is
practically all black and white–it looks like a cheap video game.
Dr. Tillinghast–craving brains
You sit there thinking–it can’t get much weirder than this.
Then it does.
Again, don’t be in a hurry to compare this one
with Reanimator. Just be thankful for
Gordon, Paoli and their sick minds.