 Produced and released in Italy under the title "Chi Sei?", "Beyond the Door" was rushed to America in 1974 to capitalize on "The Exorcist" hysteria. Needless to say, "Beyond the Door" was a huge hit for all those low rent drive-in aficionados with bad taste, who'd say things like, "man, its better than 'The Exorcist!" Which, of course, was misguided bunk. Outside of a great title, "Beyond the Door" was so bad, so inept, it makes Edward D. Wood movies look like Orson Welles. The dubbing alone, however, is worth the price of admission - the voices don't match the lip movements at all - which is no big deal - but the timber of the voices is all wrong. For instance, there's an eight year old boy in the movie who sounds like a middle aged woman who's vocabulary is culled from an incredibly deep catalogue of curse words. What's cool though, is the filmmakers snagged Juliet Mills to play the possessed housewife in "Beyond the Door". Mills had just come off a T.V. show called "Nanny and the Professor" where she played a doting, loving au pair to a couple of precocious little brats, er, children. Seeing Mills in "Beyond the Door" is something of a revelation - she spouts out enough curse words that, upon hearing them, would make Harvey Keitel blush. She pukes endless rivers of chunky green pea soup that hangs like stings of snot off her chin throughout the film. She's smacked around, is winged across the room, her head does the old 360 and she does the nasty on herself almost continuously. I suppose the movie tries to show the immoral aspects of infidelity - Mills pays for an extramarital affair by becoming an incubus for the devil thereby becoming a victim of demonic possession as a metaphor for guilt. Guilty at being a bad wife and an even worse mother. But Roberto d'Ettore Piazzoli's direction is inept and downright goofy (except for a few nicely staged levitation scenes - where Mills pukes and curses in a craggy voice while the guidewires are clearly evident). This guy's got nothing on Mario Bava (who filmed a 'sequel' to "Beyond the Door" called, what else? "Beyond the Door II") or Dario Argento (check "Suspiria" for some good demonology). The editing doesn't come close to a first year film student's capabilities. The filmmakers must have been 'shrooming big time once this celluloid piece of tripe hit the moviola - its a disjointed mess. When you see it on T.V. its even more incoherent - which adds to its bizarre wookiness. But, ultimately, "Beyond the Door" leaves a vile taste in your mouth - kinda like pea green soup. About the author: Check author's other reviews You may read another review, submit your own, or return home. |
