The Beyond
Lucio "King of the Eyeball Gag" Fulci made his name  with a series of gory, gooey horror epics, andThe Beyondstands above  all as his outré masterpiece. The largely incoherent plot has something to do  with a turn-of-the-century curse and a doorway to hell in the cellar of an old New Orleans hotel. Fulci shows his usual sensitivity with wooden acting, clumsy  dialogue, and buckets of oozing blood and pus, but don't let that get in  the way of enjoying this mad tale of zombies from hell  invading Earth and eating their way through a cast of humans: crucified martyrs, blind  visionaries, creepy hotel handymen, befuddled cops, and a plucky pair of  heroes desperately fleeing a horde of hungry undead. The blood-red art  direction is eerily beautiful, and Fulci's relentless long takes, punctuated by jolting shock cuts and eruptions of grotesque violence, create a mood  of sheer paranoid horror right down to the final, mind-bending image. And  don't forget the Fulci claim to fame: eyes are gouged out, eaten away,  melted with acid, and (shudder) popped out by a spike through the back of  the skull. Yech! If you dare ignore such piddling details as narrative  logic and let yourself get carried away on the creepy visuals, it's a  deliciously stylish treat, an edgy bit of gothic gore pitched in all its  bone-crunching, flesh-ripping, organ-splatting glory. This sadistic,  sanguinary hell-spawn tale is for gore-hounds only.The DVD features chatty but largely jokey commentary by David Warbeck and  Catriona MacColl and an alternate German credits sequence featuring Fulci's preferred sepia-tinged prologue (but no alternate footage).--Sean  Axmaker