AKA: The Seven Doors of Death, L'aldila, E tu vivrai nel terrore - L'aldilà, Die Giesterstadt der Zombies.

Tag Line : The flesh-craving undead return to the land of the living and raise a little hell of their own.

Yet more low-budget zombie mayhem from cult Italian director Lucio Fulci. In this, Liza Merril (played by Fulci regular Katherine MacColl) inherits an abandoned hotel outside a small Louisiana town, on the edge of the swamplands.

Hoping to start a new life away from the city, she begins to renovate the place. But shortly after moving in, she's befriended by a blind girl named Emily (Sarah Keller), who tells her that the hotel is built on one of the seven gateways to Hell (as was the town in "City of the Living Dead"), and that she should leave as soon as possible.

Of course Liza thinks this is all nonsense and, ignoring Emily's warnings, carries on with her plans, with unfortunate consequences for the workmen and staff at the Hotel who end up getting bumped off by numerous zombies and undead apparitions, which pop-up periodically to wreak murder and mayhem.

David Warbeck steals the show as the local doctor, John McCabe, who starts to investigate the bizarre happenings, and ends up being chased around the hospital with Liza by flesh-eating zombies. The films climax provides some of the more gripping moments of the film, as the good doctor grabs a handgun from his desk and goes on the offensive, with zombies getting blasted left and right as they attempt to shoot their way out.

Overall I did kind-of dig this film, even though I've never really been a Fulci's fan. Amongst some of the more interesting scenes we get to see a poor plumber having his eyes gouged out by a zombie, a maid having her head impaled on a nail which gouges her eye out, a librarian falling off his ladder and then being eaten by rather false-looking, plastic spiders, a woman getting acid thrown in her face and Emily having her throat ripped out by her own guide dog!

My favourite scene has to be during the end shoot-out, when a young girl zombie gets her head blasted off by the gun-toting doctor. Great Stuff!

Overall Marks : 7/10.

Other Information.

• Alternate tag line.. "Behind this doorway lies the terrifying and unspeakable secrets of hell. No one who sees it lives to describe it. And you shall live in darkness for all eternity".

• The film seems to borrow elements from Fulci's earlier "House by the Cemetery", which also featured ghostly apparitions trying to warn the unfortunate victims and "City of the Living Dead", which was also about buildings standing on gateways to hell. The film also seems to borrow "inspiration" from the Michael Winner film "The Sentinel" about a hotel that stands on an entrance to hell.

• Depending on which version you own depends on the colour of the pre-credit intro sequence. Almost all releases show the intro in a sepia (monotone orange) colour, however the uncut Danish video, released by Vipco in 1992, shows the intro in Black and White.

• The only version known to have a coloured pre-credit sequence was the German theatrical release entitled "Die Giesterstadt der Zombies", which was later released on German video by Video Medien Pool (VMP) in 1982. Unfortunately it was banned on February, 27th, 1986. So officially it's no longer available except for a cut version named "Über dem Jenseits" (approx. 65 Min.!). The colour intro was later also featured as an extra on Anchor Bay's US special edition DVD, released in 2000.

• The producer Fabrizio De Angelis also worked on Fulci's "House by the Cemetery" and "Zombie Flesh-Eaters", as did the cosmetic effects man, Gionetto DeRossi who also worked on "City of the Living Dead". The music was scored by Fabio Frizzi who also did the music for "City of the Living Dead" and "Zombie Flesh-Eaters".

• British actor David Warbeck had previously starred in Fulci's "The Black Cat" and has also appeared in numerous other cult Italian films, such as Antonio Margheritis "The Last Hunter". Cult TV fans may remember him as being the Skydiver captain in Gerry Anderson's "UFO". He sadly died in 1997, at the relatively young age of 55 after loosing his long running battle with Cancer. The final film he appeared in was a low-budget British vampire flick entitled "Razor Blade Smile". Undoubtedly, his leading role in "The Beyond" will be the one he is best remembered for.

• Katherine MacColl also starred in Fulci's "City of the Living Dead" and "House by the Cemetery". Fulci also makes an unbilled guest appearance in the film as one of the librarians.

• It wasn't until 2001 that the fully uncut print of the film was finally passed for UK video, following a change of policy at the BBFC. The version first released to UK cinema's back in the early 80's suffered 9 censor cuts totaling 1m:39s, which removed most of the gore and violence.

• The original pre-VRA UK video release by "Vampix" was of the edited cinema version. But despite this it was still listed on the Governments "Video Nasties List" of 1984, although the film was later dropped from the list and not prosecuted. All subsequent post-VRA UK video releases, prior to the 2001 re-issue, were of the edited cinema version. Although the distributers,Vipco, had already released the uncut version in Denmark (copies of which had a habit of finding their way back to the UK though).

• The original US release was entitled "The Seven Doors of Death" on the "Thriller Video" label and was almost as badly censored as the old UK version. It also featured a differant soundtrack and Lucio Fulci was credited as Luis Fuller.

• Apart from the current UK release, other uncut versions can be found on Japanese laserdisc, Dutch video from "Video For Pleasure" and the Danish "Vipco" release and across europe on the "Cosa Nostra" label. "E.C. Entertainment" have also released an uncut DVD in Europe, and Anchor Bay released an uncut special edition DVD in the USA.

Cast & Crew.

Cover Gallery.

Theatrical trailer. (2.02MB)

A young zombies head is blasted. (94KB)

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Buy the US DVD (spec-ed).

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Other Lucio Fulci zombie films.

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