Crawford Tillinghast, under the eye of his mentor, the sadistic Dr. Pretorious, has created a device that advances the pineal gland of the human brain, allowing one to see the extra dimensions around them. Unfortunately, creatures inhabiting those dimension are capable of looking back, and after a terrifying encounter which claimed the life of Dr. Pretorious, Tillinghast goes completely nuts. Psychiatrist Dr. Katherine Michaels wants Tillinghast to recreate the experiment, with a clean bill of mental health being his reward. So, along with a police supervisor, the trio return to the machine. This, of course, leads to disaster, as they encounter the renewed Dr. Pretorious, who has become one with a hideus creature from beyond.

The cast is partly recycled from Re-Animator, though their roles are different enough so as not to retread the characters they already played. Jeffrey Combs manages to play a mad scientist just different enough from the one he played in Re-Animator. I did feel that Herbert West and Crawford Tillinghast were a bit too similar, but not so much as to hurt the movie. Barbara Crampton plays a character almost entirely different from the one we saw in Re-Animator and does a fine job of it, proving to be both a villain and a heroine at the same time. Then there’s Ken Foree as Bubba Brownlee, who adds an element of comic relief to the film, but not in any sort of distracting slapstick kind of way. He just seems to be the only one self-aware of how crazy everything is. Ted Sorel plays the lead villain, whom I at first thought was going to be a stale retread of Dr. Hill from “Re-Animator”. While similarities were noticeable, Dr. Pretorious definitely had different goals and motivations.

The effects in this movie are exceptionally good. The Dr. Pretorious monster is really quite gruesome and it’s constantly fluctuating and mutating form is a real visual treat. From Beyond is very gory, and I’m sure that’s just the way we all like it. One particular sequence I enjoyed featured  Tillinghast sucking the brain out of a woman’s skull via her eye socket. The movie has been on DVD and with an Uncensored Director’s Cut for a few years now.

Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna seem to have the best track record for adapting Lovecraft tales. From Beyond  is a bit of an underrated gem, so check out the unrated DVD, it’s certainly worth your time.

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5. saibaiol said: I saw this for the first time on 8mm back in uhhh… early 90s, late 80s? It’s awesome. I love the effects, mostly :) Story is almost nothing like the Lovecraft one, but lol that’s to be expected. Nice post!
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