From Beyond (1986)

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Textbook example of the poster looking way cooler than the film itself.

Director Stuart Gordon

Stars Jeffrey Combs, Ted Sorel, Barbara Crampton, Ken Foree

Things You Might Like

• Jeffrey Combs!
• Barbara Crampton gets sexy
• Exponentially more interesting when viewed with alcohol

Things You Might Not Like

• Chaotic sequencing of events
• Needless inclusion of BDSM
• Ken Foree in a pair of red briefs
• Exponentially worse when viewed sober

Conclusion
Boring if seen alone and sober, fun if seen with friends and booze.

2 out of 5 Floating Eel Monsters

***

The problem with watching horror films with friends is that the group mentality tends to overtake, and instead of trying to make sense of the plot, we devolve into a chorus of gibbering lunatics. Every instance of ham acting, every splash of gore, every unnecessary nude scene is remarked upon with overwhelming cacophony. Enter alcohol into the picture, and there’s no turning back.

That being said, I’ve had to go back and rewatch some parts of From Beyond to ensure what I’d seen the night before wasn’t some mad re-creation of the mind, heavily influenced by Jack Daniels and a propensity to relaunch Mystery Science Theater 3000 in my living room.

Unfortunately, sobriety has not helped in this case. Aside from clearing up some plot points, From Beyond is still a cinematic mess that makes very little sense. The film opens with physicist Dr. Crawford Tillinghast (Jeffrey Combs, who is actually pretty great, if you can get past the lines he’s forced to sputter) preparing an experiment with “the resonator“, a large machine adorned with tuning forks. Allowing one of the forks to resonate, Tillinghast sees an eel-like creature floating just in front of him. Naturally, as this is a horror film, the creature attacks him with little provocation, leaving a hole in his face that never heals for the duration of the film.

Tillinghast runs downstairs to inform Dr. Edward Pretorius (Ted Sorel) — the chief scientist on the experiment, and a sexual sadist for some reason — that the resonator works. Apparently, flesh-eating eels is just the kind of discovery one wants to make. With the resonator turned back on Pretorius seemingly goes mad, and leaves it running despite the imminent danger. The scene ends with him lying on the floor without a head.

The film then follows a kind of logic especially reserved for the horror genre. Tillinghast is sent to a mental institution, presumed to have killed Pretorius in a fit of madness. It is here he meets Dr. Katherine McMichaels (Barbara Crampton, who doesn’t do a half-bad job of pretending to know how to speak psychologist), who takes him into custody simply because she believes he’s telling the truth about the experiment. Going back to the mansion — the site of the experiment — with police officer Bubba (Ken Foree) in tow, McMichaels convinces Tillinghast to recreate the experiment.

The purpose of the experiment, it is revealed, is to excite the pineal gland, which Pretorius determined would allow someone a sixth sense. Standing in the resonator field, one sees into the Beyond, a parallel universe hidden inside our own that is filled with floating sea creatures that attack anything that moves. What any of it has to do with BDSM or Pretorius’ survival and mutation into a hulking pink flesh-thing is never explained.

Throughout the film, we are taken back and forth between the mansion and the madhouse, as Tillinghast and Co. fight giant worms, pterodactyls, and the resonator itself. Tillinghast, too, begins to mutate, shorn of his hair and adopting a worm that pokes out of his forehead like the esca of an anglerfish.

All in all, it’s a wreck. At one instance, McMichaels dons an all-leather dominatrix outfit for no other reason than it was there and, I guess, the resonator’s making her crazy. And for some reason, Bubba can’t stop talking about apples. (Or was that part brought on by drunken revelry?)

The written works of H.P. Lovecraft are notorious for being practically unfilmable, and this seems to be the case here. I’ll have to watch a few more Lovecraft-derived works to see if this trend holds sway.

Avoid From Beyond if you can help it. Otherwise, buy it from Amazon!