Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Sam Panico There are rip-offs of The Exorcist. And then there are rip-offs where copyright infringement lawsuits lead to Warner Brothers getting a cash settlement and a portion of the film's future revenue. Beyond the Door would be the latter. It's $40 million worldwide gross meant that this film would a film draw the ire and call of that most Satanic of all monsters, the suits and the lawyers.Directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis, who wrote 1979's most insane film The Visitor and directed Tentacles and Madhouse (and he was also CEO of Cannon, producing films like Lambada and American Ninja 5), the film opens with Satan literally speaking, promising to give a man ten more years of life if he knocks up a woman. Oh yeah — there's also a naked female on a light up crucifix.Jessica Barrett (Juliet Mills, TV's Nanny and the Professor) is pregnant with her third child, which leads to the typical symptoms — strange voices, throwing up blood, screaming all night long. You know — the normal stuff.Her other kids are also impacted by all this Satanic panic going on in the Barrett house, as her husband Robert (Gabriele Lavia, Deep Red) tries to help. Turns out an old lover, Dmitri (Richard Johnson, Dr. Menard from Zombi!) has something to do with all of this, as he's the man Satan was speaking to in the opening of the film. He offers to help Jessica, but he's really trying to ensure that her baby is born because it's gonna be the Antichrist (Dumb Dumb Dumb)!The possessor ends up killing Dmitri after asking him to reach into Jessica and pull out her baby. She vomits blackness all over his face, so he starts banging on her stomach while yelling, "LIES! LIES LIES!" So the devil sends him back over that cliff in his car, killing him.A dove flies by as we find Jessica on a boat, covered with a robe and wearing sunglasses. She has lost the baby but regained her life. Children run and play everywhere. Meanwhile, we cut to a young child unwrapping a gift, which contains a red car. He tosses it overboard, revealing that he's the Antichrist. Or maybe he's Jessica's kid? Who knows. Who can say? He does have glowing eyes, so there's that.Beyond the Door zigs where The Exorcist zags. Instead of "Tubular Bells," we get 70's funk. Instead of priests, we get weird ex-lovers. Instead of kids being possessed, here they are just foul- mouthed little bastards.But hey — the ad campaign for this film is memorable, even if the film isn't!

poe426 Despite some corny moments (which include narration by The Devil himself), BEYOND THE DOOR boasts several very effective sequences. In one, which has to be a double exposure, we see Juliet Mills on her back, in bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her left eye remains stationary, but her right eye suddenly begins to wildly search the room. It's an unsettling effect. Another is the recreation of the infamous head-spinning scene from THE EXORCIST. Even as a kid, I realized that the scene in THE EXORCIST had employed a mannequin: the arms are outstretched and motionless, and the legs are clearly POSED. The makers of BEYOND THE DOOR simply staged the effect BETTER: Mills lies flat on her stomach, hands protruding above the covers to either side of her head, as her head slowly but very realistically rotates to face backward. Her rictus grin and her crazy-eyed expression really help sell the gag- another very effective moment. There are also some spooky sound effects throughout, and the storyline is better thought out and executed than some people seem to believe. Of particular interest to me was the appearance of Richard Johnson as the deceased but still hanging around Dimitri; he was always an actor who gave it his all, whatever the part. While it IS one part ROSEMARY'S BABY and one part THE EXORCIST, BEYOND THE DOOR is worth a look. (Kung Fu movie fans will recognize a lot of the canned music.)

ernesti I have to admit having very little expectations of this film and i was just so surprised how an Italian The Exorcist rip-off can be so much more entertaining and interesting than the original. First this movie is rated so unfairly just because people just think of it as a another rip-off that can't be good. I thought the original Exorcist was rather tame and boring all the way. This is totally different, it's like a dream and it's never too boring. There's lots of unintentionally funny moments that at least made me laugh a little.Music's groovy and maybe a little out of place at times but it doesn't matter much. All in all it's a fun and twisted movie all the way. Anyone who's fed up with the mainstream horror may like this.

Jonny_Numb Though director Ovidio Assontis unconvincingly argues otherwise, "Beyond the Door" is a blatant rip-off of "The Exorcist" that actually has more in common with the incoherence and dullness of Lucio Fulci's "Manhattan Baby" (still a vastly superior film by comparison). Beautiful San Franciscan housewife Juliet Mills (TV's "Passions"), in between juggling dinner dates with her record-producer husband (Dario Argento regular Gabriele Lavia) and ignoring the freakish behavior of her obnoxious children (one likes to drink pea soup through a straw--har har), finds time to get impregnated by the Devil himself. What follows is a largely unexciting, vastly confusing exercise in futility and cheap, avant-garde camera tricks to convince the viewer that, yes, something IS actually going on. Turns out Mills' Satanist ex ("Zombie"'s Richard Johnson) spurned Old Scratch, who now wants to claim the poor bastard's soul for all eternity (or something); his only option (as it's repeated several times) is to see that Rosemary has her baby! Meanwhile, random scenes set to soul music exist only to pad out the needlessly distended run time (109 minutes under the "Devil Within Her" cut), but my patience with "Beyond the Door" has run out. Avoid it.