Oy vey, what a doozy we have here. "Beyond the Door" (also known as "Chi sei" and "The Devil Within Her") has Juliet Mills as a San Francisco woman who becomes pregnant with a Devil child, which puts a hamper on her otherwise bourgeois West coast existence. She also becomes apparently possessed, and does a lot of really wacky and scary stuff. A low budget, unabashed riff on "The Exorcist" and "Rosemary's Baby," "Beyond the Door" is one of the weirdest offerings in the possession horror sub genre of the 1970s, and despite its unashamed ripping off of about every possession film up to that point, there are still moments of technical flair and genuine creepiness here. An Italian production, the film was directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis, who at times seems to be tapping into surrealism with the moody and at times disorienting camera-work; as some other reviewers have said, there are things about this film that are very much dreamlike. Take for example, the first five minutes: we have a sea of candles appear on screen, with overhead narration by none other than Satan himself; the camera pans to the right, as Juliet Mills inexplicably stands amidst the candles in a white nightgown, wearing a brainwave monitor. Three minutes later, we have a random montage of Mills grocery shopping in the bay area set to a hokey funk track by Sid Wayne. Surrealist horror, or funk rock music video? I don't even know, nor do I want to begin answering that.The film suffers tremendously from godawful dubbing, and Mills' foul-mouthed children who look about ten but talk like nineteen-year-olds bring some terribly laughable lines, while the bulk of the dialogue between the family is utterly brainless chatter. Despite all silliness, the real treat of this film lies in the execution of the possession scenes which, despite their derivation, are really well-done and at times genuinely scary. Juliet Mills does a commendable job with the script and is convincingly frightening as she transforms into a complete monster. There are some surprisingly out-there twists in the script that will leave you scratching your head, but also work in favor of the "surrealist horror" train of thought on the film (funk rock music video is still a solid choice though, just for the opening credits alone).Overall, "Beyond the Door" is a divisive film because it has moments of acute technical success and truly spooky moments, but it's also horribly dubbed, generally badly acted, and the plot is a rehash of the decade's earlier possession films with some absurd twists thrown in for good measure. As I said before, it is worth a watch for Mills' possession alone, and for the borderline surrealist filmmaking on display, but the undertone of utter silliness rarely escapes the screen. 6/10.

Jessica Barrett (Juliet Mills) is happily married to Robert (Gabriele Lavia) and has two "lovable" kids. All of the sudden she realizes she's pregnant--but has been always taking her birth control pills. The baby grows quickly and she starts acting strangely. Then her former boyfriend devil worshipper Dimitri (Richard Johnson) shows up. Could he have something to do with it?This was a HUGE hit in 1974 but I can't see why. It has its moments but the story makes little sense, there are countless sequences of people walking around San Francisco and there's a little girl who has a mouth on her that would make a construction worker blush! To make matters worse everyone is badly dubbed (with the exception of Mills and Johnson)! Also the music score is terrible. It sounds like bad jazz and destroys any mood the movie might have had. On the plus side Mills is VERY good in her role; there is a neat scene where the kids bedroom is attacked; the makeup and special effects are pretty good; there are some truly scary sequences which use just sound effects and there is some impressive directorial touches. So it HAS its moments but ultimately it's too boring and slow-moving to really work. This is based on the Code Red DVD which has a pristine transfer and a full uncut version. Amateur night in hell.

..this one was so incoherent and silly that i can't imagine possible giving this more than 3 stars. the main reason i didn't give it 1 or 2, is because there were one or two well done "scary" scenes. minus the one or two decent scenes, overall, the plot, and development was so nonsensical it was jaw dropping. Satan's narration was laughable. if Satan and evil is responsible for plagues, and war, and suffering, he's fairly intelligent and has accomplished his goals in that department. if he even want's to take it to a personal level, and possess people, OK, ill drop common sense and believe it, a la the exorcist. at least the exorcist had a good vs. evil theme. the outcome, and overall "plot" of "Satan" in this film made me seriously feel like buying the guy a drink. hey, Satan, you need it more than i do. if you have a chip on your shoulder, and want to cause humankind suffering, at least have your evil plan make some sense and benefit you in some way. i'm not addressing the complete insanity and retardation of this film as eloquently as i would like, but seriously, even if you are a b-movie junkie, a huge horror fan, and don't mind rip off movies, steer FAR FAR away from this film. it may cause you to like horror films less. this was not fun on ANY level. if you want a ridiculous, hilarious, horror film that lacks sense, watch Death Bed: The Bed That Eats. that one is a winner on every level, this, a turd. on every level.

~Spoiler~Beyond the Door (a.k.a. The Devil Within Her) has been called The Italian Exorcist, and for good reason. For that's exactly what it is...with just a pinch of Rosemary's Baby for good measure. Jessica and Robert Barrett are about to have their third child. But this blessing may be a curse in disguise as Jessica's ex-boyfriend, Dmitri, shows up. Dmitri is played by Richard Johnson, who can be seen in other Italian fare including Zombi 2 and Screamers. Seems his character has made a "bargain with the devil" (as the film's theme song informs us) to extend his life in exchange for a vessel to host the devil. Before you can say "pea-soup", the pregnancy turns Jessica into a possessed woman who levitates and spins her head in a 360 degree manner. It's a blatant rip-off and Warner Brothers wasted no time sending their army of lawyers in. That didn't stop the film from becoming a moderate success, although I can't figure out why. The best feature of the film has got to be the dubbing of the children. It's painfully obvious someone much older is dubbing these kids and the things they get to say are mindblowingly funny. Other than that, I'm sad to report that the film is largely boring. I've been looking forward to seeing this one for many years (as I do with most of Code Red's DVD releases) and it was not worth the wait. But what did I really expect from Ovidio G. Assonitis, director of Piranha II: The Spawning? Not much happens in the film and the only memorable bits can be seen in The Exorcist. Also, the way the film is edited it repeats many scenes in brief flashes that seem to serve no purpose. I really can't recommend this to anyone but hardcore Italian buffs. However, if you make it to the end, if you can bear it, you will be privy to one of the best head-scratching moments of Italian cinema. I don't want to spoil anything, but it certainly had me laughing hysterically. Beyond the Door was followed by two sequels, neither of which have anything to do with this film nor each other.