From Beyond 1986

 Director Stuart Gibson must love H.P. Lovecraft because he sure adapted enough of his stories for the big screen.  Fresh off Re-Animator, Gibson teamed up with Jeffrey Combs again to make the 1986 sci-fi/body horror film From Beyond.  Jeffrey Combs (not to be a name dropper but he is a close personal friend of mine) plays Dr. Crawford Tillinghast, a scientist who helps another scientist, Dr. Edward Pretorius, develop a device called a Resonator.  The Resonator is used to stimulate the pineal gland which in theory is supposed to open the sixth sense.  What actually happens is it allows the user to see into another dimension or reality.  One filled with all types of mean nasty ugly things.  One of these things bites Dr. Tillinghast on the face.  It may be the left side or it could be the right side depends on where they put the bandage in any gives scene.  GASP!!  Someone call the continuity cops.  At the psychiatric hospital Tillinghast attempts to explain what happened and claims Pretorius (who is named after  Dr. Septimus Pretorius, Henry Frankenstein's teacher) is dead.

 Dr. Katherine McMichaels, played by Barbara Crampton who was also in Re-Animator, is a psychiatrist who listens to Tillighasts story and after seeing that his pineal gland is in fact enlarged she believes him.  She wants to take him back to the Pretorius house to see the Resonator in action for herself.  Once they are back at the house we see that Pretorius isn't really dead after-all.  Everyone starts going a wee bit bonkers except for Bubba Brownlee a detective assigned to investigate the case.  Bubba is played by Dawn of the Dead veteran Ken Foree who rounds out the cast nicely.

Believe it or not this is another Charles Band production but this one is before Full Moon pictures.  This is back to when he was still running Empire Pictures.  Charles Band even gave his father, Albert (remember I mentioned him before as director of I Bury the Living, don't get me started on that ending) a small uncredited part playing a wino in the film.  It's a family affair with these Band boys as Charles' brother Richard does the music for the picture.  Like I said before Gordon loved to adapt H.P. Lovecraft stories but if these films aren't your cup of tea he also wrote Disney's Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and executive produced the sequel Honey, I Blew Up the Kid.

From Beyond is a delightfully gross slime fest.  Lots of gore in this one, in fact a little more than a minute of film had to be cut in order for the film to get an "R" rating for the original release.  Today you can get the restored version that has those scenes put back in so no worries there.  Some of the scenes are definitely stomach churning.  For instance there is the scene where Jeffrey "My Close Personal Friend" Combs is eating a brain, yeah that one was foul.  OK, fine Jeffrey Combs is not a close personal friend of mine but I did meet him at a horror convention and he signed my Re-Animator blue ray and posed for a picture with me and the Horror Honey Denise.  So that's close, right?  From Beyond is just slightly better than Re-Animator in my opinion so I give this 4 Bulging Pituitary Glands out of 5.  Denise is in total agreement as the Horror Honey also gives it 4 out of 5.