A hotel in Louisiana is built upon one of the seven gates of hell. It was walled up in 1927 and was real;eased later in 1981. This was supposed to be satanic, but the zombie like walking dead would classify this as a zombie film. I was rather bored with the film.The restoration was excellent, which allowed us to know how horribly dubbed it was. Not worth a rental.

I saw this first on a VHS in the late 80s titled as Seven doors of death. The VHS guy told me that it was a rare copy. Revisited recently on a blu ray. The film may be frustrating to some viewers because it does not follow a linear path. The movie starts in 1927 Louisiana hotel where v get to see an angry mob, some arriving in boats while others in cars. Yeehaw! They torture n kill a painter, crucifying him on the wall. The blood which comes out from his hand resembles dirty muddy water. Fast forward, a girl from New York inherits this hotel n she starts renovation. How she inherits this hotel no explanation given. A painter falls off after he sees a girl with the creepiest contact lenses. Later we see the new owner of the hotel driving on a seemingly endless bridge to nowhere n the same creepy lenses blind girl standing with her dog on the bridge. A plumber goes to repair the mysterious flooding in the basement n there is the most nastiest eye popping scene. Later the bodies of the plumber n the painter (who's now a decayed n dead zombie) r moved to the morgue where the doc puts ECG machine on the zombie. Crazy science! The painters wife comes to dress the body for funeral n she sees something which we don't get to see n she screams n v get to c an open jar of acid (who keeps an open jar of acid) kept on top of a shelf which is shaking n slowly the acid is dropping on the mothers face, while the daughter who entered hearing the scream tries to escape the acidic froth which goes on like a wave. Cut back to the funeral n we get to see the daughter of the plumber too turned blind with similar creepy lenses. A contractor goes to the city hall to retrieve some old plans of the hotel n he falls down the ladder n is attacked by tarantulas n they do eat his eyeballs. Whats the eyeball obsession? Now the original blind girl who's been dismissed as a ghost or someone who doesn't exist, is attacked by her dog. Who was she is never explained. Do we care? Nope. In the end v get to c hordes of slow walking zombies. The doc keeps on firing, sometimes on the head n sometimes on other body parts. Maybe his aim wasn't that good or else how can he not know about shooting the zombies on the head. The best part is that without reloading the gun, he keeps on firing. One very good scene of a head-shot. Superb effects there. The ending is done surprisingly well and offers a nice little final touch of horror. The doc n the owner r trapped in the painting. Technically, Salvati did a good job with the cinematography. Germano Natali did some stunning special effects. All in all the director Lucio fulci did a terrific job with the lil resources he had to work with.

Exactly why Lucio Fulci is regarded as a master of horror is BEYOND my understanding. This is a shockingly amateurish, nonsensical, plodding bore of a movie with no point to make. It feels like a collection of disconnected scenes written by a five-year-old. Though I am sure that a kid could write better dialogue.It begins promisingly with a 1927 prologue in sepia-tone, it has atmosphere and suspense. After that we cut to 1981 and everything falls apart. A woman inherits a hotel where BAD THINGS HAPPEN....OOOOOOHHHHH!!!!!Like Damien: Omen II the bulk of the movie follows this pattern. Some dude has discovered a hidden evil...oh, he's dead. Now she's found the secret crap...oh, she's dead. Now this third person has found the...oh, they're dead. Utter, complete, disjointed, meaningless, total effing garbage. The people involved in making this movie had no talent or ability and it blows my mind that it is even remotely considered a cult film. It's not even entertaining accidentally. Even at a mere 87 minutes it feels long and empty. Many, many scenes could have been trimmed to half the length as there is frequently nothing happening. But they wouldn't have a marketable movie if it lasted for only 44 minutes so be prepared to sit through LOTS of pa-aa-ad-ding.For a movie about a gateway to hell I guess I should give it some credit for making me feel like I had actually went to hell for an hour and a half.

There seems to be a pattern in the movies of Fulci. He does have a story with good to great potential and the graphics (especially the gore) are really well taken care of. However the execution of story and character development often lacks to enjoy the whole picture. Also the endings are not really satisfactory. I have seen this with his City of the Living Dead and House by the Cemetery. However I think I need to rate those movies higher because The Beyond really has nothing else than the gore. The killings which sometimes look like accidents are shown in gruesome details. They look very real, certainly a treat for the fans of graphical horror. And yes the spider scene was really chilling. I assume they were sacrifices to open the gates of hell and it needed to be a certain number. Too bad two very interesting characters in the little Jill and the blind lady were not elaborated on. But every character was a tool in this even the female protagonist. that doctor character he literally made me facepalm and scream "shoot the head, you idiot".