Beyond the Door / Shudder /Notes

 

I looked back at my old user comments, added in a separate post, and to say I was bringing the bite would be an understatement. I'm mellowed much in my middle age. That's why I like to add those old write-ups and fresh thoughts on the blog. While I can still see the justification of a 2/10 rating, and can't in good faith proclaim Beyond the Door doesn't deserve its status as a camp ripoff of an obvious demon possession film taking theaters and pop culture by storm during its release in the early 70s; the entertainment value of the dubbed dialogue alone, not even counting what poor Richard Johnson endured as the devil's plaything, cracked me up a lot. There's a scene where Gabriele Lavia's Robert, husband to Juliet Mills' Jessica, is walking down a sidewalk in San Francisco, eventually harassed by street musicians for no apparent reason. Johnson is pressed face first into a mirrored wall as the devil mocks him, trying to open a bedroom door while we see Jessica on the bed saying something to him that isn't available for us to hear. But what the kids are dubbed to say, especially the little girl and her potty mouth, had me uproariously laughing. That had to be intentionally for laughs. Robert tells Jessica he loves her for her personal qualities and nice ass...a talented actress like Mills sharing a table with him at a cafe outside overlooking the ocean with that dialogue is pure Italian horror shlock I can't help but find amusing. This is not good. It's certainly not dull. A big what the duck this viewing was Mills kissing her son on the cheek, forehead, and then a bit too passionately on the lips. She held that kiss on a bit too long. Yikes. **/*****

Ovidio G Assonitis got his Golden Gate Bridge shot

I still have no idea what was up with that opening.

Richard Johnson in another Italian horror production.