From Beyond (1986)

“From Beyond” holds a special place for me for a couple of reasons. One reason is because the first time I saw it was on the big screen at the Lovecraft Film Festival around 2007. Seeing a movie like this surrounded by die hard Lovecraft fans allows you to appreciate all of the fun and over the top moments that you might otherwise judge as silly if you saw it by yourself. People cheer when Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton first appear on the screen and they cheer even louder with every gruesome death that takes place. The other reason why I’m fond of this movie is because I was able to meet Barbara at this showing! She gave a wonderful 30 minute Q&A session during the festival, talking about this film as well as the “Re-Animator”. She is every bit as wonderful and gracious as you could hope.

“From Beyond” is essentially a sequel to the original Lovecraft short story of the same name, picking up right before the story's climax. As I previously mentioned, this films stars Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton, who both starred in Mr. Stuart's "Re-Animator". Joining this stellar cast is another horror heavy weight, Ken Foree, best known for at the time for his role as Peter from "Dawn of the Dead". This film is an improvement upon the "Re-Animator", allowing each of the actors to grow and flesh out their characters. It's great to see Barbara's Dr. McMichaels as the lead, taking control and leading the narrative.

Dr. Pretorius has created a machine called the Resonator which stimulates the pineal gland and allows those near the machine to see creatures from other dimensions. During their first experiment, something comes and kills Dr. Pretorius and his assistant Crawford is blamed for his death. Psychiatrist Katherine McMichaels and police detective Bubba Brownlee take Crawford from the psychiatric ward that he is being kept and back to the house where the Dr. Pretorius died so they can recreate the murder scene and find out what really happened. The Resonator is rebuilt, and throughout the movie both Crawford and Katherine fall under its power and exhibit strange behaviors. The three end up fighting more dimensional monsters and the perverted beast that Dr. Pretorius has become.

Favorite moment - When Bubba is consumed by dimensional bees while saving Crawford and Katherine from the Resonator.