FROM BEYOND. Great sci-fi horror inspired by Lovecraft

From Beyond – a film adaptation that, in theory, had no right to succeed—yet it runs like a well-oiled machine. Almost like the Resonator itself…

Two scientists, Dr. Edward Pretorius and his assistant Crawford Tillinghast, are working on the Resonator—a computer-driven machine designed to grant access to other dimensions of reality. One night, Tillinghast manages to program the device according to its intended purpose, and strange, aggressive eel-like creatures appear in the laboratory. He quickly shuts down the apparatus and informs Pretorius of his discoveries. However, the knowledge-hungry scientist disregards his colleague’s warnings and activates the Resonator—only to meet a gruesome fate when something devours his head. Tillinghast is accused of Pretorius’s murder and committed to a psychiatric institution under suspicion of schizophrenia. Young psychiatrist Katherine McMichaels orders a CT scan of the patient, revealing that Tillinghast’s pineal gland has enlarged and continues to grow. With the police chief’s approval, McMichaels takes the researcher back to Pretorius’s house to examine the Resonator, accompanied by police detective Bubba Brownlee. Once there, they discover that the machine is still operational—and that Pretorius is somehow still alive.

The success of Re-Animator (1985), which earned more than twice its budget, led Stuart Gordon to adapt another H.P. Lovecraft story. Initially, the plan was to film Dagon, but ultimately, he chose From Beyond, a story written in 1920 and published fourteen years later in The Fantasy Fan magazine. For From Beyond, Gordon assembled the same team he had worked with on Re-Animator: producers Brian Yuzna and Charles Band, screenwriter Dennis Paoli, composer Richard Band, cinematographer Mac Ahlberg, editor Lee Percy, special effects artists John Carl Buechler and John Naulin, and a cast featuring Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, and Carolyn Purdy-Gordon. Gordon envisioned an entire series of Lovecraftian adaptations, similar to Roger Corman’s Poe film cycle, but after From Beyond, he directed only three more Lovecraft adaptations (one unofficial): Castle Freak (1995), Dagon (2001), and an episode of Masters of Horror titled Dreams in the Witch-House (2005).

Perhaps the abandonment of further Lovecraft adaptations was due to From Beyond’s box office failure: the film had a budget of $4.5 million but earned only about $1.2 million. The filmmakers managed to cut costs by shooting at an Italian studio once owned by Dino De Laurentiis, where production expenses were significantly lower than in the U.S. Gordon—who was simultaneously filming Dolls (1987) at the same location—claimed that in the U.S., costs would have been around $15 million. Yuzna recalled that despite budget cuts, funding ran out just before filming was completed, with the most expensive elements being the special effects, which involved four independent teams, and a remote-controlled animatronic model of the monstrous Pretorius, built by Mark Shostrom. After editing, Gordon faced additional challenges with the MPAA, which demanded the removal of several graphic scenes. The director cut only one such sequence (a tongue being pierced by a nail) and made minor edits to the others.

In theory, From Beyond shouldn’t work as a Lovecraft adaptation. The first fifteen minutes exhaust the original story’s plot, and in many ways, the film is the antithesis of Lovecraft’s writing: it is explicit, bloody, and loud, whereas Lovecraft’s works relied on mystery, ambiguity, and unease. And yet, within its genre, From Beyond is highly successful. The special effects are impressive, rivaling those in John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) and David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986). But the film’s strength also lies in its playful approach—it never takes itself too seriously, frequently winking at the audience. This is evident in the character names (a nod to Dr. Pretorius from Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and horror writer Robert Bloch, author of Psycho), the setting on Beneficent Street 666, and the humorous presence of Bubba. As a result, all the brain-eating, eyeball-sucking, gallons of slime, and erotic perversity in the spirit of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser (1987) never fall into the trap of self-serious absurdity. A great ride and a guilty pleasure.