From Beyond (1986) Review

Oh Stuart Gordon, we just couldn’t get you away from H.P Lovecraft‘s loving bosom could we? You were like the pungent smell from a malformed, parasite ridden poo. Oh, Stuart Gordon, I think you had a Lovecraft problem – if only we realised sooner and perhaps we could have weaned you off with a few August Derleth stories.

I’m joking of course; Gordon was one of the more imaginative horror directors out there, and one of the few who could do Lovecraft’s work genuine justice. I was undecided between this film, Dolls (1987), and Castle Freak (1995), for this review, but I ultimately chose From Beyond because it features Jeffrey Combs being all hammy while a cock-like gland grows out of his face.

The plot follows that a device known as the Resonator – designed to allow its user to see beyond normal perceptible reality – has been activated by Dr. Crawford (Combs), who is the assistant to the film’s soon-to-be villain Dr. Edward Pretorius (Ted Sorel), and has unleashed inter-dimensional monstrosities.

This understandably goes south, with Pretorius seemingly killed and Crawford committed to the loony bin. In the mental institute, Crawford meets Dr. Katherine McMichaels (Barbara Crampton) who, wanting to investigate the cause of his enlarged pineal gland (subtext! subtext!), has him released into her care and takes him to inquire into the Resonator.

They are accompanied by Detective Bubba Brownlee (Ken Foree), a cool-headed cop who has had enough of this honkey bullshit, but isn’t afraid to wrestle giant Lovecraftian monsters dressed only in his underwear (which very clearly shows off his own giant monster).

Obviously it transpires that Pretorius not only isn’t dead but that he has returned from the alternate dimension where all the liposuction fat goes. A similar movie that comes to mind is The Thing; both are body horror films about strange entities that transform in grotesque, unnatural ways.

By the time of his death two-thirds of the way through, Pretorius’ mutations go from looking like he fell asleep on his handkerchief during an especially awful cold, to some kind of long-necked fiend with gaping holes in its chest and tentacle-like grabbers.

The practical effects are wonderfully gruesome, especially the strange worm entities which have a Tremors vibe about them.

What makes From Beyond such an enjoyable experience, is that it feels like a throwback to the Fifties’ era sci-fi B movie. The laboratory is scattered with complicated machines with their many colourful lights and pointless handles and switches; the cheesy music has an inappropriately whimsical quality to it, and even the action feels a bit silly.

Perhaps most glaringly of all, Dr. Katherine seemingly only exists to be the hot scientist lady who gets repeatedly sexed-up. Pretorius has a few good fondles, and she even ends up in bondage gear at one point.

Can you imagine a movie doing that in today’s overbearing climate? The feminist movement would lose its shit faster than Barbara Crampton could get her tits out for another B movie.