Beyond The Door

Beyond the Door (Chi Sei?) (1974)

Runtime: 106 minutes

Directed by: Ovidio G. Assonitis/Robert Barrett

Starring: Juliet Mills, Richard Johnson, Gabriele Lavia, Nino Segurini, Elizabeth Turner

From: A Erre Cinematogrica/Montoro Productions, Inc.

Because all Exorcist ripoffs should have a trippy funky/jazzy score...

For awhile now I have known of this movie; on a whim it seemed like last night would be an opportune time to use the Shudder service and check out something that I heard was quite wacky... and wacky this was at times. A woman in San Francisco has two young children in her family and out of nowhere becomes pregnant with the third, only it is the Antichrist. I probably don't need to state what else this was heavily “inspired” by.

This does have some scares/creepy moments that aren't just riffs on what it is cloning-this includes what could be called a twisted version of Toy Story. But what was most appealing was its strangeness. It was an Italian movie from Ovidio G. Assonitis so you should expect something peculiar anyway... this was beyond the pale at times. There's that score, which also sometimes has creepy sound effects. The opening is a black screen and you hear narration from... Satan! That's not the only time you hear them. A few times the picture stops as if you accidentally hit pause on the stream or disc; a curious decision there... and there are more than a few illogical things.

What I'll never forget about this: the behavior of the two young children the lead girl already has. The daughter is like 10 and yet has a dozen copies of the Love Story novel-an attempt at satire?-and totally talks as if she's an adult-that includes cursing. There's a son toddler-aged who always... drinks Campbell's green pea soup straight from the can with a straw?! Besides one of the many attempts by this production to thumb its nose at Warner Brothers (no wonder they got sued-and lost-for all the similarities to The Exorcist), it was one of those moments where the movie addressed it and there was even a hint that there'd be a reason given for the children & their bizarre behavior... only it doesn't happen. It's an Italian movie so of course there was also nonsense and unexplained moments.

Despite-or perhaps because of-its flaws, it was an entertaining horror film despite some slow spots. At least it did have enough horror moments for moi.