From Beyond (Collector's Edition) [BluRay/DVD Combo] [Blu-ray]

Description

H.P. Lovecraft’s classic tale of suspense became ’a grisly
amalgam of sex, shock and satire’ (Newsweek) in the hands of the creators of
Re-Animator. And now, armed with shocking never-before-seen footage and
special features and on Bluray for the first time, this ’ bloody good
entertainment’ (Time) has evolved into one of the most gruesomely riveting
film experiences of all time! The Resonator, a powerful machine that can
control the sixth sense, has killed its creator and sent his associate into an
insane asylum. But when a beautiful psychiatrist becomes determined to
continue the experiment, she unwittingly opens the door to a hostile parallel
universe… and to the deviant behavior within the human psyche. With its
victims becoming creatures who feed on (and become aroused by) human brains,
the Resonator is the ultimate man-made monster. And now something’s gone
horribly wrong and no one can turn it off! Director Stuart Gordon
followed his gleefully gruesome Re-Animator with From Beyond (1986), another
freewheeling H.P. Lovecraft adaptation that blends classic mad scientist
tropes with a hearty dose of polymorphous perversity and gallons and gallons
of gore and goo. Gordon’s stalwart leading man Jeffrey Combs returns to the
laboratory as a research scientist working with the grandiose Dr. Pretorius
(Ted Sorel) on a device that stimulates the pineal gland in order to
supercharge perception. Unbeknownst to them, the machine has a few (quite
literal) kinks in its design: not only does it bring the user into contact
with extra-dimensional creatures with an appetite for humanity, but it also
supercharges both evolution and desire, transforming Pretorius into a
gelatinous, megalomaniacal libido monster while reducing Combs to a psychopath
with a taste for brain matter. While From Beyond does not command the same
cult following as Re-Animator–it lacks that film’s coal-black humor, which
tempers its explosions of morbid autopsy-room splat-shtick–it’s also an
outrageous experience unto itself. It more than matches its predecessor in
terms of bloodshed while also conjuring a heady brew of Frankenstein
references (Pretorius name-checks Ernest Thesiger’s sexually ambiguous medico
in Bride of Frankenstein), Cronenbergian body horror, and a quivering mass of
Freudian peccadilloes, all filtered through Gordon’s own avant-garde theater
sensibilities and ’80s-era grindhouse aesthetics. It also benefits from a
remarkably game cast, led by the unfettered twin forces of Combs and Sorel and
abetted by fellow Re-Animator alum Barbara Crampton, who kicks out the jams as
a strait-laced psychiatrist who discovers her libertine side through their
invention, and Ken Foree (the ’78 Dawn of the Dead) as a brawny detective
whose pro-football past proves no match for the picture’s array of monsters.
Scream Factory’s Blu-ray presentation offers the director’s cut of From Beyond
along with a host of new and previously released supplemental features. Lively
commentary by Gordon, Combs, Crampton, and producer Brian Yuzna has been
ported over from the 2007 MGM DVD release, as have interviews with Gordon and
composer Richard Band, while the new material includes a second commentary
track with cowriter Dennis Paoli, who reads selections from the Lovecraft
source material, as well as interviews with a very funny Combs, Crampton, and
producer Charles Band. A featurette on the four special effects companies that
labored on the film, as well as a gallery of production stills and advertising
material and the original trailer, round out this typically top-notch Blu-ray
from Scream Factory. –Paul Gaita

Features:

Product Details:

• Genre: Horror
• Format: NTSC, Anamorphic, Blu-ray, Multiple Formats, Color, Collector's Edition, Widescreen
• Contributor: Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Jeffrey Combs, Ken Foree, Ted Sorel, Stuart Gordon, Barbara Crampton
• Language: English
• Runtime: 1 hour and 26 minutes
• Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
• MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ R (Restricted)
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 4 Ounces
• Item model number ‏ : ‎ 25939094
• Director ‏ : ‎ Stuart Gordon
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ NTSC, Anamorphic, Blu-ray, Multiple Formats, Color, Collector's Edition, Widescreen
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 26 minutes
• Release date ‏ : ‎ March 26, 2013
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ted Sorel, Ken Foree, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon
• Studio ‏ : ‎ Shout Factory