Film

From Beyond

Name: From Beyond
Genre: Horror, Science Fiction
Released: 1986
Cast: Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ken Foree, Ted Sorel, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon

Stuart Gordon's follow-up to Re-Animator turns Lovecraft's short story into gooey, gleeful body-horror opera: a resonance device unlocks the pineal gland and drops its users into a writhing dimension of teeth, tentacles and appetite. Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton throw themselves into the gore and latex with total commitment. It's fast, filthy, funny, and never once takes itself too seriously.

TMDb rating

6.5

If you liked this

Re-Animator1985

Same director, same leads, same gleeful commitment to splatter comedy — this is the film From Beyond is in conversation with, Lovecraft turned into a fluorescent-green, laugh-out-loud gorefest about a scientist who really shouldn't be reviving the dead.

But Even goopier and more tasteless than From Beyond, with a scene so notorious it's basically horror-fan folklore.

Hellraiser1987no page yet

Another eighties body-horror landmark about a device that tears a hole into somewhere it shouldn't, and about appetite as the thing that destroys you. Colder, more painful, and just as committed to its own grotesque imagery.

But Barker's film is bleaker and crueler — less pulpy fun, more genuine dread about desire.

The Fly1986

Cronenberg's tragic, rotting love story shares From Beyond's DNA: a scientist's noble experiment curdles into a body he can no longer control, and the special effects still make skin crawl decades later.

But It's a tragedy, not a romp — expect heartbreak alongside the gore, not many laughs.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes1963no page yet

Same premise, decades earlier: a scientist gives himself expanded sight and can't stop seeing further, until reality itself becomes unbearable — From Beyond's pineal gland is this film's eye drops.

Ray Milland's descent from curious scientist to cosmic-horror casualty in under 80 minutes, made on a shoestring by Roger Corman, is unnervingly effective and ends on one of the all-time great final images.

But It's a product of 1963 B-movie filmmaking — cheap effects and stiff line readings throughout.

Dead Poets Society1989

Brian Yuzna, who produced From Beyond, went on to direct this deranged satire of Beverly Hills wealth that ends in one of the most deliriously grotesque set-pieces in horror history.

But The satire is thin and the plot is thinner — you're really here for the finale.

Bride of Re-Animator1990no page yet

Combs, Crampton and the Gordon crew reunite for a sequel that's dumber, gorier, and somehow even more unhinged — a perfect double feature if you want more of this exact flavour of mad science.

But It's a lesser film than its predecessor, chasing gags rather than earning them.

Dagon2001no page yet

Stuart Gordon's other great Lovecraft adaptation trades gadgetry for a rain-soaked Spanish fishing village slowly revealed to be rotten with something ancient and amphibious. Slower burn, same appetite for cosmic dread.

But Low budget shows in places, and the pace is more folk-horror creep than splatstick chaos.

Altered States1980no page yet

Ken Russell's fevered tale of a scientist using sensory-deprivation tanks and hallucinogens to regress toward some primal truth is the classier, more prestige-cinema cousin of From Beyond's pineal-gland experiments.

But It's arty and shouty where From Beyond is gleeful — expect Oscar-adjacent seriousness, not schlock.

Event Horizon1997

A spaceship's engine accidentally opens a door to somewhere hostile, and the crew who go through come back changed. Same structural nightmare as From Beyond, dressed in studio sci-fi gloss.

But The scares lean on jump-cuts and studio polish rather than practical grime and commitment.

Hardware1990no page yet

A grimy, industrial British cult sci-fi horror about a killer machine assembling itself in an apartment — nasty, stylish, and cheaply brilliant in the same DIY spirit as From Beyond.

But Thin plot and heavy MTV-style editing date it more than Gordon's film has dated.

The Nightmare2015

Swap the Resonator for sleep paralysis: real people describe unlocking a state where they perceive hostile, otherworldly figures watching them — the same fear of a sense you can't turn back off.

A genuinely unsettling documentary using dramatized reenactments of sleep-paralysis testimony, where the monsters are described rather than shown, and somehow that's worse.

But No gore, no story — it's talking heads and mood, which will feel slow next to Gordon's chaos.

Under the Skin2014

Strip out the gore and jokes and you're left with From Beyond's real question — what happens when perception crosses into something not built for a human body — asked here in near silence.

Scarlett Johansson plays an alien predator moving through Scotland, and the film builds cosmic dread from stillness and sound design rather than latex and viscera.

But It's glacially paced and largely wordless — the polar opposite of From Beyond's manic energy.