Available at Amazon.com
MGM presents From Beyond: Unrated Director’s Cut. Written by Brian Yuzna, Dennis Paoli & Stuart Gordon. Based on the short story by H.P. Lovecraft. 86 minutes. Unrated. Originally rated R for Gore, nudity, language, and frightening/intense scenes.
Directed By:
Stuard Gordon
Cast:
Jeffrey Combs……….Crawford Tillinghast
Barbara Crampton……….Dr. Katherine McMichaels
Ken Foree……….Buford ‘Bubba’ Brownlee
Ted Sorel……….Dr. Edward Pretorius
The Film:
Stuart Gordon made cult history with his first film Re-Animator. Gordon once again returns to his muse, H.P. Lovecraft, for his second film From Beyond. Bringing back Jeffrey Combs as yet another mad scientist Gordon attempts to make lighting strike twice, but does it?
From Beyond opens with Tillinghast (Combs) working a computer, flipping dials and other such things. Eventually the machine in the middle of the room begins to glow and before you know it a crazy looking fish thing is swimming around in the air. When it attacks him he turns the machine off and the fish disappears. Tillinghast tells Dr. Pretorius of his findings who wants to see the machine work for himself. This leads to Pretorius’s death.
This is where the similarities to the book end, cause this is where the book ends. However, the film continues with Dr. Katherine McMichaels (Crampton) wanting to continue the experiments. So she, Tillinghast and a police officer, Bubba, (Foree) return to the house. When they turn on the machine it turns out that Pretorius is not dead but existing on this other dimension that they’ve tapped into. And well, craziness, bizarreness and depravity follow.
This is a very strange film that doesn’t quite work. There are some interesting ideas going on here and the special effects on the creatures are pretty intense but overall the film just seems to fall flat. There are certainly some who will enjoy this film as it’s not entirely bad but most will find it strange, ridiculous and weird. It starts out strong but begins to unravel the further away from the source material it gets.
Dr. Pretorius returns From Beyond!
The DVD:
This film is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen and Dolby Digital Surround. English and French and Spanish Subtitles.
Extras:
Commentary with Stuart Gordon and cast: This is a fun commentary, you can tell they had a blast making the film. They keep the commentary lively and impart some great tidbits about the film as well. Jeffery Combs is particularly funny.
The Director’s Perspective: (9 min.) Gordon talks about the making of the film from casting to trying to get an R rating for the film. Gordon is a well-spoken guy and a joy to listen to.
The Editing Room: Lost And Found: (4 min.) As one might guess this feature talks about finding the lost footage and using it to create the director’s cut of the film. This is pretty interesting.
Interview with the Composer: (4 min.) Pretty self-explanatory. Richard Band talks about what he thought about to create the music for the film. Fairly interesting stuff.
Storyboard to Film Comparisons with Introductions: Again, I’ve never found these interesting and this is no exception. Four scenes are looked at here.
Photo Montage
The Inside Pulse
This is a strange film and just not as memorable as Re-Animator. Stuart Gordon certainly has a unique style however not many will enjoy it.
