Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘From Beyond’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

There are theories out there that suggest that space is not the final frontier. That the building blocks of life exist in places unknown to us and because of that, other worlds and other creatures thrive in various dimensions that we will likely never interact with. 

The idea of multiple dimensions is nothing new in science and science fiction and horror, simply because the endless realm of possibilities fascinates us, and while there are men of science posing these theories, the real work in discovering the worst parts of these potential universes falls to the horror and science fiction genres, and one film that stands out for its wild ideas of what could be out there, was the 1986 horror gem... From Beyond.  

Dr. Edward Pretorius believes that man is capable of seeing beyond our world and his newly invented device, the Resonator aims to prove that theory.  But his first major test of the device ends in disaster, with his death. His assistant, Crawford, is blamed for the good doctor's untimely passing and committed to a psychiatric hospital.  But a routine medical exam shows changes to his body that cannot be explained, and Dr. Katherine McMichaels is now curious as to what Edward discovered and returns to the lab with Crawford, only to find that the Resonator works and what it shows man, should have stayed beyond our sight.  

Simply put, this is a surprisingly good horror flick. Loosely based off the short story of the same name by the legendary H.P. Lovecraft, From Beyond does a fine job disturbing and disgusting the audience, because it flat our preys upon our fears of damage and pain when it comes to the human body. But in addition to its ability to unsettle the audience, of the big reasons that this film stands out is because it is filled to the brim with horror legends. The iconic Jeffrey Combs is in this, as is scream queen Barbara Crampton and the legendary Ken Foree, and each one of them do an incredible job selling the wild aspects of this story. 

But the film goes above and beyond in bringing eerie and disturbing to the table. The special effects are nothing short of awesome and quite frankly, something that at the time I had never seen before and haven't seen since. The creatures that arrive from this secondary dimension are truly the stuff of nightmares, and the worst of the worst when it comes to these beings... is what becomes of Dr. Pretorius. I won't say much more than that because... these are effects that have to be seen to be believed. Either way, this is one you need to see. The scares are top notch, the cast is incredible, and this is a movie that will leave you shaking your head to clear your mind of the disturbing events that just played out before your eyes long after the credits have ended. 

---