Evil grows Beyond the Door!
Directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis and Robert Barrett
Reviewed by Deep Red
Aka Behind the Door aka Beyond the Door aka Who Are You? aka Sperm of the Antichrist
Juliet Mills stars as Jessica Barrett, a pregnant woman in San Francisco. She lives with her husband Robert (Gabriele Lavia), her daughter Gail (Barbara Fiorini) and her son Ken (David Colin Jr.). A demonic force possesses Jessica and attacks the family and then this guy called Dimitri (Richard Johnson) approaches Robert. Jessica’s condition continues to deteriorate….
This was labelled a rip-off of The Exorcist and Warner Bros. filed a lawsuit which ultimately failed. To be honest I think this is a very different film to The Exorcist except for the fact it’s a demonic possession film. OK, some key scenes echo events in The Exorcist rather closely but they’re not exactly a carbon copy. Obviously it’s not as good as The Exorcist but that isn’t to say it’s not worth a watch.
The copy I watched is woeful quality and I hope I’ll see it at its best at some point as I enjoyed it immensely. It’s pretty weird and dark and I’d feel a lot better judging it after watching it at its best; I’m sure some scenes have a lot more life to them than I was able to glean on this occasion. It felt very Italian, it’s an Italian/American film, exteriors San Francisco and interiors Italy, and I love Italian horror from this era with a passion. I’m not saying it’s a masterpiece but I did like what I saw.
Anyway, if I never see this film as it was intended at least I saw it, been meaning to for some time. At the end of the day I think it’s worth seeing. If you’re into strange old Italian horrors you might like it.
Also stars Nino Segurini as Dr. George Staton and Elizabeth Turner as Barbara Staton.
