FROM BEYOND on DVD!!!

everyone who collects movies has a little list in their heads of stuff they love that isn't out on DVD at all. yesterday i was finally able to scratch one off of mine. FROM BEYOND finally came out yesterday.

i can't really complain about how much they changed the classic poster art. the original gave away the monster in pretty close-up detail so now it at least has somewhat of an air of mystery (even if the new image doesn't really represent anything in the actual film). and even though they put the director's name above the title without an apostrophe + S so it looks like he's the star or something, it's what's inside that matters. the new DVD features footage that was ordered to be removed by the MPAA in 1986 so it could get an R rating - - only MGM inexplicably ponied up the time and cash to digitally clean up the lost bits so they look perfect enough to put right back into the film seamlessly where they belong (rather than in a "deleted scenes" feature). gordon is joined on the commentary track by producer brian yuzna and stars jeffrey combs and barbara crampton, and although there are dead spots they share a lot of information that fans like me just eat up. like a gingerbread man.

in the 80s, director stuart gordon made three horror movies for empire pictures: one is the legendary RE-ANIMATOR (one of my top 5 movies of all time!), one is the forgettable DOLLS and the other is FROM BEYOND. RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND share much in common. they both star combs and crampton (who would re-untite with gordon in the 90s for the downbeat monster drama CASTLE FREAK), they're both based on stories by h.p. lovecraft and they both feature loads of awesome special fx and perverse sexual overtones (i'd like to read a paper psychoanalyzing these two). it's obvious when they made FROM BEYOND they tried to tone it down a bit, which is why RE-ANIMATOR will always be better, but it's still one hell of a great horror movie. you don't see anyone giving performances like combs and crampton anymore, definitely not in the same movie as leads. he wasn't scared to go over the top as a character, she wasn't scared to get totally naked and wrestle with gooey monsters!

little things like this can make my entire week. so even if you don't care, you should at least know i'm happy like christmas morning.