Movie Review: From Beyond

Directed by Stuart Gordon
Starring Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ken Foree, Ted Sorel, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Bunny Summers

For horror fans, the ‘80s were a time of sheer wonderment when it came to special effects. With the constant advancement of special makeup effects, it was a time of foam rubber, latex, and slime, with the only boundaries being imagination. One film that represents that more than most is Stuart Gordon’s From Beyond.

When I worked at the theater back in the ‘80s, Re-Animator (1985) played there and it just blew me away, between the gore and just the outrageousness of the whole story. I had already been reading Fangoria by that time, so when From Beyond was coming out, I was already excited about seeing it. And luckily for me, it played at my theater as well, so I spent a lot of time in there watching it over and over. I had recently started reading horror fiction, and thanks to Stephen King, had already started to dive into the works of H.P. Lovecraft, and had read the very short story that From Beyond was based on. In fact, the pre-credit sequence in the film is pretty much the whole story. But I think writer Dennis Paoli, along with producer Brian Yuzna and director Gordon, fleshed out the rest of the plot that, while way gorier and gooier than Lovecraft would have spelled out, I think it still felt it could be in the same universe.

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Soundtrack Review: From Beyond

From_BeyondFrom Beyond
Released 2003 by La-La Land Records
13 Tracks, with a total running time of 46:06 min.
Music composed by Richard Band

At my very first horror convention, back in 1988 which took place in California, I had picked up the soundtrack for this on LP and I immediately fell in love with it. Composer Richard Band created a score that has a perfect combination of a science feel but still being able to create some very creepy elements to it. I was very bummed when I got rid of my albums and had to wait more than a few years for this to get an official release on CD, which I picked up right when it came out. Continue reading

Music Box Announces 24-hours of Horror!

Music Box of Horrors 2016Chicago’s own Music Box Theatre has announced the date for this year’s Music Box of Horrors, which will take place on Saturday, October 24th, starting at noon! We can all hope that things will be back to some sort of normality so us devious horror fans can enjoy another 24 hours of madness! I missed last year’s marathon because we were at an out-of-town show so this year we are hoping to make our return!

So far, they only have two titles announced, but I gotta say, they’ve picked to stellar movies! The first one is one of the last great pictures from the King of Ballyhoo, William Castle! Joining forces with Joan Crawford, we get Strait-Jacket (1964), with this twisted tale of axe-murderer on the loose. Screening from a 35mm print! Continue reading