From Beyond is one of those horrors movie that I know has been considered a classic by horror fans for pretty much ever, but I somehow never got around to seeing. Why it took me so long to see this, I’ll never know. Fortunately I can now say that I finally saw it and man oh man am I glad I did. Stuart Gordon, Jeffrey Combs and H.P. Lovecraft sure make one hell of a winning team!

At this point you probably know what From Beyond is all about. Crawford Tillinghast (Combs) and Dr. Edward Pretorius (Ted Sorel) develop the resonator, a device that allows humans to see beyond what is consider to be the normal perceptible reality. Good news, the resonator works! Bad news, the resonator works! As plenty of movies have taught us over the years, when humans play around with science too much, the results are often disastrous. Such is precisely the case in From Beyond.

Of course I loved this movie. Combs is splendid as always and it’s kind of fun to see how his character of Tillinghast compares to his more famous Herbert West from the Re-Animator films. Despite the two characters playing in the same ballpark, they’re both actually quite different and complex in their own ways. Tillinghast is more about doing the right thing rather than putting science first.

Barbara Crampton’s Dr. Katherine McMichaels on the other hand, was a bit more reminiscent of West. McMichaels is willing to go to great lengths in the name of science. Even when she knows the risks she can’t help but let her curiosity get the best of her. I may have been most impressed with Crampton out of everyone. Perhaps this is partly due to the fact that I’ve always considered her to be the weak link of Re-Animator. I’ve been a huge fan of her in everything else however, and From Beyond is certainly no different.

Stuart Gordon must love to get messy. His films always seem to be oozing with so much goop. As a whole Gordon may be the director with the best use of practical effects and makeup. It’s not that From Beyond or any of his other films would rank as my top choice for use of practical effects, but he may be consistently the best over the course of his career. The whole sucking brains through the eye socket is just awesome. Logically that may just be the best way to get to someone’s brain when you think about it. Going through the skull? Ugh, too hard, too much work. Just rip out the eye and suck through the socket! Works like a charm!

The plus side to waiting so long to see a classic like From Beyond is that I now get to experience it for the first time on Blu-ray which is pretty terrific. The version I watched was the German release from OFDb Filmworks. I know the film did get the Scream Factory special treatment here in the US. From what I can tell both transfers on the US and German release look to be the same, at least as far as the specs are concerned. I can’t speak for sure on behalf of the Scream Factory release, but I am very happy to say the OFDb release looked fantastic. From Beyond is a pretty colorful movie, especially when the resonator is in action and you see a lot of bold, vivid light. This all looks wonderful in HD.

The special features on this release, just like with the Scream Factory release, are loaded. From what I can tell every feature that is on the Scream Factory release is included on the OFDb release, plus there are a few more tossed in. The German release has three commentaries – one with Gordon, Crampton, Combs and producer Brian Yuzna; a second with Dennis Paoli; and then finally a third in German with Kai Naumann and Marcus Stiglegger. The extra bonus materials included on the German release are an additional 20 minute feature on the special effects (Monsters & Slime), an additional interview with Crampton (The Doctor is In), an interview with Paoli (Gothic Adaptation), an additional interview with Gordon and storyboards. These extra features could be included on the Scream Factory release, but I’m just going by what I was able to find online.

I may have been late to the party on From Beyond, but I think I can safely say most horror fans are going to want this one in their collection. Fortunately there looks to be a couple of good options out there to choose from. It doesn’t matter what region player you have or where you’re located in the world, you’ll be able to find at least one good version of From Beyond and that’s a very good thing.

From Beyond is now available on Blu-ray from Scream Factory in the US and Canada, OFDb Filmworks in German, Second Sight in the UK, Sidonis in France and Happinet in Japan.