From: gbradley@uks197.Berkeley.EDU (Gary Bradley)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies,alt.cult-movies
Subject: Re: The Beyond - Wierd? (was Re:  More Weird List)
Date: 26 Jan 93 18:57:16 GMT
Reply-To: gbradley@uks197.Berkeley.EDU (Gary Bradley)
Followup-To: rec.arts.movies

gunnarh@dhhalden.no (GUNNAR HORRIGMO) writes...

>>
>>Lucio Fulci Films.
>>
>>	Italian director who, during the eighties, made a series
>>	of zombie movies, most of which were banned or heavily
>>	cut in the UK. They are all quite weird, with ghostly
>>	priests, gates to hell, blind eyes, zombies in baths, etc.
>
> Please tell me, what's _weird_ about a strange priest, a gate to hell, a 
> dead guy in a bath tub, or beeing blind? 
>
>I've met a lot of strange priests, I've seen a lot of blind people. I've 
>never encountered a gate to hell, but I don't classify them as weird. And 
>how many people haven't died in a bathtub?

   Aha, you have made this reply just before I was about to. I also
think that Lucio Fulci's quartet (The Beyond, Zombie Flesheaters, City
of the Living Dead and House by the Cemetery) should NOT be on the weird
list. They are really just "standard" horror films injected with buckets
of Italian style. Would you want to include all horror films on the
weird list??

>"The Beyond" is _NOT_ weird. Creepy, yes, but weird, noooo. With no doubt, 
>Fulci's masterpiece. I features the most excellent filming and zombie-shots 
>I have ever seen. Probably the only zombie/horror film that really had me 
>scared. I don't recall any other movies using the same tecnique (sp? - 

   Hmmm. Personally I would rate "the Beyond" as the weakest of the 4
films. I like Zombie Flesheaters best (though it just HAS to be the
uncut version). One other place I can think
of where the filming technique you mention was used was in "Encounters
of a Spooky Kind" (which I think is aka "Ghost vs Ghost"), a Chinese
horror movie which is generally played for laughs but is mighty
frightening in places.
   You mention "The Beyond" as being a scary Fulci film, have you seen
"House by the Cemetery"? Now the last half hour of that scared the shit
out of me!! I recommend it highly for scares.

> Now, have you ever seen "From Beyond"? There's a weird one..... :)

   Interesting little tale (and question)..."From Beyond" is losely
based on an HP Lovecraft short story of the same name. Well, a video
company called Vipco (I think) has recently re-released a lot of
previously banned gore movies in the UK (with cuts appropriate for 1993)
including Lucio Fulci's quartet. The new releases are repackaged and are
mostly in widescreen format (which is great), but saldy are quite
noticeably cut (which is a violation of my freedom of choice, but that's
another story). The funny thing is that 2 of the Fulci films ("City of
the Living Dead" and "The Beyond" have now been given the title prefix
of "H.P. Lovecraft's" (i.e "H.P. Lovecraft's The Beyond" and "H.P.
Lovecraft's The City of the Living Dead".)
   Now I haven't read everything Lovecraft ever wrote, but I would claim
to have read about 95% of it and as far as I am concerned neither of
these films has any connection to HPL at all. Certainly neither mention
HPL in their opening or closing titles. So what gives? How do they get
away with this? What is the point?

+---------------------+------------------------------------------+
| Gary Bradley        |   "You receive a love letter from me and |
| ORACLE Corp, UK     |                  you're f*cked forever!" |
| Edinburgh, SCOTLAND |        - Frank Booth ("Blue Velvet")     |
+---------------------+------------------------------------------+
| "God damn the censor man"                                      |
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