There are rip-offs of The Exorcist. And then there are rip-offs where copyright infringement lawsuits lead to Warner Brothers getting a cash settlement and a portion of the film's future revenue. Beyond the Door would be the latter. It's $40 million worldwide gross meant that this film would a film draw the ire and call of that most Satanic of all monsters, the suits and the lawyers.Directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis, who wrote 1979's most insane film The Visitor and directed Tentacles and Madhouse (and he was also CEO of Cannon, producing films like Lambada and American Ninja 5), the film opens with Satan literally speaking, promising to give a man ten more years of life if he knocks up a woman. Oh yeah — there's also a naked female on a light up crucifix.Jessica Barrett (Juliet Mills, TV's Nanny and the Professor) is pregnant with her third child, which leads to the typical symptoms — strange voices, throwing up blood, screaming all night long. You know — the normal stuff.Her other kids are also impacted by all this Satanic panic going on in the Barrett house, as her husband Robert (Gabriele Lavia, Deep Red) tries to help. Turns out an old lover, Dmitri (Richard Johnson, Dr. Menard from Zombi!) has something to do with all of this, as he's the man Satan was speaking to in the opening of the film. He offers to help Jessica, but he's really trying to ensure that her baby is born because it's gonna be the Antichrist (Dumb Dumb Dumb)!The possessor ends up killing Dmitri after asking him to reach into Jessica and pull out her baby. She vomits blackness all over his face, so he starts banging on her stomach while yelling, "LIES! LIES LIES!" So the devil sends him back over that cliff in his car, killing him.A dove flies by as we find Jessica on a boat, covered with a robe and wearing sunglasses. She has lost the baby but regained her life. Children run and play everywhere. Meanwhile, we cut to a young child unwrapping a gift, which contains a red car. He tosses it overboard, revealing that he's the Antichrist. Or maybe he's Jessica's kid? Who knows. Who can say? He does have glowing eyes, so there's that.Beyond the Door zigs where The Exorcist zags. Instead of "Tubular Bells," we get 70's funk. Instead of priests, we get weird ex-lovers. Instead of kids being possessed, here they are just foul- mouthed little bastards.But hey — the ad campaign for this film is memorable, even if the film isn't!

I watched this growing up in the late 80's, my uncle was a huge horror buff and I watched this one shortly after Exorcist when I was around 12 or 13, its really a mash-up of all the classics (Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby and some Omen) all my favorites, YES its a bit cheesy the dubbed English is hilarious at times especially the kids and their potty mouths. I loved the premise of the film, it had some haunting scores and just something mysterious about it, very nostalgic old school Italian horror, one of my personal faves... if you are willing to sacrifice a bit on the cheesy dialogues and story line, fans of Italian horror and films like Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby will enjoy this one, give it a shot...

A somewhat effective mash-up of "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist," Ovidio Assonitis' "Beyond the Door" (1974) yet has little of the class and sophistication of the first or terrifying shocks of the latter. Released a year after "The Exorcist" kicked box-office tuchus (garnering $89 million; the No. 1 highest earner of 1973, if the book "Box Office Hits" it to be trusted), the film suffers from an aura of deja vu, but still has much to offer to the dedicated horror fan. In it, Juliet Mills (daughter of John, older sister of Hayley, but perhaps best known to American viewers as Phoebe Figalilly from the early '70s sitcom "Nanny and the Professor") plays Jessica Barrett, a wife and mother of two. She lives in San Francisco with her husband (a recording engineer played by Gabriele Lavia) and kids; in a further nod to "The Exorcist," one of these kids is an incredibly foul-mouthed little girl, while the son has the strangest habit of drinking cold Campbell's split pea soup from the can with a straw. (I know...ewwww!) Despite being on The Pill, Jessica finds herself miraculously pregnant, with her fetus growing at an alarming rate. She soon starts to evince some very odd behavior, such as eating banana skins off the street, along with violent mood swings and memory lapses. And that's nothing, compared to the inevitable head spinnings, levitations, sludge pukings and gravel-voiced cussing that soon follow. As a mysterious man from her past, Dimitri (Richard Johnson, star of the scariest film of all time, IMHO, 1963's "The Haunting"), tells her husband, Jessica has been taken over by "negative forces" (the "devil" word, strangely enough, is never used in the film)....As I mentioned up top, though occasionally effective, "Beyond the Door"'s ultimate impact is less than it could have been, especially for those viewers who are already familiar with its two antecedents. Still, there are pleasures here to be had. The film opens very strangely, with Old Scratch himself delivering a monologue in voice-over, while hundreds of ritual candles fill the screen; indeed, this might be the most original segment of the entire film! The picture makes good use of its San Francisco and Sausalito locales, while the sound FX are possibly the film's single scariest component. Some other chilling instances: Jessica's initial leering head swivel; Jessica's booming query "Who are you?" (the film's original Italian title, "Chi Sei?," translates as "Who are you?"); and Jessica tossing her husband about the bedroom while simultaneously cackling and dribbling. Unfortunately, the film also contains much that doesn't make a heckuva lot of sense. For example, after two viewings, I'm still not clear as to whether Dimitri was alive or dead, or, if alive, what he was doing for the 10 or so years since his fatal car crash. His ghostly manifestations toward Jessica, those possessed dolls in the kids' bedroom, and that blank-mouthed baby at the film's end all provided further head scratchings. The film is also a good 20 minutes longer than it needs to be; that interminable scene with the street musicians, for example, could certainly have been done away with. And for those viewers who get a little restless with the film, try playing the game of counting how many times some of the characters say "The child must/will be born"; I counted a good eight. One further comment: the current DVD incarnation of "Beyond the Door," from the good folks at Code Red, looks just fantastic, and comes replete with many fine extras, including modern-day interviews with Assonitis, Mills and Johnson. Johnson, now in his mid-80s, looks and sounds terrific, by the way, and his, uh, devil-may-care attitude is a joy to behold....

I will consider this DVD viewing a first-time watch for me, because I saw the unedited edition now released on disc by Code Red, under the European title THE DEVIL WITHIN HER (not to be confused with the Joan Collins film of the same name). Indeed, this Italian horror movie has gone through several title changes -- from CHI SEI? in its own country, to its most recognizable American name, BEYOND THE DOOR. But the only way to see it is under the complete DEVIL WITHIN HER form, since the U.S. version -- which I did see on a crappy videotape 20+ years back -- is a much more incomprehensible mess. Two directors tackled this (Ovidio G. Assonitis and Roberto D'Ettore Piazzoli), which is obviously a ripoff of THE EXORCIST with hints of ROSEMARY'S BABY. Director Ovidio states he got the idea from seeing the Polanski film, and from only reading the Exorcist novel.Juliet Mills (of TV's NANNY AND THE PROFESSOR) stars as a British woman named Jessica living in San Francisco with her husband Robert (Gabriele Lavia) and her two small children. She becomes impregnated with what may be a spawn of the devil himself, and as a result she goes through a series of disturbing trends: smashing her hubby's favorite fish tank, eating a raw banana peel from the street, kissing her sleeping little boy lustfully on his lips, spewing blood and vomit, and rotating her head and levitating. A strange bearded man (Richard Johnson) who has had ties with her from the past, follows her husband around and introduces himself as Dimitri, a cultist who is now trying to help Jessica and to also release his own soul.I don't think this is a good movie, but it's serviceable horror fare with enough shocks and eerie optical effects considering it's an EXORCIST copycat made on a limited budget. Some of the photography is hauntingly done, and Juliet Mills is quite good in her part as the possessed mom. The participation of Richard Johnson also lends something of class to such horrific goings-on. I think this film gets too harshly judged, though I am not surprised if most of those reviewers only got to see the inferior common U.S. Theatrical Cut. **1/2 out of ****