The Beyond – How You Discovered It

[Wilson Bros]

Nick & I first saw the film in what could be considered the best possible manner - on the big screen at the Everyman Cinema in London, in a theatre packed-out with Fulci fanatics, and with Fulci himself in attendance.

It was a wonderful day and the audience cheered whenever a violent sequence came up and also laughed in an appreciative manner whenever some of the more infamous dialogue reared it's ugly head, not to mention the arrival of the pipe-cleaner spiders...

The applause that arose when the end credits came up blew the roof off the place.

Ah, memories...

Kev W

[Daemonia]

Strangely enough, although I watched loads of the 'video nasties' in the early 80's pre-VRA, Fulci was a name that seemed to pass me by. Although I did check out House by the Cemetery at the time and thought it was great. I finally got hold of uncut versions of all the Fulci films in the 90's and became an avid fan. But The Beyond was never my favourite - that is still, and probably always will be, the mighty Zombie Flesh Eaters. Don't get me wrong, I adore The Beyond too, but it doesn't resonate with me as Zombie does.

I caught City of the Living Dead on Vipco's cut VHS tape in the early 90's and liked the atmosphere but found it short on the violent stuff and wondered what all the fuss was about. Well, now I know....Ferman cut all the good stuff out of it! And no, I don't just watch films for the gore, but I do like it to be intact and untouched by the censor!

Having acquired a bootleg VHS of The Beyond taped off a LaserDisc in the 90's (no, I'm not advocating piracy, but bootlegging was about the only way to see films uncut in the dark days of Ferman and we genuinely risked being arrested for trading in such things!) when DVD hit I initially picked up the EC DVD (£25!!!) and then upgraded to the Anchor Bay/Rolling Thunder/Grindhouse release and now....I'm eagerly anticipating the Arrow Blu-ray!

Originally Posted by Wilson Bros

Nick & I first saw the film in what could be considered the best possible manner - on the big screen at the Everyman Cinema in London, in a theatre packed-out with Fulci fanatics, and with Fulci himself in attendance.

It was a wonderful day and the audience cheered whenever a violent sequence came up and also laughed in an appreciative manner whenever some of the more infamous dialogue reared it's ugly head, not to mention the arrival of the pipe-cleaner spiders...

The applause that arose when the end credits came up blew the roof off the place.

Ah, memories...

Kev W

Ah, Kev, you make me green with envy! I bet that was an experience of a lifetime.

[Wilson Bros]

Originally Posted by Daemonia

Ah, Kev, you make me green with envy! I bet that was an experience of a lifetime.

It was indeed a wonderful experience and the audience cheered slightly irreverently at the arrival of Joe the Plumber, not to mention the classic "Attack, Dickie, attack!" - the audience went bananas when the late, great Mr Warbeck blew the top of the ginger kid's head clean off.

Kev W

[Daemonia]

Yes, I always thought 'Joe' was a rather unimaginative name, but it's conveniently generic and, now, the film just wouldn't be the same without him! But many of the Italian horrors of this period used obviously Anglicised names - like Bob from HBTC and Peter and Mary in City of the Living dead (and there's yet another Bob in this one too!). Not exactly imaginative names, but they serve the desired purpose.

[wayfarer]

Back in 1983 I watched the Fulci quartet of horror in quick succession. Even cut, The Beyond was a masterpiece in horror, back when I was 14. It was the atmosphere of dread and the constant killings that fascinated me. I also loved the grungy zombie make-up, on Schweich [sic] and Bob's make-up FX were also cool (the flap of skin over his missing eye for example). I can forgive the pipe cleaner spiders and the Warbeck gaff of reloading a gun using the barrel.

Like many, i first saw it uncut after buying the ABUS tin.

I haven't watched it in some time and I'm looking forward to the BR release.

[Kenro199x]

I was on a horror forum a long time ago and saw the headshot gif used as an avatar. I asked the guy who had gif and it went on from there.

[blu]

I had read good things about The Beyond about a decade ago and bought the DVD that came in a big tin case back then. I remember liking the movie but I don't recall many specifics. In the past year or so I've gotten heavily into zombie films and as such I am anxiously awaiting the Blu-ray release of this film. I can't wait to see it again and am certain I'll enjoy it even more so than I did previously.

[Vampix]

The first time I saw The Beyond in it's cut cinema version was via the Vampix VHS tape.The first time I saw the film fully uncut was through buying & watching Vipco's 2001 VHS release, what a revelation that was!

[Jonny114]

The first time I found out about the film was when I discovered the zombie flesh eaters and the director Lucio fulci which allowed me to look for more movies by Lucio Fulci which led to discovery of The Beyond.

[Freudstein]

Amazingly enough The Beyond was featured in a very respectable Belgian film program on television and they showed the acid pouring scene in all its gory glory. Fulci was a big thing back then because of Zombi 2 which had people lining up around the block to see it after sensational reports of mass vomiting during screenings (I was just too young to get in but I caught it on video). Pretty soon The Beyond was available on video and I spent a lot of money renting and re-renting it, I loved everything about it and it remained a staple for countless video-nights at my place. The gorgeous cover art had a lot to do with my ongoing attraction to it although I could never find the scene where that demon cut her throat... it has remained my favorite Fulci flick alongside House By The Cemetery.