From Beyond

Unrated Director's Cut

MGM

R1 US Release

2 DVD Collection

Stuart Gordon's horrific masterpiece finally arrives on DVD!

From Beyond was the second horror spectacular produced by Stuart Gordon, it followed the unexpected success of Re-Animator and was surprisingly well received at the time. However, it was a severely “edited” edition, indeed Gordon himself believed it had been castrated ! Since the time of its release on video there have been rumours of an uncut edition in the works but no formal release even made it to DVD in the UK, US or Australia. There was a limited German release and various illegal editions, but no high quality definitive editions. Fans have been waiting in years for the uncut release but nearly gave up when, now, at last, some 23 years after its first release, From Beyond has been released in a high definition, remastered DVD edition – fully uncut ! It seems that even thought Gordon was told the edited sections were lost, they were rediscovered by MGM and after years of hard work and restoration the uncut version was available for release.

Crawford Tillinghast (Jeffrey Combs) has been working with the strange yet brilliant Dr. Edward Pretorius (Ted Sorel) with his experiments on the limits of human experience. Sharing the house and laboratory with Pretorius, Tillinghast has not just experienced Dr. Pretorius' genius but seen his penchant for bondage and S & M as well! It seems Pretorius will go to any degree to explore the limits of human experience and hence his project reaches into new and uncharted territory.

Together they are working on the Resonator, a machine which supposedly stimulates the Pineal gland, which Pretorious believes opens the doors to other levels of reality. However, it seems this other reality is not unpopulated and on the first trial they experience all manner of strange and rather noxious creatures. This leads to a further confrontation when Dr. Pretorious’ head is eaten by one of these creatures – or so it seems!

This is a fascinating adaptation of the Lovecraft genre, it not only explores Lovecraft’s obsession with other dimensions but takes the scientific speculation regarding the Pineal gland to a new and bizarre level. The exploration of sex and consciousness is intriguing as is the portrayal of Dr. Katherine McMichaels (Barbara Crampton) who wants to explore how this may relate to schizophrenia. This is an intelligent horror film with lots of interesting ideas but also packed with sex, gore and violence. The extended pineal gland coming out of the centre of the forehead and needing to eat brains is a truly perverse touch.

The DVD edition of this film is nothing short of spectacular. The remastering is impeccable with a clarity that is quite surprising considering the lost segments of the film. The cuts have been put back into the film so well you cannot even see the additions.

There are lots of great extras including commentaries, specially made documentaries and a great storyboard to production section which shows how it was all done.

This is a superb horror classic which has taken too long to make it to DVD, but considering the restoration work and the new uncut edition it is well worth the wait !