From Beyond

Year of Release:  1986

Director:  Stuart Gordon

Screenplay:  Dennis Paoli, story by Brian Yuzna, Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli, based on the short story "From Beyond" by H. P. Lovecraft

Starring:  Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ted Sorel, Ken Foree, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon

Running Time:  82 minutes

Genre:  Horror, science-fiction

Dr. Edward Pretorius (Sorel) and Crawford Tillinghast (Combs) create a machine called the Resonator which stimulates the pineal gland in the human brain, allowing a person to see beyond normal, perceptible reality, revealing grotesque monsters.  One of them bites off Pretorius' head, and Crawford is accused of his murder.  Intrigued by his story, ambitious psychiatrist Dr. Katherine McMichaels (Crampton) and Detective Bubba Brownlee (Foree) persuade Crawford to recreate the experiment.  They soon discover that Crawford was telling the truth, and that Pretorius has been absorbed by the creatures and returns hungry for more prey.

This film reunites many of the cast and key behind the scenes personnel behind cult hit Re-Animator (1985) for another take on the works of influential American writer H. P. Lovecraft.  This film, written by Dennis Paoli from a story by Paoli, director Stuart Gordon and producer Brian Yuzna is very loosely based on a very brief minor H. P. Lovecraft story written in 1920 and published in 1934.   As with Re-Animator much of the material is played more for laughs than scares, and is full of slimy, rubbery monstrosities and gore galore.  There's a surprisingly strong sexual element here as well.  A scene where a monster attempts to assault Barbara Crampton is queasily unpleasant and strikes a sour note on what is otherwise an essentially fun, gory monster movie.  Later, in one of the film's most memorable scenes, the buttoned-up, serious Crampton appears in full leather bondage gear and also, if you are so inclined, there is the sight of Ken Foree in very small briefs.  It's one of those films where everyone seems to be having a ball.  Jeffrey Combs overacts tremendously as the twitchy, bug-eyed scientist; Barbara Crampton is good as ever as the sympathetic if slightly sinister psychiatrist and she conveys well her slow transformation under the influence of the Resonator; Ted Sorel provides a fun pantomime performance as the hissable villain under increasing layers of latex; Ken Foree, who is possibly best known for Dawn of the Dead (1978), is engaging as the likeable tough-guy detective; and Carolyn Purdy-Gordon is fun as the psychiatrist who despises Katherine and her methods.  While the special effects may look a dated today, the gruesome monsters are imaginatively designed and it's all satisfactorily gross.  At a brisk 82 minutes the whole thing keeps moving along.  It's the kind of film that is best watched late at night maybe with a few drinks and a few likeminded friends.  None of it is supposed to be taken seriously.       

Barbara Crampton and Ted Sorel in From Beyond

The Frighteners

Year: 1996
Director: Peter Jackson
Screenplay: Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson
Stars: Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, John Astin, Jeffrey Combs, Dee Wallace-Stone, Jake Busey and Chi McBride
Running Time 110 minutes, and a 122 minute director's cut.
Genre: Horror, comedy, thriller, supernatural

Summary: 1995 in the small town of Fairwater, USA. Once successful architect Frank Bannister (Fox) is now an alcoholic, selfish con-man who operates a scam as a psychic, although he can actually see ghosts following the death of his wife (Angela Bloomfield) in a car accident five years previously. Frank gets his three ghostly friends, Cyrus (McBride) a 1970s era black gangster, Stuart (Jim Fyfe) a 1960s era nerd and The Judge (Astin) an Old West gunslinger, to haunt people's houses forcing the occupants to call Frank who will then "remove" the ghosts for a fee. However Frank becomes aware of a supernatural force that is randomly killing innocent people in the town, also he can see which people are destined to be killed by the force. With the help of a sympathetic doctor (Alvarado) Frank attempts to stop the killings, while also being hunted by a dangerously paranoid FBI agent (Combs) who is convinced that Frank is behind the deaths.

Opinions: This film was originally conceived as a feature film spin-off of the television series Tales from the Crypt (1989-1996) however the film's executive producer Robert Zemeckis, who also produced Tales from the Crypt, was so impressed by the script that he thought it would work better as a stand-alone film. Despite being set in the US, the film was shot entirely in Jackson's native New Zealand with the plentiful special effects being supplied by Jackson's Weta Digital special effects company. The movie mixes multiple references to horror movies old and new with Jackson's distinctive fast-moving style. It also has an impressively quirky cast including such cult actors as John Astin (star of the TV series The Addams Family (1964-1966)), Jeffrey Combs (star of Re-Animator (1985)) and Dee Wallace-Stone (who appeared in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), the original The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and The Howling (1981)) and features a hilarious cameo from R. Lee Ermey as a ghostly version of his demented drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket (1987). The movie is a good one with plenty of imagination and a real verve to it all. At times it veers too wildly between horror and comedy, but mostly it achieves the difficult balance pretty well. The special-effects were really spectacular for their time and are still impressive today, even if the computer generated effects are looking dated now (in movies nothing ages as badly as special effects).
By the way cameo fans, Peter Jackson appears as the bearded rocker who accosts Frank when he comes out of the newspaper offices.



Stuart (Jim Fyfe), Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) and Cyrus (Chi McBride) have a haunting experience in The Frighteners