We all understand that eyes are the most vulnerable of our sensory organs, the most vulnerable of our facial accessories, and they are (ick!) soft. Maybe that's the worst...Fulci loves him some eyeballs!
- Stephen King in Danse Macabre.
...There so should've then been a shot of the German Shepherd's eyes too.
Ahem.
That's not even all of them. When I realised a written review wasn't going to be forthcoming, my angle was instead going to be that I cap every single eyeball close-up in the film. This I very nearly did, until I realised that it was way too many for anyone to find entertaining or interesting. Plus I got a bit bored.
Okay okay, this isn't much of a review at all, I grant you. I left my Final Girl Film Club homework until the last minute, and so I found myself viewing this movie on a bright and sunny Sunday afternoon. Not exactly perfect horror film conditions, so I blame this and how busy I am lately on why I couldn't dredge a decent review out of the flooded basement that is my brain.
In short: As a fan of Zombie Flesh Eaters I anticipated liking this, and I did. As with ZFE the make-up for the older corpses resembled great lumps of rotting meat covered in dirt - ie: perfect! They do literally look as though they are going to cave in under your touch (should you dare). The scene with the housekeeper and what she finds in the bath is one of the best, even before the climactic eye-impalement.
From the hour mark onwards The Beyond was decidedly great; from possessed guide dogs to a pigtailed child getting her head mercilessly blown apart by a doctor. The zombies in the hospital were also some of the best shufflers I have ever seen.
See the book Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film for a whole chapter on eyes in horror.
