Day Eight: From Beyond (1986)
Fans of horror films owe it to themselves to be familiar with director Stuart Gordon. Like David Cronenberg, he is a director who could have “graduated” to more reputable genres long ago, but continues to visit the murky, the slimy and, for most people, the unappealing. Most of us know his debut, Re-Animator, and if you don’t you should, its as good as people say. I could also go on for quite some time about two other mean little mothers of Gordon’s: Dagon, another Lovecraft venture that occasionally flirts with masterpiece status, and Edmond, a fearless adaptation of the David Mamet play that features some of William H. Macy’s best work.
From Beyond is another keeper: lean, mean, dazzling, one of the most sheerly pleasurable horror comedies ever made. I call the film a horror comedy, but I can’t, as I write this, recall too many actual jokes (and the film is running a second time in the background as we speak). The film derives its humor from its skewed sensibility, its dry point of view. From Beyond is probably the most cheerful movie about insanity, S&M and creatures from beyond our dimension ever made.
The danger with a horror film with a sense of humor is that it newters itself, limping along the theatres as some sort of mutant that doesn’t work in either genre. This was one (of many) problems with the Tales From the Crypt HBO movies, as well as, to a much lesser extent, the over praised Evil Dead 2 (the first Evil Dead however, struck a perfect balance.)
Gordon sidesteps this hazard gracefully with both Re-Animator and From Beyond; the films are ticklish spoofs of our id, and the creepy crawlys that punish us for having to invent excuses to indulge it. Think Hellraiser, only without all that boring crap that Clive Barker seems to think is profound, or think a lighter, brighter version of the great remakes of The Thing or The Fly.
The cast of From Beyond is completely in tune with the material and how it should be played. Jeffrey Combs, as the assistant to a scientist who loses his head trying to find a sixth sense from the titular location, has the presence of a super fey Jim Carrey. We expect scientists to be weird in horror movies, but he trumps even those expectations. He is always a step or two behind the action, and he’s always paying for it in ways that shouldn’t amuse us but do.
Barbara Crampton is the psychiatrist (har-har) who intially investigates Combs, but quickly decides to take over his mentor’s position as the film’s control crazy mad scientist. Crampton is a remarkable object of lust here, and you will remember more than one of her scenes (hint: involves the S&M I mentioned earlier), but it should also be noted, both to her and Gordon’s credit, that Crampton’s character is allowed to do more than bend over for the camera. Her character is tougher than Combs and even stranger, more obsessed, and, in the end, more interesting.
Ken Foree appears here as the third and final member of the party: a former football player now paying the bills as a cop (I think). Foree was memorable in Dawn of the Dead as the audience’s voice of common sense, and he effectively serves a similar purpose here. He also exhibits more self-control than any other hetero-sexual in any horror film that I’ve ever seen. Ever.
My post has been indulgent and rambling, giggly and tongue in cheek. I can’t help it. From Beyond is a joyously gross film, made with talent, discipline and good humor. The only real note I can offer is that it should have further explored the S&M element of the story, but that probably says more about me than the movie.
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