Brad Jones has done a lot of reviews and watches of the company’s movies, and apparently that’s pretty par for the course with their film’s quality. Unoriginal and soulless with a random “thing people know” attached.
Yeah it doesn't help it tries to have emotional moments too which is just pathetic.
A couple that come to mind:
Eh, what kind of hack even needs a script? The Beyond didn't have a script.
I watched his review. What I found funny is that apparently this is their first movie release in theaters due to the trailer going viral.
Honestly, a lot of Lucio Fulci's movies fall into this category for me. The gore is obviously impressive, but the stories are often mediocre. I really like The Beyond though, and I'm not entirely sure why I think it's so much better than almost everything else he did. Perhaps because of the ending.
I don't mean to be that guy but I'm going to be that guy for a second. I don't think you really "get" Eyetalian horror if I may be so brash. Eyetalian horror -the good shit- is not really about the plot. It's about imagery. It's about nightmare logic. It's about trippy fucking evil music. It's about stylish murder set pieces. That's what they're about and excluding select Giallo films if you're watching Eyetalian horror for the plot then you're missing what they're about entirely. It's like watching wrestling on TV and sitting there wondering how the ref doesn't notice shit or how the Undertaker appeared in a casket. It's a can't see the forest for the trees situation.
I get that they don't make a whole lot of sense, but I think that some of Fulci's movies sometimes stop being atmospheric and are just boring instead. I think his giallos are OK, but if I'm going to watch a zombie movie with a nonsensical ending, I'd rather watch Cemetery Man than City of the Living Dead. If I need to watch an atmospheric zombie movie, I'd rather watch Zeder than House by the Cemetery. I think his movies are watchable, but aside from The Beyond I don't think he ever reached the heights that that Dario Argenti or Mario Bava did. And after New York Ripper, his filmography just gets worse and worse. I know he's beloved, and I like a good zombie vs. shark fight as much as the next guy, but I wish he'd had Dario Argento's co-writers to help him with the stories.
I remember seeking out the novel the film was based on, Nicholas Condé's "The Religion" ("Condé" being a pseudonym shared by a couple of authors) which got a lot of hype back in the day. I came across a copy of it at the time I sort of fell into reading some other 1980s-era horror novels that happened to involve the practice of some of those old time religions, voodoo and otherwise. And there were quite a few published back then.
Daria Nicolodi? Probably wouldn't have been a game-changer...
Fun fact: Daria was a big fan of Fulci and preferred his films over Argento.
Me and a friend rented this once, just because of the title (we knew it wouldn't be related to Marvel Comics but still).
Get a room, queers.
.... there's a part 3?