Reviewer: Rhett Review Date: October 17, 2008 Released by: Code Red Release date: 9/16/2008 MSRP: $24.98 Region 0, NTSC Progressive Scan Widescreen 1.85:1 | 16x9: Yes 1974

Just like Jaws spawned animal attack films from all species, from killer whales in Orca to bears in Grizzly, The Exorcist possessed filmmakers from all over to try and copy its mold. Spain tried their luck with Paul Naschy’s Exorcismo, and the US struck back with the sequel spawning The Omen. Italy struck first though, and second, with The Antichrist and Beyond the Door in 1974. Beyond the Door rode high on the success of The Exorcist, and amassed millions throughout its high profile run in all the major cities. Box office tallies peg it as bringing in $15 million, which would place it fourth on the all time inflation adjusted foreign film chart. Not bad for a no budget film shot without permits in the streets of San Francisco. Despite its initial success, and the sequels of no relation it itself spawned (including Mario Bava’s Shock), Beyond the Door has been quietly ingesting its pea soup for years. Code Red has once again sounded the alarms on this cult oddity, so let’s just see what kind of thrills are lurking beyond that door.


The Story

Jessica Barrett (Juliet Mills) is happily married in San Francisco with her husband Robert (Gabriele Lavia) and her two foul mouthed kids, Gail and Ken. Gail, in a bid to show the Italian filmmakers here really do care about American culture, owns about fifteen copies of the Love Story paperback. Ken, on the other hand, has a more Warholian sensibility, always lugging around a Campbell’s Pea Soup can. Things couldn’t be better, and Jessica has just discovered that she’s pregnant once more. Elation quickly turns to worry when complications in child development make themselves evident during her first checkup. The baby is growing much quicker than expected. Think Jack, but with the antichrist.

Jessica starts to feel fatigued and not quiet herself. She finds herself shouting out obscenities in a voice that’s not her own, and possesses a strange propensity for destruction. It only gets worse, and the sudden breaking of her fishtank seems insignificant compared to her bile spewing threats. Something is dangerously wrong with her and that little thing growing inside her. There’s a bearded man, Dimitri (Richard Johnson), following her and her family, could he have the answers?

Of course, anyone watching already knows the answer – she’s possessed! Her treatment falls between two camps of thought – the older, more traditional route of medicine, testing and observation. The other, newer school, has man clashing with his own fate, challenging religion and his past in a bid to release the demons of suppression. It’s the new wave, man. Dimitri convinces Jessica’s husband to challenge the demon straight on in a bedroom confessional complete with glowing vomit, head spinning and wall climbing. Whatever he does though, it doesn’t matter, the movie won’t make any more sense in the end.

Beyond the Door is a stylish and creative riff on The Exorcist, taking a conventional American style and turning it upside down with that exploitative European artistry. Right from the opening shot, a slow dolly that reveals an entire room of candles and a sacrificial woman on the alter, it’s pretty clear the Italians care more about style than they do substance. In awesome grindhouse fashion, a narrator sets the stage by suggesting to the viewer that the person beside them in the theater might just be the devil. The low denominator thrills never let up throughout, from a swear spewing child dub to excessive slow motion contextual explosions.

Where The Exorcist presented a clash between old Hollywood class and vulgarity, Beyond the Door is content to set its sights lower and wallow in all that is exploitable. It’s a fun parade of conventional optical effects, from female heads turning demonic and back, to my favorite bit where one half of the optical has Juliet Mills looking left, while the other has her eye looking forward. Scaaaaarrrrryyyyy!


Since the film was shot before the release of The Exorcist the movie, but after the success of The Exorcist the book, it’s pretty clear that in the editing process even more of the structural similarities between the two films were created last minute. There’s plenty of expositional dialogue scenes shot from afar, so dialogue could be changed to whatever, and in all those scenes the talk of demonic possession and exorcism seems entirely imposed. It’s possibly this reason why the ending seems so abrupt and abstract, totally jumping from one place (the exorcism finale) to another (a joyous celebration on a boat). Sorry, but a slow motion shot of a car crashing into an ocean and then a little boy receiving a toy car of the same make on a boat is a metaphor even I cannot penetrate. What happened to my main man Dimitri? And Jessica, what’s the dealio? The exorcism scene doesn’t even go on long enough for the demon to even consider escaping her body.

Even if it often doesn’t make any sense, Beyond the Door is fun schlock and style like only the Italians could do it. When you’re not balking at hearing that awful “Bargain with the Devil” disco-funk theme (not once, but twice in succession) or seeing a bunch of goldfish die in slow motion, you’ll revel in all the optical insanity and possession perturbation. Beyond the Door certainly ain’t Shakespeare, hell, it’s not even Love Story, but at least it knows it’s not high art, unlike the high brow self-importance of The Omen. Beyond this door is brash, brutal bliss.


Image Quality

Beyond the Door looks heavenly with its 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. Progressively encoded, the print is extremely clean for 35 years of age. There’s nary a blemish or scratch on the film, it has truly been restored to perfection. The image is clear, although a tad soft. Flesh tones look realistic, and colors have depth although aren’t entirely vibrant. It’s not as if the film has been preserved in the Warner vaults or anything, so again, it is quite amazing that this little shocker has aged as well as it has. Very nice.

Sound

Like Code Red’s release of The Unseen, there is a fair crackle and hiss to the mono audio track. The entire film was post-dubbed, so voices are always clear in spite of all the playback noise. The score, which is a memorable combination of rock and electronica, is preserved nicely also. A little bit of noise reduction would help for future releases, though.

Supplemental Material

Another new release, another awesome slate of extras from the brothers in Red. Code Red delivers a multitude of different extras that move away from their traditional interviews, with a hearty making-of documentary and two fine commentaries. The retrospective documentary, “Beyond the Door: 35 Years Later”, is a nice recollection between director Ovidio G. Assonitis, writer Alex Rebar and actors Juliet Mills and Richard Johnson. Assonitis is very sincere in explaining how he was a novice on the film and how he had to rely on his seasoned director of photography for much of the technical aspects of the production. Mills has a nice time sharing anecdotes about the premier, although she doesn’t remember much about the production itself. Johnson is the standout, though, so jovial and buoyant throughout, always laughing and having a blast, from repeating favorite quotes from the film to describing the fun aspects of his career in general. Code Red usually resorts to simple interviews, so it was nice to see them reach out even further for an intercut twenty minute documentary.

The two commentaries on the disc allow the film historians to press the director and Juliet Mills even further for specific answers that weren’t touched on in the documentary. The first commentary is with usual Code Red moderator Lee Christian, Mondo Digital writer Nathaniel Thompson and Mr. Assonitis. Throughout the track Christian is quizzing the director on various facts, never running out of things to ask him. There’s often a language barrier, but eventually Assonitis answers almost every question. Assonitis still remembers much of the production, and is always able to elaborate, from his choice of San Francisco to his choice of red as a recurring color. Juliet Mills joins Christian, Scott Spiegel and film scholar Darren Gross for the second track. It’s a more exuberant track, although Mills isn’t much help with most of the questions and facts Christian and co, throw her way throughout the film. She has no problem talking about her career and whatever else comes her way, and there are some nice bits about Billy Wilder and a number of other different collaborators Mills has met over her career.

Richard Johnson seemed like such a fun speaker that Code Red elected to include even more footage of him in a separate seven minute interview. He laughs his way through recollections of working on various Italian film sets, and is first to admit he did a lot of gigs for money, and often had a lot of input on the English dialogue as well. Great stuff. The extras are tied up with a bunch of promo material, from the perfect exploitation of the theatrical trailer to TV spots and the still gallery. New trailers on the Code Red trailers page are Silent Scream and Chocke Canyon.


Final Thoughts

Beyond the Door is The Exorcist run hastily through the artisan Italian production factory of the schlocky seventies exploitation scene. That’s a compliment! It’s low brow vulgarity, dimestore optical effects and arthouse camera moves all rolled into one deliriously head spinning product. The film has aged very well, both in content and the print itself, which is preserved beautifully here by Code Red. The audio definitely sounds its age, but the large variety of quality extras make this one of Code Red’s more robust releases. For those sick and tired of Reagan doing her thing with the crucifix, this is the perfect demonic alternative just in time for Halloween. Beyond awesome!

Rating

. Movie - B+ Image Quality - B+ Sound - C+ Supplements - A-

Technical Info.

• Color
• Running time - 1 hour 49 minutes
• Rated R
• 1 Disc
• Chapter Stops
• English mono

Supplements

• Audio commentary with star Juliet Mills and guests
• Audio commentary with director Ovidio G Assontis and guests
• "Beyond the Door: 35 Years Later" featurette
• Interview with Richard Johnson
• Still gallery
• Theatrical trailer
• TV spot
• Code Red trailers

Other Pictures

__________________
"It's a good scream...it's a good scream..."