Beyond the Door [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Most horror cinema fans know how popular the original Exorcist proved to be, with tales of people passing-out and screaming in the aisles, how I would love to have been there to either confirm or refute such claims, suffice to say the movie spawned a brief sub-genre all of its own and Beyond The Door is one of several knock-offs which would be rushed out to cash-in. Richard Johnson lends his commanding thespian voice skills to this Italian effort providing a narrative introduction as to the possibility that Mephistopheles could be waiting to invade your next waking moment. Beyond The Door's début director Ovidio G. Assonitis may be more familiar to horror fans for his later shocker Madhouse due to earning a place on the now legendary Video Nasty list of 1984. I'm not going to send anyone reading this to sleep with a plot synopsis, I almost never read them myself, but if you are reading this, chances are you're looking for some demonic possession fun, it may be worth mentioning that Rosemary's Baby gets thrown into this mix, but I'll leave that for you to discover in a film with an uneasy and somewhat disturbing rhythm all its own. Unlike the Exorcist which works by grounding the viewer in a prosaic sense of reality this film places the viewer straight into a surrealist mindset of unreality, left to fend for moments of normality on which to hold on to. If you enjoy the demonic possession sequences in The Exorcist you'll probably enjoy those visited upon star Juliet Mills who puts in a convincing performance backed up by the competent effects. This Code Red DVD release contains the full uncut edition of the film along with the following extras - Audio commentary with director a second audio commentary with star Juliet Mills an interview with Richard Johnson plus BEYOND THE DOOR, 35 years later feature.

Beyond the Door is a great Satanic possession film from 1974. It probably isn't a must-see for all horror fans, but those that enjoy cheesy Italian horror films in this particular sub-genre should definitely give it a look. Though it sometimes has an unintentionally funny feel to it, it has a great atmosphere, a few nice scares and enough gross-out puke to give The Exorcist a run for its money! and it was really well made despite the low budget, unlike the other Italian knock off films that were made during this period. Beyond the Door was directed by prolific Italian producer Ovidio G. Assonitis who other notable films as a director include Who Saw Her Die?, Tentacles and Madhouse. Feeling very much like a mix of Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist, Beyond the Door (aka Chi Sei? and The Devil Within Her) tells the story of Jessica Barrett (Juliet Mills), a seemingly happy `70s housewife with two young kids and husband Robert (Gabriele Lavia) who is a successful music producer. Things take a turn for the worse when Jessica discovers she is pregnant. When Robert finds her in the bathroom puking up blood, Jessica swears that the baby is trying to kill her. She begins hearing strange, guttural voices and laughter and acting strangely. Upon visiting the doctor, she is shocked to find out that the fetus is developing at an accelerated rate and as we soon find out, she is also demonically possessed. Even though Beyond the Door has been called a "rip-off" of earlier horror flicks, I still found it to be an enjoyable film and worth seeing.

One thing that makes it such a treat is the crazy kid characters. The little boy, Ken (David Colin Jr.) loves to say curse words and his older sister, Gail (Barbara Fiorini), loves to talk like an adult (with some hilarious 70's dialogue) and has fifteen copies of the same book she always lugs around with her. I'm not really sure what the point of making these kids so weird was, but I thought it was amusing. Performance wise Juliet Mills is mesmerizing as she gives it her all in every scene. Cast in the role of Jessica Barrett's husband Robert is an Italian actor named Gabriele Lavia who would go onto work with Dario Argento in two films Deep Red and Inferno. Another performance of note is Richard Johnson who horror fans might recognise from Lucio Fulci's Zombie 2. Overall all the cast were good in their respective roles with no performance standing out as weak or forgettable. Besides the quirky characters, the narrative of the story flowed pretty normally, some reviewers were complaining about the film being confusing but then again they had the older cut version while this edition from Code Red was completely uncut and is probably the best way to watch this film. The film was presented in anamorphic widescreen that preserves the film's original aspect ratio. This Progressive flagged transfer from Code Red looks flawless with vivid colors especially reds and razor sharp detail throughout.

Extras for this release include a T.V. spot for the film, an English language trailer for the film and trailers for other Code Red titles. Also included with this release is an extensive image gallery that contains lobby cards, posters, stills, VHS box art and other promotional images. The image gallery plays like a featurette with the brilliant music from the film playing in the background. Other extras for this release include an interview with Richard Johnson titled An Englishman in Italy and a making of featurette titled Beyond the Door: Thirty Five Years Later which includes interviews with Ovidio G. Assonitis, Juliette Mills, Richard Johnson and Alex Rebar. The main extras for this release are two audio commentaries. The first audio commentary is with actress Juliette Mills, producer of Hostel Scott Spiegel, film critic Darren Gross. The second audio commentary is with director Ovidio G. Assonitis and film critic Nathaniel Thompson. Overall Beyond the Door gets a definitive DVD release from Code Red that stands out as one of their best DVD release to date, highly recommended.