Editorials
The Slimy Creatures and Pineal Glands ‘From Beyond’ [It Came From the ’80s]
It Came From the ‘80s is a monthly series that pays homage to the monstrous, deadly, and often slimy creatures that made the ‘80s such a fantastic decade in horror.
Based on a 7-page short story by H.P. Lovecraft, From Beyond unleashed a loose adaptation filled with gooey creatures, phallic pineal glands, and body horror washed in neon pink haze. It also marked a reunion between director Stuart Gordon, screenwriter Dennis Paoli, producer Brian Yuzna, and actors Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton, continuing their collaboration on Lovecraft adaptations, something that Gordon had hoped to continue in a series.
Knowing how surreal he would push this creature-heavy nightmare spectacle, effects artists John Carl Buechler and John Naulin were also carried over from Re-Animator.
Filmed in Italy with a mostly Italian crew to keep the effects-heavy production budget down, there were four separate effects teams that worked on the effects in From Beyond. With roughly 86 of the film’s scenes including special effects, you can bet each and every member was vital. Mark Shostrom (Evil Dead II, DeepStar Six, Phantasm II) was in charge of creature and prosthetic design for the largest creature of the film; the ever-evolving Pretorius creature. While some of the Pretorius creature effects were animatronic, many were also actor Ted Sorel covered in prosthetics and makeup. It was a job he was excited to take on, too, being the nephew of legendary Universal monster makeup creator Jack P. Pierce (The Wolf Man, Frankenstein).
Ted Sorel’s Dr. Edward Pretorius may have been the primary antagonist, an icy scientist that becomes less and less recognizably human as the story progresses, but his Pretorius creature isn’t the only one brought forth from the multi-dimension machine, the Resonator. Once flipped on, it allows those within range to see beyond reality into another dimension, and the other dimension to see into our realm by expanding the pineal gland. It allows protagonist Dr. Crawford Tillinghast (Combs), psychiatrist Dr. Katherine McMichaels (Crampton), and Detective Bubba Brownlee (Ken Foree) to see floating eels, monstrous lampreys, and flesh-eating bugs.
The MPAA wasn’t a fan of the completed film and refused to grant it an R-rating, in part because of the gore and sexuality (namely the S&M footage). More so, the team had to convince the MPAA that the pineal gland was a thing that actually existed; the MPAA was convinced that the little squirming thing that protruded from Tillinghast’s forehead was simply a penis. Naulin and crew had to show them that the pineal gland was not only a legit part of the brain, but their animatronic effect was designed to look like the true pineal gland. Gordon did trim a few of the more extreme shots, and so the MPAA finally did grant it an R-rating.
Proving the adage that artists bleed for their work, Naulin, who handled optical water tank creature creation and special makeup effects, got his hand caught between stage doors during production and severed two fingers in the process of trying to free his hand. The viscera and blood made Gordon pass out when he saw it. Luckily, both fingers were reattached, but it’s a fun anecdote worth sharing because Naulin was waist deep in water the very next day, shooting the scene that featured Tillinghast’s encounter with the mammoth lamprey in the flooded basement.
The fun thing about Lovecraft’s writing is that the creatures that haunt his pages are vague in description, leaving a wide margin for interpretation. Gordon, Yuzna, and their frequent collaborators take their interpretation to the best possible extreme in From Beyond. It’s slimy, gooey, creative, violent, and gory by way of darkness and humor. Gordon never quite managed to get the Lovecraft series going that he intended, but every time he would team up with Combs and Crampton for a Lovecraft adaptation, it sure was magic.
The penultimate season of Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996) aired its first three episodes on October 31, so it’s understandable that at least one of those three stories is set on Halloween.
Sandwiched between “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” (Russell Mulcahy, Ron Finley) and “Whirlpool” (Mick Garris, A. L. Katz & Gilbert Adler) is the most severe episode of the bunch. Maybe the entire series? William Malone and Dick Beebe’s “Only Skin Deep” traded the show’s typical sense of fun for startling amounts of bleakness and kink.
“Only Skin Deep” is, apart from the Crypt Keeper’s intro and outro, noticeably unfunny. There are no considerable attempts at making the viewer laugh. Come to think of it, if those bookends had been replaced, and there was more of a sci-fi element in the story, HBO could have easily squeezed this tale into that successor anthology, Perversions of Science (1997). In Crypt, though, “Only Skin Deep” is much too grim for an audience that had become accustomed to campiness and levity.
What makes “Only Skin Deep” feel dark, among other things, is its protagonist. Showing up to a Halloween party where he’s not welcome, and where his former girlfriend (Diane DiLasco) is attending, Carl Schlag (Peter Onorati) first comes across as your standard bitter ex. You soon realize it’s much worse than that, once Carl threatens Linda (“You know, silly me, thinking I gave you what you deserved. If I’d have done that, I’d have killed you”). Now, I haven’t forgotten that Tales from the Crypt was teeming with vile men who did women harm. Yet Carl’s brand of misogynistic menace hits differently—it borders on being too realistic for this kind of series.
Mike Vosburg’s EC-style comic cover for “Only Skin Deep”, as seen in the Tales from the Crypt episode.
Despite donning a party mask for much of the episode, Carl can’t ever mask his true nature. The invitation did say “come as you are”, after all. That inability to change and be better, however, is why Carl ends up in such a karmic predicament. His outburst of anger at the party attracts the attention of one loner partygoer named Molly (Sherrie Rose, who was also in Season Four’s “On a Deadman’s Chest”). Her bone-white, featureless “mask” and body-bag costume don’t initially register as too strange, especially on a night like this. But at a party chock-full of colorful, cartoonish, and lighthearted ensembles, it does look out of place.
Darkness attracts darkness as Carl ditches the party and accompanies the mysterious Molly to her place. Which, by the way, should have been an immediate red flag. But perhaps she’s so hot, he doesn’t seem to mind the serial killer aesthetic. Resembling a warehouse that has been converted into living spaces, but never then decorated to remove the cold, industrial look, Molly’s home (or lair) is as gloomy as this whole episode feels. It’s like the set of a grungy music video, albeit a tad cleaner. The environments in a typical Crypt episode tend to be small, overfilled, and broken-in. Warm, regardless of any weird goings-on. All that empty space in Molly’s hovel, on the other hand, elicits a creepy feeling that Carl was unwise to ignore.
Tales from the Crypt featured more sex than it didn’t, but hands down, “Only Skin Deep” boasts the steamiest scene in the show’s history. Pushing it over the line, in addition to Onorati showing bare buns and the camera never turning down one of his pelvic thrusts, is the twisted dirty talk. Carl stays in the moment, whereas Molly unleashes charged lines like “the hurt, the anger, give it to me” and “take it out on my flesh like you want to”. It’s all quite kinky, as well as tied into the story’s theme of pain.
How else “Only Skin Deep” differs from other episodes is its twists. Or rather, its lack thereof. Nothing comes as a great surprise here, particularly because the deuteragonist’s ulterior motives are so obvious. By no means is Molly a wolf in sheep’s clothing; her face is a fright mask, she practically reeks of death, and she lives in what can best be described as a serial killer’s hideout. That last-act revelation of Molly’s mask really being her face is also nothing shocking. Cleverness is certainly not this episode’s strength.
A page from “…Only Skin Deep!”, as seen in EC Comics’ Tales from the Crypt.
While “Only Skin Deep” isn’t the most universally loved episode of Tales from the Crypt, it’s an interesting preview of William Malone’s future as a director. Most notably, he went on to helm House on Haunted Hill (1999) and FeardotCom (2002), the former of which was co-written by Dick Beebe, this episode’s writer. Dark Castle Entertainment, that genre house founded by Crypt producers Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler, was instrumental in bringing out Malone’s gruesome, over-the-top vision in House on Haunted Hill. However, FeardotCom and Malone’s Masters of Horror episode, “Fair-Haired Child”, are the most stylistically compatible with “Only Skin Deep”.
As one might guess, this episode is nothing like its source material. The “…Only Skin Deep!” found in the pages of EC Comics is set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and save for its last couple of pages, is pretty sweet in nature. There, a man named Herbert is enamored with a woman he met five years prior to the present-day story. Every year, he has come down to Mardi Gras to see Suzanne, who’s always dressed as a hag-faced witch. Well, this time, Herbert plans on popping the question and marrying someone who is, for the most part, a total stranger. Suzanne accepts his proposal, but with one condition: they stay in costume until they’re officially hitched. You can probably see where this is going…
Once they are married, Suzanne remains incognito, even when she and Herbert have consummated their vows. A semi-predictive nightmare then rattles Herbert; he dreamt that Suzanne’s real face was as wizened as her mask. Finally, in his haste to find out the truth, Herbert winds up killing his new wife. Faceless and well on her way to bleeding out, the dying Suzanne manages to say she never wore a mask.
For more traditional EC-style ghastliness, your best bet is reading the comic. It’s wickedly sad. For something less conventional, as far as Tales from the Crypt goes, the role-reversing adaptation is worth watching. It’s not the best this show had to offer, although Malone’s visual style, plus the sexual abandon, does set the episode apart. If nothing else, “Only Skin Deep” leaves an impression that, even years later, shows no signs of fading.
Season Six of Tales from the Crypt can be streamed on Shudder, starting on June 5.
Tales from Tales from the Crypt celebrates the show’s Shudder premiere by singling out one episode from each season. So don’t even think about changing that dial, boys and ghouls. More spot-“frights” are to come.
Carl discovers Molly’s collection of human ‘masks’ in the Tales from the Crypt episode, “Only Skin Deep”.
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