Halloween Live-Tweet: Stuart Gordon's FROM BEYOND (1986)


Allo, allo.

So I expressed interest a while ago in a Halloweeny Live-Tweet Event. And while it's taken me some effort to come up with a title--was seriously considering doing Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 (1979), the J-Horror omnibus based on Rampo Edogawa's short stories Rampo Noir (2005) or Fred "Monster Squad" Dekker's excellent '80s horror-comedy Night of the Creeps (1986), which is free online on Crackle, by the way--I settled on something by underappreciated American auteur Stuart Gordon.

At the moment, this is what I propose:

Stuart Gordon's From Beyond (1986) at 10/24, a Saturday, at 3PM EST. It's a weekend so more peoples can participate and in the afternoon so people across the pond can, too (Amber Wilkinson, who has the misfortune of operating out of somewhere England-way, is interested, or at least has the good grace to lie to me and say she is).

This part is imperative: if you would prefer to have another time, or even one of the other titles I've mentioned below, above, or one of your own preference, say so. I'm open to alternatives. I'm a nice guy. I care. And stuff.

Why From Beyond? It's not Re-Animator (1985), that's for sure. I felt it best represented why I like Gordon/Brian Yuzna's brand of kinda campy (sometimes intentionally), kinda dated but always eye-catching '80s horror. I could have gone with Yuzna's Society (1989), a personal favorite of mine but....well, I didn't. Even though I own it and don't own From Beyond.

Loosely based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft, From Beyond is Gordon's stab at making something semi-seriously in the Cronenbergian "Body Horror" vein. It covers the same ground thematically as The Fly (1986) and Dead Ringers (1988) but it has Jeff Combs, better make-up effects and a fun-fun, silly-willy performance from perennial C-grade performer Ken Foree, who you may remember as the black guy from the original Dawn of the Dead (1978). Oh and kinky stuff with '80s heart-throb Barbara Crampton. Icing, meet cake.

In any case, it's a favorite of mine, one among many. If I had my way, I'd put together a whole program-worth of horror films because I love sharing this kind of stuff and because it's meant to be shared. So yeah. Do it to it and comment belooow.

NOTE: The day of the event has been changed from 10/23 to 10/24 thanks to the vigilance of Tom and/or Mary Russell. Thank yez kindly, sir and/or madam.
Posted on 10/03/2009 04:15:00 PM by Simon Abrams and filed under , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

2 comments:

Patrick said... @ October 7, 2009 at 7:45 AM

Just watched Re-Animator for the first time (wow!) and am interested, but will be out of town that weekend. A day-time livetweet for me is tricky no matter what. Regular job on weekdays, child-rearing on weekends.

May have to check out Night of the Creeps as well.

Simon Abrams said... @ October 8, 2009 at 3:11 PM

Sad trombone.

But yes, I cannot recommend NIGHT OF THE CREEPS highly enough.

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