I am not a horror movie aficionado and have not given much thought to what makes for a successful horror movie. I suppose, like most storytelling, I expect the characters to behave in a predictable manner, and the horror comes from the disasters these predictable, even reasonable behaviors result in. This is certainly only one way; the movies Alien and its sequel, Aliens, were certainly horror movies, although lacking the noir endings most horror movies employ, and in these the reasonableness of the activities of the characters may be questioned.
From Beyond (1986) doesn’t really seem to feature such characters. From the two psychologists who behave in a most shockingly unprofessional manner to the neighbor with the little dog that bursts in on a horrific scene, these characters seem to indulge in some downright daft behaviors which lead to their downfalls with depressing accuracy. Worse yet, possibly the best-acted character in the entire movie dies halfway through, leaving the less-talented to soldier on.
Then it also makes the mistake of not being familiar with Burke’s idea of the sublime, which includes the concept of implying there’s always more, that the true beauty or horror of something is just outside of perception. Think of the Balrog in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001): as it emerges within the Mines of Moria, we never really see the whole thing, since flames and smoke envelop it. What we see is bad enough, but the hints of what may be far worse are just out of sight. The Watcher in the Lake is another example from the same movie.
But the monsters in From Beyond are presented in loving and complete detail – but it’s not competent. I wasn’t horrified, I was amused as the horrid primary monster tried to be frightening. For a horror movie not to be able to trigger some primal jerk of fear and terror is to admit that it is a failure. And the dated costumes and hairstyles simply add to the disaster.
For all that, there are some clever bits. The cop is played with outsized enthusiasm that I really enjoyed. The logic introduced early in the film in which the monster’s consumption of a victim results in the victim – a depraved scientist himself – taking over the monster is remembered and repeated when a more virtuous scientist is consumed and then attempts his own takeover, lending new meaning to the old phrase, You are what you eat.
And, finally, the emergence of the pineal gland from the forehead really left me thinking: what dickheads!
It’s not a movie I can recommend, although we finished it and were always curious if the movie was going to get better. Unfortunately, it did not.
