Beyond Darkness Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.0

Beyond Darkness Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 29, 2021

Burt Bacharach and Hal David fashioned a well remembered ballad called "A House is Not a Home", and some may wonder when watching Beyond Darkness if (to pun horribly with this film's alternate title) " La Casa is not a House". Before anyone gets too confused by those linked titles since they have absolutely no connection to this film and I admittedly used them simply because they provided me with the right words, suffice it to say that disconnection like that is kind of the whole point of the so-called La Casa franchise that emerged in Italy. For those needing a bit of context, there's a good interview with director Claudio Fragasso included on this disc as a supplemental feature where he gets into the kind of patently odd Italian "tradition" of renaming foreign films once they come to that market. Such was the case with Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead when it arrived in Italy and was quickly rebranded La Casa by distributors there. It was such a huge hit that Evil Dead 2 (which fans will know had its own alternate title here) became La Casa II. Never one to miss a potential marketing opportunity, Joe D'Amato simply co-opted the title and released the completely unrelated La Casa 3 which for those who take time to click on the link will see was released stateside as Ghosthouse, just to further muddy the titular waters. Something similar happened with the completely unrelated (to any of the previous outings) La Casa 4 which (again for those who click on the link and will see) was released here as Witchery. Which brings us to what is ostensibly La Casa 5, which indeed has no connection whatsoever to any of the previous films, but which manages to purloin a little "this-a" (meaning Poltergeist) and a little "that-a" (meaning The Exorcist) to fashion a kind of unintentionally funny at times tale of a troubled priest attempting to help another minister whose family has had the misfortune to end up living in a haunted house.

As patently ridiculous as much of Beyond Darkness probably undeniably is, it does have some interesting elements, and one of those is the rather disturbing performance by Mary Coulson as a serial child murderer named Bette. Now Coulson's characterization is not exactly what you'd call subtle, but with a shaved head (the character is about to be put to death in the electric chair as the film opens) and a leering, grimacing face, she is a suitable embodiment of "Evil" (with a capital E) who clearly unsettles a priest named Father George (David Brandon), who has arrived to give Bette her last rites. Instead, he gets an earful about devil worship and how Bette herself is calling Father George over to the dark side, including giving him her own "Bible", which includes a helpful illustration of a certain demon bearing a resemblance to a horned goat.

After this somewhat arresting introduction, which includes Father George experiencing "visions" of Bette's victims and also dropping by to see her smoking corpse in the electric chair, the film just kind of segues willy-nilly to another focal priest (albeit the married kind), Peter (Gene LeBrock), who moves into this film's supernaturally tinged "casa" with a family that includes a sweet young blonde daughter with the suspiciously reminiscent name of Carole (Theresa Walker), along with wife Annie (Barbara Bingham) and son Martin (Michael Stephenson). While there may not be a television involved this time, there is a bright glowing light that beckons to Carole, but there's also some odd behaviors on the part of Martin, and all sorts of poltergeist-y things like supposedly inanimate objects springing, or at least lumbering, to life.

Beyond Darkness is kind of interesting in that it pairs a dissolute priest (which is how Father George ends up) with a newer, shinier version in the form of Peter in order to set everything right again. That interest is probably undercut by a bargain basement production that makes any supernatural phenomena less scary than comical. On the plus side, the film has a rather interesting if derivative score by Carlo M. Cordio which Severin has included on a Bonus CD offered as part of this release (see below). In the trivia department, as well as perhaps the " really?" department, this is one of several films that none other than Laura Gemser did the costumes for, something that Severin even touts on the back cover of this release.

Beyond Darkness Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Beyond Darkness is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.67:1. There's not even the often minimal information about the transfer that Severin sometimes provides on its covers, with the back cover verbiage on this release actually given over more to a discussion of newly produced supplements. Beyond Darkness has never looked great on home video in my experience, and while there are some noticeable improvements here, this is still a somewhat lackluster presentation. The palette looks a bit anemic, though it actually improves at about the halfway point for the duration of the running time. There's a very soft, even filtered, appearance quite a bit of the time which is probably only further exacerbated by the film's tendency to feature smoky, hazy environments. The stylistic quirk may play at least partially into the somewhat milky blacks that are on display. As such fine detail is typically best in the most brightly lit moments that feature close-ups.

Beyond Darkness Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Beyond Darkness features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono tracks in either English or Italian. The English track is noticeably brighter sounding, with a clear mid range and upper end, and since it's the language most (maybe all) of the principal actors are speaking, my advice is to stick with it, though there isn't a whale of a lot of difference that I noticed otherwise in toggling between the two. Dialogue, effects and score are all rendered with fine fidelity and there were no issues with regard to damage, dropouts or distortion. Two sets of optional English subtitles are available, one for the English language track and one for the Italian language track.

Beyond Darkness Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Beyond Possession (HD; 37:16) is another fun and informative interview with director and co-writer Claudio Fragasso. In Italian with English subtitles.


• The Devil in Mrs. Drudi (HD; 22:50) does similar service for co-writer Rossella Drudi. In Italian with English subtitles.


• Sign of the Cross (HD; 28:45) is an interview with David Brandon.


• Trailer (HD; 1:28)


• Bonus CD features Carlo M. Cordio's soundtrack score, which has a variety of synths, organs and voices.

Additionally, Severin provides a foldout on cardstock which some information (unattributed) about the score and a track listing for the CD, along with a spooky cover image of Mary Coulson as Bette.

Beyond Darkness Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, it's maybe arguable that La Casa by any other name would still smell as musty, since there's simply no getting past the fact that Beyond Darkness offers a mishmash of plot points from other, better remembered, films. Video is not especially impressive, but serviceable, while audio is fine. As usual with Severin releases, the on disc supplements are very enjoyable, and score fans will most likely appreciate the included soundtrack CD, for those who are considering making a purchase.