Probably Lucio Fulci's most widely recognized film, The Beyond/E tu vivrai nel terrore - L'aldilà or simply L'aldilà.

Starring: Catriona MacColl, David Warbeck, Cinzia Monreale, Antoine Saint-John, Veronica Lazar, Anthony Flees, Giovanni De Nava and Al Cliver.

The Beyond is more than 'just another zombie movie'. It's the culmination of several experienced artists; director Lucio Fulci, along with screenwriters Dardano Sacchetti, Giorgi Mariuzzo, cinematographer Sergio Salvati and make-up artist Giannetto De Rossi, collaboratively working together to produce what is essentially the archetype for dreamy and violent Italian horror cinema.
Throughout the 1980s, the Italian film industry was infamously producing cheaper-versions, one might even dare to use the word "imitations" of successful American films. Fulci's horror endeavours weren't entirely of that ilk; yes there's a few echos of other (American) works found within his horror oeuvre, the same can be said for many American pictures. Everybody "copies" everybody. But, aside from those echos and the cash-in titles, Fulci's work is brimming with uncanny dream logic and a prevalent sense of unease, leading to an almost surrealist quality, a quality that's an integral component in Fulci's repertoire. This quality is found distinctly in his "Gates of Hell" trilogy: The Beyond, City of the Living Dead / Paura nella città dei morti viventi (1980) and The House by the Cemetery / Quella villa accanto al cimitero (1981).

Fulci's zombie efforts deviate from his American contemporaries, namely the underlying social-commentary found in Romero's work, instead, Fulci tends to focus on a superstitious / folk, supernatural, gothic or mythological evil. Beginning his undead pieces with Zombi 2 (1979), utilising a much older theme of voodoo-based reanimation of the dead, as opposed to the now more prevalent scientific meddling angle. However with The Beyond, Fulci opts for a nightmarish oneiric world in which anything can happen. A style that would be revisited later and taken a developed further in Fulci's 1990 nunsploitation picture, Demonia.



In The Beyond, the gates of hell are unwittingly opened following a brutal chain-whipping and crucifixion of an artist named Schweick, whom locals believe to be a warlock, in a Louisiana hotel, in 1927. A scene that harks back to chain whipping in Fulci's early classic Don't Torture a Duckling/Non si sevizia un paperino (1972).
Following the pre-credit sequence, we jump ahead to present-day Louisiana. The plot, as thin as it is, sees protagonist Liza (MacColl) inheriting the previously mentioned and now cursed hotel. After befriending a local doctor named John and an esoteric blind woman, Emily (Monreale), who tries to warn Liza of the building's ghoulish history.
Once renovation work begins on the old hotel, a plumber named Joe (De Nava), unintentionally opens up a gateway to Hell, while digging through a basement wall.
At this point in the film's narrative becomes that of a living nightmare world. Anyone who has already seen The Beyond and wants to recommend to another must encourage the uninitiated to remove all rational thought from their head and to simply absorb the ensuing succession of imagery, sound and grizzly gore effects, as Fulci's begins an exploration of the metaphysical.



At times, the prevalent violence acts as an anchor to reality itself, becoming the only familiar against a battery of the surreal. Especially during a scene where a chap is suddenly stunned by some unseen force and knocked to the floor, only to be inexplicably attacked and killed by a half dozen tarantulas that crawl from nowhere, without any further explanation or rationale. As I've grown older I've decided that I'm glad there are no concrete answers as to why Fulci chose to commit such strange scenes to celluloid, I'm just really happy he did. It will stand the test of time and the closing shots should be up there with anything produced by Kubrick.

Nonetheless if you're into Italian cinema, it's highly likely you've already seen this. If you're only just finding your feet in the world of Italiana, The Beyond is a fantastic starting point for anybody willing to deviate from "traditional" American horror.