HORSEHEAD (2014) (Artsploitation Blu-ray Review)

HORSEHEAD (2014)

Label: Artsploitation Films
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 96 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, Dolbu Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.365:1)
Director: Romain Bassett
Cast: Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux, Catriona MacColl, Murray Head, Gala Besson, Fu’ad Aït Aattou, Vernon Dobtcheff, Philippe Nahon

Artsploitation's return recent to prominence continues to give with this French slice of surreal cinema, wherein a young woman named Jessica (Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux) receives a call from her mother announcing the death of her grandmother, Rose. The young woman returns to the family home in the countryside only to discover that her grandma's corpse is being kept in the room next door to hers until the funeral. That in and of itself would be the stuff of nightmares for some but we soon discover that Jessica in no stranger to haunting dreams, having been plagued by strange nightmares since childhood, however, the corpse next door seems to make the nightmares a bit more horrific. That night she dreams of her deceased grandmother who implores her to help find a key of some sort, but she also dreams of a scary horse headed figure that her grandmother calls The Bishop, a monstrous and frightening figure clothed in the robes of a Cardinal and carrying a razor-sharp scepter in it's clawed hands. The introduction of the Horse headed figure is stunning, emerging from behind heavy red curtains with hot breath pouring from it's over-sized nostrils, it cuts quite a terrifying figure, and then it gores someone with a horse jaw-spear, scary stuff and something you wont soon forget. 

Jessica becomes obsessed with the visions of her grandmother and the horse headed figure, believing the two are somehow linked to her mother's secretive past, she begins to further explore the nightmares through a method of lucid dreaming with the aid of a bottle of ether, which keeps her asleep where she can navigate the nightmare world and find the answers to her sinister visions. As she becomes more and more obsessed her ether-fueled vision quest threatens her health and sanity, with reality and nightmare becoming one. The nightmares have a Gothic fairytale quality about them, a Hammer inflection maybe with Jessica wearing a red cloak which cannot help but invoke red Riding Hood, anf this comes complete with a Wolf element. 

I cannot recall the last time I watched a movie that so successfully captured the surreal quality of a nightmare on film, it would probably have to go back to either vintage era Argento or Fulci to find an analog. Horsehead is laced with trippy and atmospheric scenes drenched in dread and creepiness, its unsettling stuff. As the line between reality and her dreams break down Jessica becomes even more at odds with her mother, played by Catriona McColl, from Lucio Fulci's The Beyond and City of the Living Dead. The mother is a cold woman towards her daughter from the beginning, and Jessica's quest to uncover family secrets through the lucid dreaming only further distance the mother and daughter, as it seems Jessica's nightmares seem to hold some truths that the mother wishes to be left kept secret. 

A visual feast for the yes, with lush cinematography and stylistic lighting accompanied by a harsh electronic score that got right under my skin, a great marriage of gorgeous and unsettling imagery and unnerving sound. Candy for the eyes aside if you are looking for a cohesive story that goes from point A to point B with a clear resolution and/or revelation you might be slightly disappointed, as many of the answers simply inspire more questions, navigating the nightmare world can be a tricky thing. Myself, I love a good horror film with arthouse leanings and I found it be a fantastic watch. I applaud Artsploitation for their dedication to the strange and wonderful world cinema they've focused on distributing, each title is unique and hard to categorize, and that's a very good thing. 

Special Features:

- Trailer (2 Mins) 
- Artsploitation Trailers: The House with 100 Eyes (2 Mins), Der Samura (2 Mins), The Treatment (2 Mins) 

- Inside Horsehead Making Of (57 Mins) 

- Four Short Films: Bloody Current Exchange (11 Mins), Light Drowning (1 Min), Remy (7 Mins), Faces and Landscapes of Beaujolias (3 Mins) 

Horsehead is an artfully crafted movie with some stylistic nods to both Dario Argento and Mario Bava and an unnerving Lynchian nightmare weirdness. If you're open to something strange and out of the ordinary, if you crave nightmarish cinema dripping with dread, Horsehead comes highly recommended. 4/5 

THE BEYOND (1981) (Grindhouse Blu-ray Review)

THE BEYOND (1981)

Super-Deluxe 3 Disc Collector's Edition 2xBD/CD

Label: Grindhouse Releasing
Region Code: A
Duration: 89 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 1.0 Mono, English Dolby Digital 2.0, Italian Dolby Digital Mono
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.40:1)
Director: Lucio Fulci
Cast: Catriona MacColl, David Warbeck, Cinzia Monreale

In Lucio Fulci's The Beyond a young woman named Liza (Catriona MacColl) inherits the Seven Doors Hotel in Louisiana, which just happens to be the site of a brutal lynch-mob murder in the '20s when a painter named Schweick whom was believed to have been a warlock was chain-whipped and nailed to the wall before being doused with a corrosive substance that melted away his flesh, it's quite a stomach churning scene and a damn impactful beginning to the film. What the vicious mob don't realize is that their actions this night have set in motion a series of events that will open one of the dreaded Seven Doors of Death many years later, as prophesied in the Book of Eibon.

Moving forward through time sixty years Liza will suffer the consequences of their vengeful act and possibly condemn the world to an apocalyptic fate in the process. No sooner has she arrived from New York City when a painter is critically injured after falling from a scaffold having been spooked by spectral encounter. The very next day an rather unfortunate plumber heads down to the flooded basement to tend to the root cause of the problem when a demonic hand reaches out from the water-logged and gouges his eyeball, a nasty Fulci trademark if ever there was one. Later that day the wife of the plumber visit the morgue to pay respects to her husband when she is doused in acid as a poorly placed vat of acid melts off her face. More bizarre death occurs soon after when Liza's friend Martin pays a visit to the library in search of the hotel blueprints only to fall from a ladder after a startle. Paralyzed by the fall he is torn apart by a horde of tarantulas which crawl out from beneath the bookshelves tearing at his nose, mouth and eyes.

After the painter's accident Liza befriends Dr. John McCabe (David Warbeck) and then encounters a strange blind woman named Emily (Cinzia Monreale) who warns her not to return to the hotel. She shrugs it off but it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore as the weirdness continues, and at this point in the film we haven't even got to the neck-chomping possessed dogs or the zombie siege at the hospital, so brace yourselves. 

The Beyond is best viewed as a nightmare that subscribes to a strange dream logic punctuated by gruesome special effects and very unsettling imagery, if you're picking it apart scene by scene you're gonna have some problems. Make-up effects masters Gianetto DeRossi and Maurizio Trani were in fine form on The Beyond with brutal chain-whippings, acid-meltdowns, horrific zombies and some of that patented Lucio Fulci eye-gore, plus a brutal head-shot of a young woman that still wows me everytime I watch, this is a gore-masterpiece. 

The film has a surreal script from legendary Italian screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti and some keen cinematography from Lucio Fulci's preferred cameraman Sergio Salvati, who lenses the film with a atmospheric sense of the macabre that just pulls you in from the first frame on through to the last, a truly magnetic and horrific experience. 

Audio/Video: The Beyond (1981) arrives on Blu-ray in the U.S. from Grindhouse Releasing in 1080p HD framed in the (2.40:1) widescreen aspect ratio. Advertised as an HD transfer of the uncensored director's cut I assume this is not a brand new 2K master struck from the negative or it would have been advertised as such. Regardless, the HD image is strong with vibrant color reproduction, some nice depth and clarity and modest fine detail. Comparing it to the Arrow Video Blu-ray I could not detect a major difference between the two HD presentations, both appearing quite similar to one another. 

Onto the audio you have four options beginning with an English DTS-HD MA 5.1 remix by Academy Award winner Paul Ottosson, English DTS-HD MA Mono, English Dolby Digital Stereo and Italian Dolby Digital Mono. For the sake of this viewing I chose the surround remix and was very pleased, a nice surround sound presentation that brings a depth to proceedings, adding some additional life to the otherworldly sound design without sounding forced. Purists may wish to stick with the mono option but I am quite satisfied with the new surround remix, that Fabi Frizzi score sounds fantastic in surround. 

You might need a day or two to sift through all the bonus content on the 2-disc set as they are quite bountiful beginning with an audio commentary with actors Catriona MacColl and David Warbeck recorded back in 2000 if I am not mistaken. They have a playful rapport with each other as they remember fun facts and anecdotes from the shooting. This commentary is a carryover from both the previous Anchor Bay/Grindhouse Releasing DVD and was also featured on the Arrow Video Blu-ray. Then onto the German color pre-credit sequence with both German and English audio options, three trailers for the film, and a selection of radio spots and TV spots. 

You can look forward to no less than four Easter eggs on disc one alone, beginning with the 23 minute Voices from Beyond: Memories of Lucio Fulci with remembrances from Dardano Sacchetti, Franco Bruni, Veronica Lazar, Catriona MacColl, Gianetto DeRossi, Fabio Frizzi, Sergio Salvati, Giorgio Mariuzzo, and Fabrizio De Angelis. Other hidden extras include the alternate Seven Doors of Death intro, a series of images from the movie and a sound effects track. 

Onto an equally stuffed disc two we have three hours of new in-depth interviews with stars Catriona MacColl, Cinzia Monreale and Giovanni De Nava, U.S. production manager Larry Ray, make-up artists Giannetto DeRossi and Maurizio Trani, cinematographer Sergio Salvati, writer Dardano Sacchetti, producer Fabrizio De Angelis, daughter Antonella Fulci and composer Fabio Frizzi. Carried over from the Arrow Video Blu-ray is a High Rising Productions featurette, an interview with U.S. distributor Terry Levene. These interviews not only cover the filming of The Beyond but also paint a portrait of the infamous director who is remembered in numerous ways, as a technical genius, a sarcastic personality, and someone who guarded his own sensitivity with a certain amount of vulgarity, but it's clear that those closest to him valued him as a director and a friend, Fulci was a complex man. I think the strongest attribute of the extras a whole is the cumulative portrait of the often times misunderstood director. 

There are almost 2 hours worth of vintage interviews culled a 1988 audio taped of Lucio Fulci and various appearances of MacColl, Warbeck and Fulci from Eurofest and the Festival of Fantastic Films. Additionally there are an extensive array of galleries totalling almost four hundred images of behind-the-scenes shots, stills, various video releases and quite a bit more. Tucked away on the menus of disc two are two more Easter Eggs, a now and then location visit and the Necrophagia video for "And You Will Live in terror" directed by wildman Jim Van Bebber.

Separate from the extras on the two Blu-rays are a third disc, a CD of the remastered score from Fabio Frizzi, a haunting score that lingers long after the end credits. There's also a 12-page booklet with liner notes by horror journalists Chas. Balun and Martin Beine and an extensive Lucio Fulci filmography. The first 5000 of these have a glow-in-the-dark slipcover, which is a pretty nifty bonus.  

What more could you possibly want in regard to The Beyond? About the only thing I can figure might be a featurette with contemporary directors reminiscing about their first experiences watching the film, that would have been a fun one.

Special Features: 

- Spectacular HD digital transfer of the original UNCENSORED Director's Cut

- Breathtaking 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio surround sound re-mix by Academy Award winner Paul Ottosson
- Original 11-track Soundtrack CD by Fabio Frizzi newly remastered in stunning 96khz sound from the original studio master tapes.

- Provocative commentary by stars Catriona MacColl and genre superstar David Warbeck

- Lost German pre-credit sequence in FULL COLOR in German and English (16 Mins) 
- Looking Back - The Creation of The Beyond (48 Mins) 
- The New Orleans Connection - Larry Ray (44 Mins)
- Beyond and Back - Catriona MacColl (34 Mins) 
- See Emily Play - Cinzia Monreale (22 Mins) 
- Making It Real - Gianetto DeRossi and Maurizio Trani (32 Mins) 
- Lucio Fulci Interview - August 1988 - Part 1 (20 Mins)
- Lucio Fulci Interview - August 1988 - Part 2 (13 Mins) 
- Eurofest '94 - David Warbeck and Lucio Fulci (46 Mins) 
- Eurofest '96 - Catriona MacColl and David Warbeck (5 Mins) 
- 1996 Festival of Fantastic Films - Catriona MacColl (12 Mins) 
- 1996 Festival of Fantastic Films - David Warbeck (21 Mins) 
- Beyond Italy - U.S. Distributor Terry Lee (19 Mins) 
- Still Galleries: Productions Stills (80 Images), Behind the Scenes (81 Images)
- Promotional Images Gallery: Italy (13 Images), U.S. (40 Images), French (16 Images), Video releases (56 Images), Beyond the Beyond (101 Images) 

- Grindhouse releasing Previews (32 Mins) 

- International Trailer (3 Mins) 

- German Trailer (3 Mins) 

- US Trailer (7 Doors of Death) (3 Mins) 

- US Re-Release Trailer (1 Mins) 

- US TV Spots  (7 Doors of Death (1 Mins) 

- US Re-Release Radio Spot (1 Mins) 

- Easter Egg: Voices from Beyond: Memories of Lucio Fulci from Dardano Sacchetti, Franco Bruni, Veronica Lazar, Catriona MacColl, Gianetto DeRossi, Fabio Frizzi, Sergio Salvati, Giorgio Mariuzzo, Fabrizio De Angelis (23 Mins) 
- 12 Page Collector's Booklet with Liner notes by legendary horror journalist Chas. Balun and EuroHorror expert Martin Beine
- Lucio Fulci Filmography

- Limited Edition of 5000 copies Glow-in-the-Dark Slipcover 
- Easter Eggs: Seven Doors of Death Intro (1 Mins), Still Images from The Beyond 
(17 Mins), Audio Sound Effects (11 Mins), Location Visit (2 Mins), Necrophagia Music Video (5 Mins)

The Grindhouse Releasing Blu-ray of Lucio Fulci's The Beyond is an attractively packaged special edition jam-packed with a stunning array of new extras with a pleasing HD upgrade. A gorgeous package all around, a phenomenal fright film loaded with creepy atmosphere and torrents of dazzling gore, it doesn't get anymore essential than this one right here. 

DVD Review: THE THEATRE BIZARRE (2011)

THE THEATRE BIZARRE (2011)

Label: Image Entertainment
Region: 1 NTSC
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 114 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Widescreen (2:35:1)
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1
Directors: Buddy Giovinazzo, David Gregory, Douglas Buck, Jeremy Kasten, Karim Hussain, Richard Stanley, Tom Savini
Cast: Udo Kier , Guilford Adams, Suzan Anbeh, Lindsay Goranson, André Hennicke, Kaniehtiio Horn, Lena Kleine, Catriona MacColl, Victoria Maurette, Virginia Newcomb, Debbie Rochon, Tom Savini, Melodie Simard

When Enola Penny (Virginia Newcomb) enters a derelict theatre she is enraptured by a bizarre series of six anthology vignettes introduced by a creepy marionette character (Udo Kier, Mark of the Devil) and a cast of eerie automatons creations.

Up first is the Lovecraftian tale "The Mother of Toads" directed by Richard Stanley, the director of Hardware (1990) and Dust Devil (1992). The segment features Italian horror icon Catriona MacColl who appeared in many of Lucio Fulci's films including The Beyond (1980). An American couple Martin (Shane Woodard) and Karina (Victoria Maurette) are touring the French Pyrenees when by chance they encounter a witchy woman named Mere  (Catriona MacColl, The City of the Living Dead) who lures Martin, an anthropologist by trade, to her countryside villa with the promise of the fabled Necronomicon. Once the young man is is alone with her he discovers she  is quite more than she at first appears. It's a well-crafted creeper and the seduction of Martin by the aged witch is quite unnerving and it only gets more grotesque when he wakes up next to something quite a bit more severe than a horny witch. The gooey low-budget creature effects are pretty great, the anthology starts off strong with what turned out to be my favorite of the bunch. It's great to see Stanley back directing horror his aforementioned early 90's features were among the decades brightest and darkest entries. The short features gorgeous settings and great cinematography accentuated by Dario Argento-esque lighting and an atmospheric score that brought to mind Goblin at moments. The piece really has an Italian horror feel to it, definitely a short that left me hungering for more from Richard Stanley, this was a great Lovecraftian tale rich with occult symbolism.

Up next  from director Buddy Giovinazzo (Combat Shock) is a twisted tale of demented love and betrayal "I Love You". Axel (Andre Hennicke) is a pathetic and insanely insecure man pleading for his cheating lover Mo (Suzan Anbeh) to stay with him despite her painfully honest admissions of infidelity which she lays bare on the table in a series of promiscuous flashbacks. This one is heavy on dialogue but we get a satisfying and twisted finale that delivers the goods. 

"Wet Dreams" from Tom Savini follows a douche-nozzle named Donnie (James Gill) who steps outside the bounds of  marriage to Carla (Debbie Rochon) regularly but he is haunted by castration anxiety nightmares of emasculation and towards that end seeks the help of a psychiatrist named Dr. Maurey (Tom Savini). Turns out Donnie is sticking it to the psychiatrist's wife on the side and you have to imagine that a head shrink, when provoked, is capable of some dark and twisted shit. Tom Savini also directed the remarkable Night of the Living Dead (1990) remake but has done very little since that has stuck with me, my least favorite of the bunch but there's some revenger fun to be had here with gory special effects gore from the Toetag Pictures crew. 

Douglass Buck's somber "The Accident" deals with the aftermath of a motorcycle accident witnessed by a mother (Lena Kleine) and her adolescent daughter (Melodie Simard). It's a gorgeous looking film and has a tenderness to it that sets it apart from the other dark-hearted tales, the young girl's questions about death to her mother was quite touching and maybe a bit misplaced on this anthology.

Enough about a innocent young girls questions about mortality, let's get back to some squirm inducing eye-gore with Karim Hussain's "Vision Stains" a rather unique vision of terror indeed as a young woman (Kaneihtiio Horn) mortally wounds street walkers, junkies and the homeless and as they lay dying inserts a needle into their eyes withdrawing the ocular fluid and then injecting it into her own eyeball - fans of Fulci's infamous eye-gore will just love this, some very nasty effects work going on here - it will have you squirming in your seat for sure, just nasty. The transference of ocular fluid sets of a series of memories in her own brain and she hurriedly scrawls the life memories of each of her victims into a journal, a weird addiction and compulsive .

The last of the vignettes is a candy-colored nightmare of gluttony and lust from David Gregory entitled "Sweets". Estelle (Lindsay Goranson) and Greg (Guilord Adams) are engaged in some bizarre fetish that involves mass digestion of confectionery delights to the point that it's just gross> When the two attend a party hosted by Mikela Da Vinci (Lynn Lowry, Romero's The Crazies) things get even more bizarre, a beautifully filmed and shocking bit of nastiness right here.  

DVD Special Features:
- Audio Commentary for each Segment with the exception being Douglass Beck "The Accident"
- 'Shock Till You Drop' Interviews with Gergory, Giovanizzo, Kasten (38:21) 
- Behind-the-Scenes (7:45)  
- Theatrical Trailer (1:35) 

Verdict: What attracted me to this film at first was the return of Richard Stanley to the horror genre - now that's something to get excited about right there and I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of all of these dark vignettes.  Not all were of the caliber of Stanley's Lovecraftian "Mother of Toads" but each was well-crafted, interesting and stylish, very few anthologies fire on all cylinders, that's just the way of the anthology but The Theatre Bizarre makes for some artfully disturbing viewing from start to finish, impressive stuff. (3.5 Outta 5) 

BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Beyond (1982)

THE BEYOND (1981) Blu-ray

LABEL: Arrow Video
REGION: Region Free, Region 0 PAL
DURATION: 88 min.
DIRECTOR: Lucio Fulci
CAST: Catriona MacColl, David Warbeck, Cinzia Monreale
TAGLINE: Only death awaits in The Beyond!

PLOT: If your new business venture is sited on the cursed gateway to the hell dimension of The Beyond, then maybe it’s time to move elsewhere but Liza (Catriona MacColl) is determined to make her New Orleans hotel work, until strange things start happening, people vanish and her waking thoughts are haunted by a ghostly blind woman who seems to hold the answers to the whole bizarre fever-dream. As reality breaks down and the plot explodes, Liza must journey far from everything she understands and descend in The Beyond...

FILM: Italian gore-master Lucio Fulci's THE BEYOND (1981) is pt.2 of the unofficial Gates of Hell trilogy which began with CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD (1980) and ended with insanity that is THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY (1981).  The connective tissue that bind this gruesome trio seems to be the apocalyptic effects of the dead entering the world of the living.  The film was heavily censored for it's outstanding gore sequences upon release and was granted a release here in the states under the lesser title SEVEN DOORS OF DEATH, which was also substantially edited.

The pre-credit sequence opens in 1927 as an angry mob enter the Seven Doors Hotel where they apprehend a painter named Schweick who's dabbling in the dark arts has led to the discovery that the hotel is built upon one of the seven gates of Hell as written about in a cryptic tome known as Eibon . They torture him, nail him  crucifixion-style and throw quicklime upon his body and watch as it eats away his flesh, it's truly grotesque. Their need for vengeance sated the mob don't realize their acts have set in motion a chain of events that will bring apocalyptic ruin upon the Earth. Fifty years later a young woman named Liza (Catriona MacColl) inherits the hotel and has plans to renovate the property but as you can imagine renovating one of the seven portals to Hell is fraught with problems. For starters the water in the basement is waist high - enter a rather unfortunate guy aptly named Joe the Plumber who is the first but certainly not the last in this film to receive the patented Fulci eye-trauma, it's a scene that nearly bests the infamous eyeball vs. splinter scene from Fulci's own ZOMBI 2 (1979). Other characters figuring prominently into the story include an apparition of a blind woman named Emily (Cinzia Monreale) whom only appears to Liza warning her to leave the hotel and not return but Liza isn't easily frightened despite the strange happening at the hotel. Following the near-death accident of a day laborer Liza also meets Dr. John McCabe (David Warbeck) who while skeptical of all things supernatural joins forces with Liza until the intensely eerie Hell on Earth finale.

The Beyond is truly thin in the plot department and has a few confusing non-linear bits that will surely dismay some folks but not me. It's as simple as woman moves into a haunted hotel which rests upon one of the seven gates of hell and nightmarish crazy things happen - 'nuff said. Fulci's signature eye mutilation, tense atmosphere  and sickening gore are all accounted for as the typical quirky dialogue exchanges, the usual classic Italian to English dub stuff. My favorite bit of dialogue has Emily screaming to her dog to "Attack! Dicky! Dicky Attack! Attack Dicky!" shortylt before it turns it's teeth on her which always makes me sequel with delight. We get the aforementioned eye-trauma, a truly gnarly tarantula attack, the vicious canine encounter, sulphuric acid to the face, a full on zombies assault and a heinous head, it's great stuff. The special effects work of Giannetto de Rossie is mostly superb throughout with the exception of some piss poor tarantuals and are on par with his work on Zombie 2. Thin though the plot may be The Beyond is an effectively chilling film, very eerie and steeped in dark atmosphere helped no doubt by the setting of the film in Louisiana. It's a great looking feature with fantastic cinematography that just happens to be stuffed with outstanding gore. Fulci was a true filmmaker and The Beyond is a very technically accomplished film.

I've only seen a handful of Fulci films outside of the Gates of Hell trilogy; THE PSYCHIC (1977), ZOMBI 2 (1979), and THE BLACK CAT (1981) and each is a wonderful excursion into the realm of Italian cinema that I can easily recommend. I'm far less familiar with his early 70's output like  DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING (1972) and A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN (1971) and look forward to discovering each in it's own time. It's comforting to know that there's so much more to discover from Fulci.

BLU-RAY: The Beyond gets a brand new HD restoration and is presented completely uncut in it's original aspect ratio 2.35:1 (16x9) anamorphic with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and original English and Italian mono audio options with English subtitles for both the Italian and English language tracks. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is immersive with a surprising amount of depth to it. Frizzi's score sounds brilliant and the effects really leap out of the surrounds. The films appears quite crisp with vibrant colors and great black levels with a healthy amount of film grain present but not distractingly so. It should be noted that I am reviewing a pre-release screener that may not be representative of the film final release. As an example; the prologue is errantly presented in monochrome black and white and not the intended sepia tone.  Arrow Video are aware of the issue and have taken action to correct this on the commercially available release.

Disc 1 special features include a fun commentary with stars Warbeck/MacColl. They have a playful rapport with each other as they remember fun facts from the shoot. This commentary is a carry-over from the Grindhouse Releasing DVD.  There's also a commentary featurng Fulci's daughter and Calum Waddell speaking about not just THE The Beyond but her father's films and legacy. The 1st of 2 featurettes is AKA Sarah Keller: Cinzia Monreale remembers ‘The Beyond’ (25:04) which features the still stunningly gorgeous Monreale fondly recalling her work with not only Fulci but director Joe D'Amatto on the film BEYOND THE DARKNESS. She also speaks to her perceptions of violence in cinema and her memories of shooting the film in Louisiana and Rome. Rounding out disc 1 is Catriona MacColl Q+A from the Glasgow Film Theatre (20:08) that is moderated by Calum Waddell as the star discusses several of her collaborations with Fulci, the script and her relationship with the director and there's also an easter egg.



The proper sepia-tone pre-credit sequence.



The errant monochromatic pre-credit sequence.

Disc 2 special features begin with One Step Beyond: Catriona MacColl Remembers a Spaghetti Splatter Classic (29:09)  a conversation in English as the star recalls being on set and working with Fulci. Beyond Italy – Louis Fuller and the Seven Doors of Death: Interview with US distributor and editor of ‘The Beyond’ Terry Levene (20:21) is a fascinating interview with the film's American distributor as he describes his life in film distributing grindhouse classics CANNIBAL FEROX, ZOMBI FLESH EATERS and THE LIVING DEAD AT MANCHESTER MORGUE among many others. This is essential stuff, fans of Italian cinema are in for a real treat. Equally fascinating is Butcher, Baker and Zombiemaker: The Living Dead Legacy of special effects wizard Gianetto Di Rossi (30:32) as the Italian effects master Rossi recalls his most famous works including the trademawk eye-trauma in both ZOMBI 2 and THE BEYOND as well as the tarantula attack. Fulci Flashbacks: Dario Argento, Daria Nicolodi, Sergio Stivaletti, Antonella Fulci and others remember The Godfather of Gore (25:08) is a collection of fond Fulci memories from many familiar face including Argento and Nicolodi who is always a great interview. Finishing off disc 2 extras are an interesting Alternative Colour Pre-Credits Sequence (16:02)  which presents the pre-credit sequence in color from the German cut of the film and the Original International Trailer (3:15).

DISC 1 SPECIAL FEATURES (Region Free Blu-ray)
- Introduction by star Cinzia Monreale
- Audio Commentary with Antonella Fulci and Calum Waddell
- Audio Commentary with David Warbeck and Catriona MacColl
- AKA Sarah Keller: Cinzia Monreale remembers ‘The Beyond’ (25:04)
- Catriona MacColl Q+A from the Glasgow Film Theatre (20:08)
- Easter Egg

DISC 2 SPECIAL FEATURES
(Region 0 PAL)
- One Step Beyond: Catriona MacColl Remembers a Spaghetti Splatter Classic (29:09)
- Beyond Italy – Louis Fuller and the Seven Doors of Death: Interview with US distributor and editor of ‘The Beyond’ Terry Levene (20:21)
- Butcher, Baker and Zombiemaker: The Living Dead Legacy of special effects wizard (30:32)

- Fulci Flashbacks: Dario Argento, Daria Nicolodi, Sergio Stivaletti, Antonella Fulci and others remember The Godfather of Gore (25:08)

- Alternative colour pre-credits sequence (16:02)

- Original International Trailer (3:15)

VERDICT: When one thinks of the films of Lucio Fulci it's either Zombi 2 (1979) or The Beyond (1981) that spring immediately to mind and for good reason. These films are wonderful examples of gruesome Italian horror cinema and are both excellent films to jump into for the uninitiated. An equally gorgeous and grotesque example of Fulci's nightmarish imagery and surreal atmosphere. As with many Arrow Video editions of beloved genre classics it is easy to give this a high recommend without reservation. Transfer error aside the numerous bonus features are truly outstanding and give fans of the director a true appreciation for his work as well as the talented folks who made it possible. A stunningly gore-geous masterstroke of Italian cinema. 4.5 outta 5