A LONG-AWAITED DVD FROM BEYOND!

This press release just landed in my inbox and I couldn’t wait to share
it with you. From Beyond is one of my favorite horror films of the 80s,
and it’s been MIA on DVD for far too long. In fact, I don’t think I
have seen From Beyond in years and years.

New
York, NY (March 1, 2006) – Time Magazine called it a “Bloody good
entertainment” while Roger Ebert said that it “establishes [Stuart
Gordon] in the tradition of Hollywood horror directors who really try –
directors including James Whale, Tod Browning and Roger Corman”.
Released in the fall of 1986, Stuart Gordon’s FROM BEYOND, H.P.
Lovecraft’s tale of an ambitious scientist’s experiments to discover a
sixth sense, shocked and delighted horror fans and critics everywhere
much in the same way that his previous Lovecraft adaptation,
RE-ANIMATOR, did in the fall of 1985. But beyond the film’s monstrous
creatures and scientific mutations there lurked an even more dreaded
entity, one that almost destroyed the film, its makers, and its
audience: The MPAA. Forced to cut his film by the MPAA in order to get
an “R” rating, Gordon has waited two decades for his vision of FROM
BEYOND to escape the darkness and now, to commemorate the film’s 20th
anniversary, Monsters HD and Stuart Gordon have teamed up to finally
bring the “Director’s Cut” of FROM BEYOND to terrifying light.

In
1986, Gordon, who also founded Chicago’s famed Organic Theater, had
just come off of RE-ANIMATOR, which screened at the 1985 Cannes Film
Festival and quickly became a worldwide hit with critics and audiences
– all without a rating. As a result, Gordon says, “They were very upset
and, I think, trying to get revenge for the un-rated RE-ANIMATOR. So we
had to submit the film at least a dozen times, maybe more”. According
to Gordon, meeting with the ratings board “was like going to the
principal’s office to get scolded. They sat me down and the woman I was
meeting with said, ‘This is disgusting. Instead of pulling away you
keep pushing in and pushing in and pushing in!’ and I was like, ‘I’m
sorry, I’m sorry!’ We ended up cutting out over a minute’s worth of
material to finally get it released with an R-rating. They really took
out some of the best stuff”. Gordon describes the experience as “a real
ordeal, this process just went on and on, and the distribution people
were screaming, ‘We’ve got a release date, you’ve got to make those
cuts’”. The director proudly discusses one scene in particular that
really got him into trouble. “The scene that upset them the most (and
as I describe it, it is truly disgusting) is when Jeffrey Combs’
character’s pineal gland has gone out of control and he’s hungry for
brains. He attacks a psychiatrist, played by my wife [Carolyn
Purdy-Gordon], and he plants his mouth onto her eye socket and starts
sucking. And the material that was cut out was when he actually sucks
her eyeball out, spits it onto the floor and the eyeball lands looking
back up at him and he continues to suck her brains through the eye
socket and the camera pushes in. It’s really disturbing and it’s the
longest restored piece, my guess is it’s about 30 seconds or so. I
think it’s the most horrific moment in the whole movie.”

Upon
its release in October of 1986, FROM BEYOND was a success with both
critics and audiences and went on to cult classic status once it was
released on video. But there was always something missing. “People
started asking me if we would release a director’s cut. I went back
looking for the material and even went looking through warehouses
trying to find it and was told it had been thrown out. The movie moved
from one company to another after [original distributor] Empire
Pictures went under, so about five years after the release I gave up on
it. So whenever people asked me about it I would tell them it was gone
forever”.

But
like a re-animated corpse, FROM BEYOND just wouldn’t stay dead. “A year
ago last Christmas, I got a call from MGM saying ‘We’ve got a film can
with this material and we don’t know what it is, could you come down
and take a look at it?’ The can had been marked by my editor, Lee
Percy, and it said ‘For the video release’, and inside were all the
little trims that the MPAA had objected to. Everything was great until
MGM was bought by Sony, and all the people I was dealing with were no
longer there.” The resurrection of his original vision in jeopardy once
again, Gordon luckily found an ally in Monsters HD president David
Sehring. “He told me that they would be airing FROM BEYOND and knew
about the discovery of the missing material. He said ‘How about if
Monsters HD pays to have it done?’ which I thought was great. Things
began to move forward again.”

Debuting
on the VOOM Satellite service in October 2003 (and now available on
Dish Network’s HD package), Monsters HD is America’s only 24-hour
horror movie network, broadcasting world premiere HD transfers of genre
classics from every era. Having broadcast RE-ANIMATOR in the past,
Monsters HD General Manager David Sehring was eager to show FROM BEYOND
on the network. “Being a huge fan of H.P. Lovecraft and Stuart Gordon’s
work (they go hand-in-hand you know) I licensed the television rights
to FROM BEYOND for MONSTERS HD. Having known about this holy grail of
horror and the controversy surrounding it, I made it a mission for
MONSTERS HD to restore FROM BEYOND’s long-lost footage for all the
world to see. Monsters HD makes every effort to preserve and present
rare director’s cuts and European versions of horror movies when the
film elements are made available to us. I asked Stuart Gordon as well
as MGM & Sony’s technical services departments if they could work
together to restore the legendary missing footage into a new high
definition transfer for MONSTERS HD’s broadcast. After some questions
as to where the lost footage was, the work of transferring the material
to High Definition and reconfiguring the cut material into the film was
supervised by Stuart”.

According
to Sehring, “The restoration of FROM BEYOND was truly a ‘search and
rescue’ effort. The biggest challenge of doing the restoration was
locking down the location of the lost materials. Having worked on AMC’s
Film Preservation Festival for over 10 years, I discovered that playing
detective and reporter, while asking the right questions, is always
valuable. Luckily, the folks at MGM and Sony came to Stuart’s and
MONSTERS HD’s rescue by finding the material that was cut from the FROM
BEYOND work print. MGM & Sony re-transferred the material for us to
High Definition and had to do a little digital clean-up and color
correction in addition to some sound work and design – again – all
supervised by the one and only Stuart Gordon”. Along with the restored
footage, Monsters HD’s broadcast of FROM BEYOND will also feature a new
5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack. For this to happen, some new sound work
was done in early 2006. “This material was cut before the movie was
mixed, so all that exists for it is the sound that was recorded on
stage, which was mono, so we have to mix it back into the film”,
reports Gordon. “Plus I think we need some of those really truly
disgusting sound effects for that brain-sucking scene”, while Serhing
says he hopes to hear “some delicious slurping sounds in 5.1 stereo
surround that will accentuate some ‘eye –popping’ visuals in High
Definition!”

Monsters
HD’s world premiere broadcast of FROM BEYOND coincides with a renewed
interest in the renowned author H.P. Lovecraft, who died in 1937. In
the last few years there have been over a dozen films based on
Lovecraft’s writings which include Gordon’s recent episode of MASTERS
OF HORROR, DREAMS IN THE WITCH-HOUSE, the best-selling videogame CALL
OF CTHULHU: DARK CORNERS OF THE EARTH from Bethesda Softworks, as well
as Guillermo Del Toro’s upcoming adaptation of AT THE MOUNTIANS OF
MADNESS. Monsters HD will also be celebrating the author’s legacy by
airing such Lovecraft-related films as THE UNNAMABLE, DIE MONSTER DIE
and Dan O’ Bannon’s THE RESURRECTED. But Lovecraft has had no better
champion than Stuart Gordon, who has adapted the author’s works in five
films: RE-ANIMATOR, FROM BEYOND, CASTLE FREAK (loosely based on
Lovecraft’s “The Outsider”), DAGON, and DREAMS IN THE WITCH-HOUSE.

With
the restored FROM BEYOND now set to air, Stuart Gordon is looking
forward to seeing his maligned masterwork in its restored version in
High Definition. He says, “The transfer is really stunning. Mac
Ahlberg, the D.P., did a beautiful job and it’s got all these lurid
colors. It was fun to see it again and to see it looking so good. I
think it holds up pretty well. Everything that was trimmed by the MPAA
is now back in the movie and it was great to see it restored. I had a
wonderful feeling after it was done. An enormous sense of relief.” And
David Sehring says of the restoration process, “As you know, Monsters
HD’s tagline is ‘It’s Alive!’ We really take that to heart as we
re-master films, like FROM BEYOND. Monsters HD hopes to bring forth
more frights ‘from beyond’ and will continue to dig up long lost
footage and film elements from the hallowed vaults of our favorite
monster movie studios”.

About Monsters HD
It’s
Alive! Launched in October 2003, MONSTERS HD is television’s first and
only, definitive channel dedicated to the popular horror & creature
feature category. From the classic horrors of Dracula, Frankenstein and
the Wolfman to prehistoric giants like King Kong and Godzilla, to
supernatural terrors like The Evil Dead and The Exorcist to the modern
maniacs of Freddy, Jason and Leatherface. MONSTERS HD also goes behind
the screams with Monsterama, the channel’s original series hosted by
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Monsterama focuses on every aspect of
monster movie mania imaginable. From Hollywood special effects,
creature shops and monster make-up to the latest creature collectibles,
conventions and upcoming theatrical, DVD and video game releases.
MONSTERS HD’s Monsterama series has fright fans glued to their seats
and drooling with delight with the eerie sights on display shot in
stunning hi definition. For more information on MONSTERS HD please log
on to www.monstershd.com

About VOOM HD Networks
The
VOOM HD Networks are the largest and most diverse suite of high
definition channels available anywhere. Produced exclusively in true
high definition and 5.1 Dolby digital surround sound for distribution
in the U.S. through satellite and cable operators, the 15 VOOM HD
Networks carry programming in categories as diverse as sports, movies,
fashion, music and art. The VOOM HD Networks are commercial-free and
available nationally on Echostar’s DISH Network. Developed by Rainbow
Media to meet the growing demand for quality high definition
programming, the VOOM HD Networks build on Rainbow Media’s history of
original programming innovation.