Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
The Resonator, a powerful machine that can control the sixth sense, has killed its creator and sent his associate into an insane asylum. When a psychiatrist becomes determined to continue the experiment, she unwittingly opens the door to a hostile parallel universe.
From Beyond is a gloriously unhinged piece of Lovecraftian body horror that stands out as one of the most distinctive genre films of the 1980s. Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna push the source material into genuinely singular territory — the Resonator concept, the pineal gland mutations, and the relentless escalation of grotesque transformation give the film a unique, unmistakable identity that few horror films can match. The practical creature effects and production design are inventively repulsive. However, the acting is uneven — even Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton, reliable cult favorites, are hampered by thinly written characters. The ending loses momentum and resolves somewhat flatly after the delirious mid-section. The plot, while serviceable as a delivery mechanism for escalating weirdness, is fairly bare-bones beyond its high concept. Still, as a fever-dream of Lovecraftian excess, it earns its cult status on sheer distinctive vision.