The Beyond

This gruesome Louisiana-set horror film opens with a 1927 prologue featuring a Satanic artist being crucified and melted alive with quicklime in the basement of an old hotel. Half a century later, pretty Liza (Catriona MacColl) inherits the hotel, not suspecting that it is one of seven gateways to Hell. A workman breaks his neck, another has his eyeball gouged out by a zombie, a woman's head is melted by a vat of acid, and an architect has his face eaten by hungry tarantulas who chew out his tongue. Dozens of cannibalistic zombies attack Liza and her disbelieving lover (David Warbeck), who joins her in Hell in the film's downbeat conclusion. The gory special effects by Gianetto de Rossi and Germano Natali are nauseatingly effective, although the script (by Dardano Sacchetti, Giorgio Mariuzzo and director Lucio Fulci) tends to wander and the pacing is a trifle slow.