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Ultra HD : Highly Recommended
Ranking:
Sale Price: $45.53 Last Price: $ Buy now! 3rd Party 45.53 In Stock
Release Date: February 28th, 2023 Movie Release Year: 1986

From Beyond - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Overview -

After the success of Re-Animator director Stuart Gordon reteamed with Brian Yuzna, Jeffrey Combs, and Barbara Crampton to deliver the next dimension of terror - From Beyond. Another gnarly pool of Lovecraftian body horror, the film keeps the humor dark with great effects. Now with a brilliant new 4K Ultra HD release from Vinegar Syndrome, the film looks and sounds amazing with a trove of new and archival bonus features. Highly Recommended

Dr. Edward Pretorius, an acclaimed physicist, has perfected his newest invention: the Resonator, a machine which allows those near to it to glimpse life not visible to the naked eye. Imagining the discoveries he could make, Pretorius begins to go mad, much to the concern of his young assistant, Crawford Tillinghast. However, after the machine malfunctions during a highly sensitive experiment and Pretorius is found brutally murdered, Crawford is fingered as the primary suspect. Crawford, now confined to an asylum, becomes the ward of Dr. Katherine McMichaels, who takes a special interest in his tales of the strange creatures able to be seen while the machine is operating and convinces him to help her rebuild the device, woefully unaware of the terrifying, hidden world she is about to enter…

Following up on the success of his 1985 film Re-Animator, director Stuart Gordon’s FROM BEYOND presents another harrowing interpretation of acclaimed science fiction and horror writer H.P. Lovecraft’s uniquely unsettling tales of of terror. Starring Jeffrey Combs (Frightmare), Barbara Crampton (You're Next), and Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead), photographed by Mac Ahlberg (House), written by Dennis Paoli (Castle Freak), produced by the legendary Charles Band (Puppetmaster) and Brian Yuzna (Society), and featuring incredible special effects designed by Mark Shostrom (Evil Dead II), FROM BEYOND has solidified its legacy of being one of the most iconic independent horror films of the 80s. At last, this gruesome glimpse into the dark side of science comes to 4K UHD and Blu-ray, exploding with new and archival extras and featuring a stunning and fully uncensored 4K restoration, created by Vinegar Syndrome specifically for this release!

 

Additional info:

  • 4K Ultra HD / Region A Blu-ray Set
  • 4K UHD presented in High-Dynamic-Range
  • Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative
  • Commentary track with director Stuart Gordon and the cast
  • Commentary track with screenwriter Dennis Paoli
  • "Re-Resonator: Looking Back at From Beyond" (97 min) - a brand new making-of documentary featuring interviews with actors Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton and Ken Foree; screenwriter Dennis Paoli; producer Brian Yuzna; film editor Lee Percy; composer Richard Band; foley artist Vanessa Ament; effects supervisors Michael Deak and Anthony Doublin; effects artists William Butler, Gabriel Bartalos, John Naulin and Robert Kurtzman
  • "A Director's Perspective" (9 min) - reflections with director Stuart Gordon
  • "Stuart Gordon on From Beyond" (20 min) - a 2012 interview with the director
  • "A Tortured Soul" (18 min) - a 2013 interview with actor Jeffrey Combs
  • "The Doctor Is In" (14 min) - a 2012 interview with actress Barbara Crampton
  • "Paging Dr. McMichaels" (20 min) - a 2013 interview with actress Barbara Crampton
  • "An Empire Production" (7 min) - a 2013 interview with executive producer Charles Band
  • "Multiple Dimensions: The Creatures & Effects of From Beyond" (23 min) - an effects focused featurette from 2013
  • "Monsters & Slime: The FX of From Beyond" - an effects focused featurette from 2012
  • "Gothic Adaptation" (16 min) - a 2012 interview with screenwriter Dennis Paoli
  • Storyboard-to-film comparisons with director Stuart Gordon (9 min)
  • Interview with composer Richard Band (4 min)
  • Trailer
  • Still gallery
  • English SDH subtitles

OVERALL:
Highly Recommended
Rating Breakdown
STORY
VIDEO
AUDIO
SPECIAL FEATURES
Tech Specs & Release Details
Technical Specs:
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray + Blu-ray
Video Resolution/Codec:
HDR10
Length:
86
Aspect Ratio(s):
1.85:1
Audio Formats:
English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles/Captions:
English SDH
Release Date:
February 28th, 2023

Storyline: Our Reviewer's Take

Ranking:

Crawford Tillinghast (Jeffrey Combs) toils away working in the attic lab of the perverted but brilliant Dr. Edward Pretorius (Ted Sorel). Using their new invention the resonator, the men are on the verge of discovering a new plain of existence by stimulating a dormant gland within the human brain. When the experiment results in Dr. Preorius’ head being bitten off by an interdimensional creature, Tillinghast must prove to the beautiful Doctor Katherine McMichaels (Barbara Crampton) that the machine is real, it works, and a terrifying new dimension is within reach.

You have to hand it to filmmakers for making the most out of public-domain properties with slim material to work with. Based on H.P. Lovecraft’s short story - all seven pages - Stuart Gordon reteamed with his Re-Animator cast, writer, and crew for another fleshy spin into science fiction-themed body horror. As a whole, the film sticks pretty close to the basics of the story with some obvious expansions and elaborations - along with a lot more BDSM sexiness. It may not be as overtly humorous as Re-Animator, but this film doesn’t shy away from celebrating the macabre with a wink, a smile, and about 100 gallons of glycerine and gore. 

Jeffrey Combs leads the pack of Gordon’s company of players as the high-strung Tillinghast. The dynamic and grossly underappreciated actor got to play things straight as the driven scientist in way over his head. Returning for more fleshy fun is Barbara Crampton as Tillinghast’s doctor assigned to assess if he’s crazy or telling the truth. There were concerns she’d be too young to convincingly play an esteemed doctor but she handles the material with gusto. Next in the pack is Dawn of the Dead veteran Ken Foree as the straight man of our lead trio. He’s there to absorb all of the techno mumbo-jumbo for the audience while also getting to go head-in on some action and gore sequences. Then we have the underrated Ted Sorel as the gooey fleshy monster from inter-dimensional hell - Dr. Pretorius. He’s an especially sinister and messed up creature from beyond our realm of understanding and really gets to chew the scenery... as well as the cast.

Stuart Gordon had hoped between Re-Animator and From Beyond to keep producing a series of Lovecraft adaptations much like Roger Corman with his Poe productions. Sadly this film pretty well flopped at the box office stymying those cinematic aspirations. Gordon would move on to projects like Robot Jox, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and Body Snatchers before bringing Combs and Crampton back for the video store classic Castle Freak

Like so many horror film fans, once I discovered Re-Animator I had to find everything Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna made together. Diving head into Society without any warning was quite the experience and Return of the Living Dead Part III was very different from its series siblings, but I steadily developed a love for this particular brand of slimy body horror. This wasn’t anything like what Cronenberg was bringing with The Fly or Videodrome. This brand of fleshy scary stuff had a particular sheen to its sliminess that you could practically smell when you watched it. 

As a whole, From Beyond may not be as tight as Re-Animator but it’s a solid flick. At 86 minutes it accomplishes a lot very quickly without feeling like anything is missing. The cast is great. Gordon’s direction is assured and inventive. The gore and special effects by John Carl Buechler, Mark Shostrom, John Naulim, and Anthony Doublin is gnarly fun drippy stuff. It's a great popcorn flick or if you've got a group of cult film fans it'll get their attention!

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Vinegar Syndrome activates all four panels of the resonator to bring a new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray of From Beyond into this reality. A three-disc set, the 4K version is pressed on a BD-66 disc, with the 1080p version scoring a Region A BD-50 disc, and a second Region A BD-50 disc reserved for bonus features. The discs are housed in a standard black three-disc case with separate bays without being stacked. Artwork features newly commissioned art by Tom Hodge with the original theatrical poster art on the reverse side with the Hodge art serving as the slipcover. The discs load to animated main menus with traditional navigation options.

Video Review

Ranking:

Reportedly sourced from a new 4K restoration of the original 35mm negative, this is another winning cult classic on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome. As a relatively obscure title that didn’t get a multitude of releases over the years, this is a clear and obvious improvement over Scream Factory’s then very impressive 2013 Collector’s Edition Blu-ray. Ten years of technical improvements gives fans much-improved detail clarity with a more natural and cinematic film grain presence. Facial features, costumes, the production design, and of course all of the fleshy bits get their day in the sun. 

HDR10 works its magic for this release giving the image much more stable black levels, color shading and saturating, with bright crisp whites. I was really impressed with the purple flickering lighting of the resonator and how much more dynamic that effect looked here compared to the old Blu-ray. Likewise black levels also pick up their subtle improvements from total blacks that are deep and inky without crush and some welcome shadow variances with all of the lighting effects. Primaries are well resolved and flesh tones are healthy and accurate. The image is also immaculately clean without any signs of speckling or damage. They also fixed the slight film judder issue of the previous release as well. All around a beauty of a release.

Now I wasn't able to get a comparison video past the YouTube copyright holdups so I threw these together of the 2013 Blu-ray versus the 2023 4K, it was difficult finding scenes that were symmetrical enough. Hope they're helpful:

Audio Review

Ranking:

The 4K and 1080p discs offer up what sounds like the same DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 tracks from the 2013 release. Which isn’t bad at all. I really liked the 5.1 mix the last go-around feeling that it gave the film plenty of life and vigor where it counted. The hum of the resonator and the creature sound effects got plenty of attention. I flipped over to my receiver’s DTS Neural:X function and found that gave the track some extra love and attention as well. All around two solid tracks to choose from.

Special Features

Ranking:

Vinegar Syndrome pulls out the stops for this release of From Beyond. On top of porting over most of the archival materials from the past releases, they also produced a new feature-length making-of documentary featuring new cast and crew interviews that really dives deep into the production and shooting in Italy and working at the old studios that apparently didn’t have heat. There are a lot of great nuggets throughout. The archival audio commentaries from Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli are also solid listens if you haven’t gone through them before. Of the missing archival bits, the only one I noticed that wasn't here was the brief extra from the 2013 Blu-ray about the editing of the film and the missing footage.

4K UHD DISC

  • Audio Commentary featuring Stuart Gordon
  • Audio Commentary featuring Dennis Paoli

BLU-RAY DISC ONE

  • Audio Commentary featuring Stuart Gordon
  • Audio Commentary featuring Dennis Paoli
  • NEW Re-Resonator: Looking Back at From Beyond (HD 1:34:43)

BLU-RAY DISC TWO

  • A Director’s Perspective - 2013 Interview with Stuart Gordon (HD 8:53)
  • Stuart Gordon on From Beyond - 2012 Interview with Stuart Gordon (HD 20:37)
  • A Tortured Soul - 2013 Interview with Jeffrey Combs (HD 17:47)
  • The Doctor is In - 2012 Interview with Barbara Crampton (HD 14:29)
  • Paging Dr. McMichaels - 2013 Interview with Barbara Crampton (HD 19:51)
  • An Empire Production - 2013 Interview with Charles Band (HD 6:47)
  • Multiple Dimensions: The Creatures & Effects of From Beyond (HD 23:28)
  • Monsters & Slime: The FX of From Beyond (HD 20:47)
  • Gothic Adaptation (HD 16:05)
  • Storyboard to Film Comparisons with Stuart Gordon (SD 9:01)
  • Interview with Richard Band (SD 4:34)
  • Trailer (SD 00:58)
  • Still Gallery

It may not have been the massive success of Re-Animator but Stuart Gordon’s From Beyond is every bit a faithful and impressive Lovecraft adaptation. The film holds up nearly forty years later with a great cast and an impressive array of special effects. It might not be as overtly funny, but it’s got a delightfully twisted sense of humor all its own. Making its 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray debut, From Beyond scores one hell of a great three-disc release from Vinegar Syndrome. The film looks and sounds terrific thanks to a new restoration with HDR10 capped off with hours of new and archival bonus features. A great hit for the collection - Highly Recommended