From Beyond (1986) is another in a long line of put to film adaptations of HP Lovecrafts work. Once again pairing Jeffrey Coombs star with the horror genius of Brian Yuzna (both from Re-animator) you know this is going to be a winner.
THE PLOT
The film revolves around Dr. Edward Tillinghurst who with his collegue Dr. Pretorius has created what he calls a “resonator”. No its not a classic guitar, it infact opens doors to other worlds through resonating with the pineal gland. In his excitement to show off his invention to his collegue Pretorius something comes through the door and kills his collegue and Pretorius is arrested. He is deemed insane and instituionalised. Whist in the can, he is visited by Dr. Katherine who shows great interest in his research.
The attractive Dr Katherine has him scanned and assesses his pineal gland to be growing and decides to have Tillinghurst released to persue the research. Dr Brown (he is brown btw) joins the two and they reactivate the machine. OF course it opens up a gate and Pretorius comes back ‘from beyond’. It has opened doors for him to experience greater pleasures than anything the mortal world has to offer. Do they persist with investigating the machine further? OF course! As with most great stories the price for this indulgence is high. As to what exactly happens i’ll let you find that all out for yourselves when watching this movie!
This, like most Lovecraft adaptions lends itself well to film, especially the combination of Yuzna and Coombs. There is the potential to throw in some great gore in and this film takes full advantage. Special fx are excellent and the story is of course enthralling.
From Beyond is a gritty, more adult orientated horror movie. It may offend the horror newbie but if you can get past that this is a great film. Id recommend any fan of sci-fi or horror to make sure they catch this at least once.
Be sure to check out other great horror movies at https://www.gorenography.com on a regular basis.For more great HP Lovecraft film adaptations be sure to check out our other reviews on:
THe void | Heamoglobin / Bleeders | In the Mouth of Madness | Witches / Dunwich Horror | Herbert West Reanimator | The Call of Cthulu