Supernatural Tales

Lucio Fulci's thematic trilogy, 'The Gates of Hell,' is fairly self-explanatory. In each film, some hapless mortals find themselves dwelling above an entrance to the big H, and wackiness ensues. The Beyond is the second, coming after City of the Living Dead and before The House By the Cemetery.  The film has a simple plot that provides a pretext for a series of horrific set pieces. Some have rightly compared this film to a fever dream, in that the scenes almost make sense logically, but not quite - they are essentially horrific for their own sake, Yet the film is also visually striking at times in a way not normally found in Eighties horror. There's an art-house feel, for instance, when the main character encounters a blind woman and her guide dog on a deserted road bridge. 

Robert Lloyd Parry of Nunkie Theatre reads Edith Nesbit's most powerful and disturbing ghost story. Quite rightly considered a classic, this is much darker stuff than you might expect from the author of The Railway Children. But it is part of a body of excellent Gothic fiction that Nesbit produced while also writing fiction for younger readers.

Well, here we are - a new movie adaptation of Lovecraft's classic tale. What's more, it's helmed by British director Richard Stanley, who also has a writing credit along with Scarlett Amaris. Stanley is perhaps best known for his horror movie Dust Devil, but he is also famous for being kicked off the set of his attempt to film The Island of Doctor Moreau. Thus Color Out of Space is being hailed as the return of Richard Stanley. Is it a triumphant return?  Well, yes, in that the film is hugely entertaining all the way through. It begins with Lovecraft's words - 'West of Arkham the hills rise wild...' as the opening titles roll and we are shown a lot of trees. Then we cut to a witch conducting a ceremony by a lake. The witch is Lavinia Gardner (Madeleine Arthur), a young actor who pretty much holds things together at some key moments. Lavinia has just moved to the boondocks and is casting a spell in the hope it will get her back to the big city. Enter hydrologist ...