From Beyond (1986)

Directed by Stuart Gordon. Starring Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ken Foree, Ted Sorel, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Bruce McGuire, Bunny Summers. [R]

Several folks from the Re-Animator team (including actors Combs and Crampton) reunited for another gruesome descent into the macabre mind of H. P. Lovecraft; this effort can’t match the near-greatness of director/co-writer Gordon’s debut picture, but should satisfy fans of body horror, splatter, and plunges into the netherworld. Mad scientist Dr. Pretorius (Sorel) has built a machine called the Resonator, which allows those within its field of effect to glimpse into heightened dimensions of reality, leading to monstrous results (giant worm monsters in the basement, engorged pineal glands at the end of phallic stalks emerging from the forehead, ravenous insectoid swarms, kinky S&M play, that sort of thing). The actors are game, the makeup effects are grotesquely effective, the tongue is firmly in cheek, but it takes too long to get going and never generates much momentum while ricocheting between its handful of bonkers slime set pieces. Onscreen title: H. P. Lovecraft’s From Beyond.

62/100