Okay, I loved Re-animator. It contained a wonderful blend of camp, humor, gore and sexuality, as well as great acting from B-movie legend, Jeffrey Combs and B-movie hottie, Barbara Crampton. After reading so many positive reviews on this one on this site after seeing Re-Animator, I had to check this one out. When I brought this one home, I was shocked at seeing not only Jeffrey Combs and Barabara Crampton (from Re-Animator), but also Ken Foree in the cast, I was excited, thinking this should be a good time of a movie, just like Re-Animator was.
I must say, overall, I was very disapointed with this one. I thought the plot was good; the two scientists in the beginning create a machine that stimulates the brain's 'sixth sense' called the penial gland which controls all pleasures in the body and of course, human sexuality. The film starts off just like Re-animator did, having an experiment gone wrong and the protagonist escaping, making the viewer wonder what the hell just happened. I won't go into the plot as much, you can check other user comments for that, I will say that this movie just isn't Re-animator, on any level.
The special effects are sub-par, ranging from ultra-cheesy 80's animation to not bad, deformed monster menacing action. The leads, Jeffrey Combs (The Lovecraftian Actor, a true gift to the trade), Barbara Crampton (a good actress who doesn't mind showing off her 'talents' on screen) and Ken Foree (the main lead of Dawn of the Dead) all do well, though you can tell, the script does not give them much to work with at all.
***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***
This movie pretty much bored me the whole time...I was waiting for something interesting to happen...no, we get a good plot, but the follow through is aweful. There is very little explanation to what is going on, except that our sense of pleasure derives from creatures of another dimension who want nothing but to suck our brains out. This movie is not paced very well...it spends most of it's time with the experiments and ludicrous actions by our protagonists (Ken Foree, the cop, actually agrees for them to spend the night(?) in the house before leaving after seeing the horror the machine creates...why not just leave right then? Who in their right mind would want to spend a night in some stranger's house who had an obsession with dominatrixism? Of course, the movie would only be 30 minutes long, right?). The final 30 minutes are okay, I guess...trying to make something of the film by having Jeffrey Combs suddenly go nuts from the effects of the machine and start eating people's brains...if only THIS plotline could have begun 15 minutes into the film, there might have been something to be entertained with. But no, we're given a cheesy b-movie with good performances, yet, a horrible script, below average effects, and an incoherent plot line. Even though Barbara Crampton made her eventual naked contribution to the film, From Beyond is barely more than a waste of time, and this is coming from a true Re-Animator and Jeffrey Combs fan. Only for fans of Lovecraft or Jeffrey Combs...trust me, this one doesn't satisfy the 'Evil Dead' fans (like myself), or even the Mad Scientist fans. I like the macabre, but maybe if I was a little bit more obsessed with it, maybe I'd enjoy this film more...highly unlikely though. I was expecting so much, and I got so little. This film could have been so much more, given a better script. 4/10 stars.
I must say, overall, I was very disapointed with this one. I thought the plot was good; the two scientists in the beginning create a machine that stimulates the brain's 'sixth sense' called the penial gland which controls all pleasures in the body and of course, human sexuality. The film starts off just like Re-animator did, having an experiment gone wrong and the protagonist escaping, making the viewer wonder what the hell just happened. I won't go into the plot as much, you can check other user comments for that, I will say that this movie just isn't Re-animator, on any level.
The special effects are sub-par, ranging from ultra-cheesy 80's animation to not bad, deformed monster menacing action. The leads, Jeffrey Combs (The Lovecraftian Actor, a true gift to the trade), Barbara Crampton (a good actress who doesn't mind showing off her 'talents' on screen) and Ken Foree (the main lead of Dawn of the Dead) all do well, though you can tell, the script does not give them much to work with at all.
***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***
This movie pretty much bored me the whole time...I was waiting for something interesting to happen...no, we get a good plot, but the follow through is aweful. There is very little explanation to what is going on, except that our sense of pleasure derives from creatures of another dimension who want nothing but to suck our brains out. This movie is not paced very well...it spends most of it's time with the experiments and ludicrous actions by our protagonists (Ken Foree, the cop, actually agrees for them to spend the night(?) in the house before leaving after seeing the horror the machine creates...why not just leave right then? Who in their right mind would want to spend a night in some stranger's house who had an obsession with dominatrixism? Of course, the movie would only be 30 minutes long, right?). The final 30 minutes are okay, I guess...trying to make something of the film by having Jeffrey Combs suddenly go nuts from the effects of the machine and start eating people's brains...if only THIS plotline could have begun 15 minutes into the film, there might have been something to be entertained with. But no, we're given a cheesy b-movie with good performances, yet, a horrible script, below average effects, and an incoherent plot line. Even though Barbara Crampton made her eventual naked contribution to the film, From Beyond is barely more than a waste of time, and this is coming from a true Re-Animator and Jeffrey Combs fan. Only for fans of Lovecraft or Jeffrey Combs...trust me, this one doesn't satisfy the 'Evil Dead' fans (like myself), or even the Mad Scientist fans. I like the macabre, but maybe if I was a little bit more obsessed with it, maybe I'd enjoy this film more...highly unlikely though. I was expecting so much, and I got so little. This film could have been so much more, given a better script. 4/10 stars.