From Beyond (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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From Beyond is a 1986 American science-fiction body horror film directed by Stuart Gordon, loosely based on the short story of the same name by H. P. Lovecraft. It was written by Dennis Paoli, Gordon and Brian Yuzna, and stars Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ken Foree and Ted Sorel.
From Beyond centers on a pair of scientists attempting to stimulate the pineal gland with a device called the Resonator. An unforeseen result of their experiments is the ability to perceive creatures from another dimension that proceed to drag the head scientist into their world, returning him as a grotesque shape-shifting monster that preys upon the others at the laboratory.
Plot
Dr. Edward Pretorius is a scientist who has developed the Resonator, a machine that allows whoever is within range to see beyond normal perceptible reality. His assistant, Dr. Crawford Tillinghast, activates the machine and soon sees strange creatures in the air. When he is bitten by one of them, he notifies Pretorious about the machine's functionality. Pretorius then turns the machine on and, driven by a lust for power and knowledge, refuses to turn the Resonator off, even as it malfunctions at full power, causing Crawford to panic and flee. When the police arrive, they find Pretorius decapitated, yet no blood. Crawford is subsequently arrested and accused of murder.
Crawford is committed to a psychiatric ward, where he is treated by Dr. Katherine McMichaels. After Crawford gives his account of Pretorius' death, Katherine orders that Crawford undergo a CT scan, showing that Crawford's pineal gland is enlarged and growing. Convinced of Crawford's innocence, Katherine has him released to her custody, and plans on taking him back to Pretorius' house and the Resonator. They are accompanied by Detective Bubba Brownlee, who investigated Pretorius' death.
Upon returning to the house, Katherine and Crawford rebuild the Resonator. Crawford reactivates the machine which causes more creatures to appear along with a severely deformed Pretorius. His consciousness having taken control of the creature that devoured his brain, Pretorius tells the trio of a world beyond that is more pleasurable than normal reality. A panicking Crawford shuts off the Resonator, making Pretorius and the creatures vanish.
The next morning, Katherine insists that the Resonator could shed light on the victims of schizophrenia, as well as possible treatments and suggests that they turn the machine back on, but Bubba and Crawford disagree. While Bubba and Crawford are asleep, Katherine gets back up to feel the pleasure from the machine and turns it back on, bringing forth a worried Crawford and the now-almost unrecognizable and mutated Pretorius. Bubba enters the scene as Pretorius grabs Katherine, preparing to eat her mind and take her to the world of beyond. Crawford and Bubba go down into the basement to shut off the power, but encounter a giant worm-like monster. Bubba succeeds in shutting off the power, rescuing Crawford and Katherine and sending Pretorius away.
When Bubba decides that they should leave the house, all of a sudden, Pretorius somehow returns and the Resonator turns back on, as all three of them run up into the attic to deactivate it. Katherine and Crawford are attacked by little bee-like creatures, and as Bubba pushes them out of the way, he is devoured to the bone. Crawford fights off Pretorius and succeeds in freeing Katherine, but then his enlarged pineal gland pops out of his forehead. Katherine short circuits the machine by spraying it repeatedly with a fire extinguisher.
She then takes Crawford back to the hospital, where she is evaluated for insanity and schizophrenia, since her story was just like Crawford's. As Katherine is being prepared for shock treatment by a sadistic staff member, Crawford has developed an overwhelming hunger for human brains and brutally kills Katherine's superior Dr. Bloch. Katherine escapes and drives back to the house with a bomb and a crazed Crawford following her.
Katherine puts the bomb on the Resonator and goes to leave when Crawford attacks her. As he is about to eat her brain, she bites off his pineal gland, reverting him to his senses. However, Crawford is pulled away and has his brain eaten by a completely deformed, mutated Pretorius. Before he can do the same to Katherine, Crawford's consciousness begins to fight for control within Pretorius, the opposing consciousnesses tearing their shared body apart. Katherine finally escapes through the attic window just as the bomb explodes, killing both Pretorius and Crawford and destroying the resonator.
Landing outside, Katherine breaks her leg and the neighbors gather around her as she suffers a complete mental breakdown, saying "It ATE him!" while bursting out in between mad laughter and crying.
Cast
- Jeffrey Combs as Dr. Crawford Tillinghast
- Barbara Crampton as Dr. Katherine McMichaels
- Ted Sorel as Dr. Edward Pretorius
- Ken Foree as Bubba Brownlee
- Carolyn Purdy-Gordon as Dr. Bloch
- Bunny Summers as Neighbor Lady
- Bruce McGuire as Jordan Fields
