DAMN! I liked the Beyond to begin with. It has certain uncomfortable aura about it because it didn't really have much of a story. It had a set up but that's it. I'm a firm believer that things can and do just happen. And when logic is thrown on its ear is when I personally get a little freaked. Anyway this is one great thread and I'm happy to have found it! Very informative and totally entertaining! Great job all!
HALLOWEEN BUMP OK I am using HALLOWEEN to BUMP this old thread. Why? Because I think it is damn fine reading about a movie many of us know and love. Enjoy and HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!!
I wouldn't say WORST, but like I said in previous comments in this thread, it's overrated and not nearly as deep as people want to believe it is.
Fulci was an artist, first and foremost, and you don't have to dig deep at all to see his appreciation and appropriation of famous paintings to uncover the deep layers of his films, particularly THE BEYOND. In LIZARD we see him use the baroque paintings of Francis Bacon to illustrate the changing of the popular mindset as it's juxtaposed with shots of hippies extending on a psychedelic trip. In THE BEYOND we see the layers of life, time and space all flattened as if on a canvas, exhibited by the haunting final shot. The film more than earns its metaphysical interpretations. But it's only a shallow gore flick, right?
Rhett: Your "art theory" is definitely a good and apropos one, but it ultimately fails. Yes, he paints an abstract picture that doesn't always need to make sense to be effective. But even a painting must have a cohesive theme, a motif. You can't do a dark painting of a moonlit cliffside, then suddenly throw a sunny still life in the bottom corner. Since it's already documented that Fulci put in scenes and plot devices (the zombie attack) solely at the request of a distributor, you simply cannot say that this whole thing was planned and everything fits his motif. The randomness of The Beyond works in some scenes, but in others he is clearly pandering to his audience. Some parts are metaphysical, some parts are definitely just a shallow gore flick. As I've said many times before, it is a good and unsettling movie, but it's hardly a masterpiece.
I think there's plenty going on in THE BEYOND--I would say there is at least an attempt to have some subtext in more than a few of his films. I think ZOMBI 2 and maybe some of the later ones have a lot less going on. THE BEYOND, NEW YORK RIPPER, and DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING seem to be the most interesting to analyze of the ones I've seen [and I haven't seen them all.] That being said, I don't know if the execution of his ideas are always as good as in other horror films [like Romero's, where it's pretty obvious what is being said] so I can see how others might not notice what he's trying to do, but it's there. I don't really think THE BEYOND is any worse in the randomness department than most others in that genre.
Honestly, it doesn't matter what Fulci planned. It's what we get from it, what we find in it. Fulci's artistic credentials is indeed an fascinating topic, particularly since many refuse to give him credit, but a discussion of The Beyond must move beyond (sic!) that, imo. I've been threatening to write about it for more than a year now. If I wasn't buried in another writing project I'd do it now. It's long overdue.
I'd like to thank FulciZombieFan and KR~! for supplying us with those great excerpts. I love The Beyond and now I respect Fulci even more. I have always loved abstract film and really cherish them because they allow me to interpret and take from them whatever I put into them. They can be "cheesy fun" or something deeper. It all depends on the viewer. I urge anyone that is into these types of abstract film to give David Lynch's Inland Empire a shot. It really is along the same lines. I think that I'll go on a Fulci marathon this Halloween. -- Fulci Lives !!! ---
So is he pandering to his distributors or his audience? It's not really a revelation that Fulci had to work his story to please the people putting up the cash - every film must do that in some form or another. It doesn't matter who asked for what, ultimately it's Fulci delivering it (the distributors didn't shoot it). So the shark attack scene in ZOMBIE was partially imposed, looking back on it now though, one cannot deny the power of that scene, and how it illustrates how the dead have come to dominance. As a twist on the man vs. animal theme, it's one of Fulci's finest moments. And it was imposed on him.
I never really considered myself a big Fulci fan, yet I own 10 Fulci films on DVD, which is the 2nd highest number of titles for a particular director in my entire collection. After seeing Zombi 2 and The Beyond, I thought he was a hack (although I did come to appreciate Zombi 2 later on). However, after seeing films like Don't Torture a Duckling and Lizard in a Woman's Skin, he's anything but a hack. Hell, I even like Murder Rock. Perhaps I need to re-visit The Beyond again, for I remember it to be nothing but random, senseless gore with zero plot and zero sense of direction. I despised the ending too.
I think The Beyond really loses something when it's not on the big screen. My experiences with it at home even projected on a basement wall doesn't seem to convey the richness of the film as seen on film in a theater. This is my favorite scene in zombie history, but I have to say "what in the hell are you talking about?" The scene is a play on the audience's expectations more than anything else. It's an everything and the kitchen sink scene, perhaps the best of all time. Every time a zombie attacks it illustrates how zombies can dominate. There's nothing remarkable in and of itself comparatively to other zombie attacks because the zombie fails to kill the human or the shark (as I recall). It is ultimately a pointless scene as the characters don't even taken anything from it. On the other hand the ending of Zombi 2 with the zombies on the bridge and the zombie in the boat illustrates perfectly how zombies have taken over. This show dominance because it shows context and scale.
Since Grindhouse is brining out THE BEYOND on BluRay this month I thought I would BUMP this old thread as I am guessing many missed it (being so old and all). FULCI LIVES !!!
If anyone is interesed Troy Haworth is going to be publishing a new Fulci book. The Special edition hardcover will surely only go up in value like the FAB Press Beyond Terror book. http://splinteredvisions.blogspot.com/2015/01/ordersare-now-being-accepted-for.html?m=1
ONLY if they reach the 100 orders before April 1st. And IIRC there are only around 50 or 60 orders placed for this edition.
I placed an order at the end of February and Troy said at that time they only had 36 people on board. I much prefer Hardcover books and this one sounds like it would be really nice.
Blu-ray review. http://www.franksreelreviews.com/dvdblu-ray/reviews/dvdblu-ray-reviews/the-beyond-blu-ray-review
This review is crap. The details are about the Grindhouse Blu but the review itself seems to be for the Arrow Blu...
