OT: E tu vivrai nel terrore – L’aldilà

Director: Lucio Fulci
Written by: Dardano Sacchetti, Giorgio Mariuzzo, Lucio Fulci
Cast: Catriona MacColl, David Warbeck, Cinzia Monreale, Al Cliver

Year / Country: 1981, Italy
Running Time: 87 mins.

Liza moves into an old hotel in Louisiana, which, according to the occult book Eibon, has been built on one of the seven gates to hell. During the renovation strange events start to occur and it doesn’t take long before the undead roam all over the hotel. Liza and other survivors fight the evil with frantic efforts.

The original version of The Beyond wasn’t received well by Fulci fans in 1981. Somehow much of the gore had been cut out. Fulci fan Quentin Tarantino dug up the original print and got it released in theaters in 1998. Now the gore is back big time.

Some nasty highlights include a crucifixion, a bunch of spiders ripping apart a face, an eyeball torn out of a socket and an exploding head. It would be almost comical if it wasn’t so disgusting. Some great compositions, make-up effects and creepy music carry this flick above the average zombie-romp.

As for acting, story and suspense: oh well, it’s a Fulci film. For suspense watch Argento. Fulci is all about the gore. And he delivers with this one. The ending is also neat. So if you’re up for it, check out the DVD and enter hell with Italian shock master Lucio Fulci.

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Biography: Lucio Fulci (1927, Rome – 1996, Rome) originally studied medicine but quickly turned to filmmaking instead. He started his film career with directing comedies, musicals and spaghetti westerns. Later he turned to Italian shock horror films and made a name for himself as the goriest director ever. His international career came off the ground in 1979 when he directed Zombi 2, an unofficial sequel to George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, which had been released in Italy under the title Zombies. Fulci died from diabetes in 1996.

Filmography (a selection): The Thieves (1959) / The Jukebox Kids (1959) / Getting Away with It the Italian Way (1962) / The Strange Type (1963) / The Maniacs (1964) / 002 Operation Moon (1965) / How We Stole the Atomic Bomb (1967) / The Conspiracy of Torture (1969) / A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971) / Don’t Torture Donald Duck (1972) / White Fang (1973) / Challenge to White Fang (1974) / Four of the Apocalypse (1975) / Silver Saddle (1978) / Zombi 2 (1979) / City of the Living Dead (1980) / The Beyond (1981) / The New York Ripper (1982) / Evil Eye (1982) / The New Gladiators (1984) / Dangerous Obsession (1986) / Zombi 3 (1988) / Demonia (1990) / Door to Silence (1991)