Barnes & Noble

Zombies, man-eating tarantulas, and buckets of blood -- what more does a horror film need? The Beyond (a.k.a. Seven Doors of Death), an Italian horror gem by director Lucio Fulci, delivers plenty of Fulci's signature gore, all shot in splendid wide-screen color. The story is as basic as they come: Liza (Katherine MacColl) has inherited a dilapidated hotel in Louisiana that just happens to have been built over one of seven gateways to hell. A handsome but skeptical doctor (David Warbeck) and a mysterious white-eyed blind beauty (Sarah Keller) go along for the ride, but the bloodletting is the point in The Beyond. Fulci pulls out all the stops for his endlessly inventive scenes of carnage and mutilation, driving nails through various body parts and showing that there's more than one way to rip an eyeball out of its socket. Surprisingly, parts of The Beyond were actually shot on location in Louisiana, lending the haunting authenticity of a bayou atmosphere to this nonetheless quintessentially Italian thrill ride. The Anchor Bay DVD includes audio commentary, interviews, and a theatrical trailer. Gregory Baird

All Movie Guide

This gruesome Louisiana-set horror film opens with a 1927 prologue featuring a Satanic artist being crucified and melted alive with quicklime in the basement of an old hotel. Half a century later, pretty Liza (Catriona MacColl) inherits the hotel, not suspecting that it is one of seven gateways to Hell. A workman breaks his neck, another has his eyeball gouged out by a zombie, a woman's head is melted by a vat of acid, and an architect has his face eaten by hungry tarantulas who chew out his tongue. Dozens of cannibalistic zombies attack Liza and her disbelieving lover (David Warbeck), who joins her in Hell in the film's downbeat conclusion. The gory special effects by Gianetto de Rossi and Germano Natali are nauseatingly effective, although the script (by Dardano Sacchetti, Giorgio Mariuzzo and director Lucio Fulci) tends to wander and the pacing is a trifle slow. Robert Firsching

Product Details

• UPC: 011891980241
• Source: TGG DIRECT
• Sound: Dolby Digital
• Time: 1:20:00
• Sales Rank: 17,768

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