BEYOND DARKNESS (1990)
Label: Severin Films
Rating: Unrated
Region: A
Duration: 93 Minutes
Audio: Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Claudio Fragasso
Cast: Theresa F. Walker, Michael Stephenson, Gene Lebrock, David Brandon, Barbara Bingham
Beyond Darkness (1990), not to be confused with Beyond The Darkness aka Buio Omega, was released in Italy as La Casa 5 and comes to us from co-writer/director Claudio Fragasso and co-writer Rossella Drudi, the team-up that brought to us the deliciously awful Troll 2. It starts off with priest Father George (David Brandon, Stage Fright) administering last rites to an unrepentant child murderess named Bette (Mary Coulson, Door Into Silence) at a prison. As she is executed in the electric chair the priest envisions the spirits of the children she murdered surrounding her, and afterward his faith is so shaken by the experience that he hits the bottle hard and leaves the priesthood altogether.
A year later we zero in on another priest, Father Peter (Gene Lebrock, Metamorphosis), who is moving into a new home in Louisiana where he has been assigned to replace Father George. Joining him are his wife Annie (Barbara Bingham, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan), their freckle-faced son Martin (Michael Stephenson, Troll 2) and young daughter Carol (Theresa Walker). It turns out the house has a evil history, aside from being the house from Lucio Fulci's The Beyond it was apparently built on land where witches were burned at the stake centuries ago. which as you might imagine does come into play.
In the kid's room there's a creepy black swan rocking toy, one which rocks itself in the dark of night, so you know evil is afoot right from the get-go! It soon becomes apparent that the house is being haunted by a gaggle of undead witches draped in black veils that are out to get the children, pulling them into an evil alternate dimension which first appears as a bright light emanating from a hole in the wall. At this point it might be worth mentioning that this is quasi-sequel to both Ghosthouse (1988) aka La Casa 3 and Witchery (1988) aka La Casa 4, all of which are part of the unofficial La Casa series, which were unofficial sequels to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies which were retitled La Casa and La Casa 2 in Italy. They're not really connected and they are certainly not sequels to the Evil Dead films, but those Italians do love a good cash-in, don't they?
Eventually the evil forces come after the kiddos, somehow the demonic witch ghost of the child-murderess figures into it too; possessing the freckle-faced boy, and the new priest ends up teaming with the previous priest from the start of the film to exorcise the demonic evil and save the boy. We get elements of Poltergeist and The Exorcist tossed into it, creating an over long mish-mash of euro-cult weirdness that is somehow both batshit and boring in the same breath. The flick is no great shakes bit for what it's worth I did enjoy it a bit more this time than last I saw it. This is the sort of flick that would be improved by having a roomful of friends with witty quips at the ready and plenty of alcohol on hand to get the most out of it. While there are some fleeting moments of creepy imagery and haunting atmosphere they are few and far between and not nearly enough to give this a general recommend. However, if you're on an Italian horror jag and get a kick out of the batshit late-80's, early 90's Italian horror you could do a lot worse.
Audio/Video: Beyond Darkness was previously issued on a double-feature Blu-ray from Scream Factory with Metamorphosis. That HD transfer that was pretty soft looking with and muted colors, plus it was digitally scrubbed of grain for the most part. Unfortunately it looks like Severin are using the same Filmirage licensed scan, presented in 1080p HD framed in 1.66:1 widescreen with the same inherent issues. It's still watchable, just not optimal, this is an ugly film with diffuse cinematography steeped in fog machine and blasted white light atmosphere, it's was never gonna look pretty.
Audio comes by way of Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono or English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles. I preferred the English track, it doesn't have much depth or exceptional fidelity but it does the job, and the synth score by Carlo Maria Cordio (Aenigma) sounds cheesily good.
Severin at least offer new extras; we get three new interviews: the 37-min Beyond Possession: Interview With Director/Co-Writer Claudio Fragasso, the 22-min The Devil In Mrs. Drudi: Interview With Co-Writer Rossella Drudi, and the 29-min Sign Of The Cross: Interview With Actor David Brandon. There's also a 2-minute Trailer for the film, plus a CD Soundtrack for the Carlo Maria Cordio score, which I appreciated.
The interviews are pretty great, with Brandon recalling filming in New Orleans, which he says is one of his favorite cities in all the world. Also getting into his experiences making the film, sitting in the electric chair, his relationship with the the kids in the film, the strange vibes of the house, and they heavy use of smoke machines, and his preference for vomiting blood and not foam. Fragasso talks about the history of the La Casa series, his love of New Orleans and it's culture, hos thoughts on the paranormal, and some strange encounters he has had himself, how great the young actress Theresa Walker was, and what a disaster the American FX crew were, the film's success and his alter-ego Clyde Anderson. Co-Writer Rossella Drudi speaks about her Catholic upbringing, her love of demonology and the occult, her style of research for scripts, and a fun story about how her friend's attributed some incidents to the evil-power of the script, her love of New Orleans, and homages she peppered into the script, and how focused Fragasso was during the making of the film. The interviews are far and away more interesting that the movie itself, so if you're an extras junky this is worth the upgrade in my humble opinion, plus you get the CD soundtrack which I don't think has ever had an official release before.
The 2-disc BD/CD release arrives in a black dual-hub keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring a brilliant illustration by the late Enzo Sciotti - the man was a horror poster legend and turned many a trash film into movie poster gold. Inside there's a 4-page insert booklet with writing on the film and a track listing for the 17-song CD soundtrack.
Special Features:
- Beyond Possession: Interview With Director/Co-Writer Claudio Fragasso (37 min)
- The Devil In Mrs. Drudi: Interview With Co-Writer Rossella Drudi (22 min)
- Sign Of The Cross: Interview With Actor David Brandon (29 min)
- Trailer (1 min)
- Bonus: CD Soundtrack (17 Songs, 44 Minutes)
Beyond Darkness (1990) is a bit of a early-90's Italian turd, but if you have an affinity for Italian horror trash it's got some cheesy charms, and I appreciate Severin Films for upgrading it with some solid extras and the CD soundtrack.
Screenshots from the Severin Blu-ray:
Extras:
