Following the success of Stewart Gordon's Reanimator, From Beyond is amazingly enough, just as good but not as well known.
Starring Jeffrey Combs as Crawford and Barbara Crampton as Dr. Katherine, both of Reanimator fame. The film also stars always wonderful Ken Foree (as Bubba) of George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead.
Crawford and his partner, Dr. Pretorius are both physicists who are experimenting in what they seem to believe work on the pineal gland. They believe that it is the third eye, with unmatched potential to evolve human development to make us into super beings. However, when another dimension is opened up to an incredibly aggressive dimension, Pretorius's head gets bitten off and Crawford is left dwelling in a world of madness.
As an educated man he's able to convince the police and a psychiatrist to allow him to prove his innocence and show them that the other world dimension really exists. Once he shows his skeptics the dimension, their fascination with Crawford's discovery is only matched by their horror of its occupants.
Based on a HP Lovecraft story, From Beyond is host to some of the greatest special effects I have ever seen. Unfortunately, once it was completed and reviewed by ratings boards it was cut significantly for its theatrical release due to its graphic nature and shocking scenes which include Crawford latching on to several faces in order to suck their brain matter out through their eye sockets.
The other dimensional beings can be described as none other that malevolent in nature and attack as soon as their able. The real problem materializes when the decapitated doctor reveals himself as a super being trapped in the dimension with unlimited power and a taste for bondage and sexual repression.
The film is incredibly well shot and visits a theme not so common amongst horror movies, especially of those from the 80s. Like Reanimator in the way of its use of vibrant greens, From Beyond has a similar lighting approach, but with pinks and blues.
Not campy like slashers of the time, this film is one of the Holy Grails of undiscovered 80s horror films.
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