Review of From Beyond (1986) by Thequietgamer — 13 Mar 2022

Takes the short story of the same name from one of horror's most significant authors and expands upon its basic premise to create a twisted tale of body horror and sadomasochistic sexuality that ends up carrying greater shades of Clive Barker than it does its original creator, H.P. Lovecraft. A lot of parallels can be drawn between this and Hellraiser as a man of deviant sexual tastes falls prey to beings from another dimension after establishing a connection to them and comes back a monster himself. What follows is a nightmare of grotesquely malformed beasts with a similar air of kinkiness stemming from the fetishistic use of leather and chains. The distinguishing factor being that the terror feels appropriately more alien than gothic.

Like all the really good horror movies though, these characters are more at risk of succumbing to their own folly than they are the disgusting monsters that lurk outside of their natural perception and the gory fates they offer that will likely make your stomach churn. The only reason they're at danger in the first place is the protagonist's intoxication with the seductive allure of the other realm's ability to stimulate parts of the mind and awaken sensual urges. Then there's her co-lead who already knows the dangers present, yet isn't as combative as he should be to the whole process seemingly due to his attraction towards her. Watching the cast spell out their doom largely because of their lustful desires while hiding under the guise of scientific discovery infuses the madness with an understated psychosexual tinge.

As interesting as all of that may sound though, it wouldn't matter if the film weren't entertaining. A slow start and the weak first half of its final act aside, things are a lot of gross-out fun and feature some excellent creature designs. It's whenever the heroes leave the single location where the machine allowing them to glimpse the "Beyond" resides that these low points occur. Luckily however, that's where the majority of it takes place. Also, despite all of my talk about the Freudian subtext, director Stuart Gordon frames the sex stuff with a kiddie pool level of depth. Apparently wanting you to enjoy it more for some surface level titillation as opposed to the underlying subtext of it.

Still, regardless of the trappings stemming from his nature as a B-movie maker I'd say Gordon turned what I would, probably boldly, declare to be a severely underwhelming Lovecraft work into something worthwhile with legitimate substance you can pick up on underneath the trashier aspects. It's merging of nasty, face value thrills and unexpected connotations make it a a bit of an overlooked and underrated gem. Meaning it's worth checking out whether you enjoy the source material or not, provided you can handle how revolting the genre's content could be in the '80s when compared to today.

8.