146 - BEYOND DARKNESS (1990)

John Hudson and Bobby Hazzard join me to discuss out first Filmirage production and, of course, it’s a horror film. 

BEYOND DARKNESS (1990) was directed by the man responsible for the astonishing TROLL 2, Claudio Fragrasso. That should let you know what kind of ride the movie will provide but it might not prepare you for the sheer madness. Consisting of ideas, characters and entire sequences cobbled together from at least six earlier films BEYOND DARKNESS serves up a low budget variation on the haunted house concept that must be seen to be believed. A Catholic priest and his family (!?) move into a home in his new Louisiana parish and are almost immediately assaulted by spectral nonsense. There’s a glowing otherworldly hole in a closet, ghostly witches creeping around and the lingering presence of a recently executed child murderer making a full night’s sleep pretty difficult to get. A sane family would leave but then we’d have no movie. 

The three of us try very hard to stay on topic but we each seem determined to run off onto side discussions that have only tenuous connections to the film. We start off well talking about the Otis House location BEYOND DARKNESS shares with Fulci’s THE BEYOND and the number of cast members that are also in other horror movies of the times. But eventually I’m babbling about alternative poster art for vintage films while Hudson drags us on another ‘Porn Talk’ sideroad and all of us are giggling about the haunted lamp in AMITYVILLE 4! What is wrong with us? Things repeatedly go off the rails as should be obvious by the fact that we end up referencing Zamfir, the Master of the Pan Flute, Gilligan’s Island and The Doors. Dive in and hang on – this one is a little crazier than usual.

 We end the show with a tune from The Cocktail Slippers and you should check out their fine music wherever you listen to cool stuff. If you have any comments or suggestions [email protected] is the place to send them. Thank you for listening to us go on about things and we’ll be back soon.