Beyond the Door (1974) #1FromTheVaults #Horror

Beyond the Door (1974) also has the names Who are you? and Devil Within Her. There’s also a movie called The Devil Within Her (1976), aka I Don’t Want to Be Born, starring Joan Collins that is very similar.

As the film began, the first thing that came to mind was who fucked up Dimitri’s beard? Seriously. Who did that? Hair and makeup did a number on it, and in every scene he was present, I was drawn to it. That aside, Beyond the Door is said to be a cheap knock-off of The Exorcist (1973), and I can see the resemblance.

The children are exceptional. I love the totally unfiltered approach to parenting. I wished I could say what they did when I was their age. Another thing of note is the product placement. It’s not uncommon to see Coke or Pringles in a movie, but this movie took putting products in scenes to the extreme. Where would E.T. be without Reese’s Pieces? I paused the movie for a minute to Google one called Salad Cream.

The possession effects are very similar to the Exorcist, so I can see how it was seen as a rip-off, but I don’t think the usage of ideas and things like that was new in 1974. Surprisingly, only one thing annoyed me from this film: the superimposed video.

I liked Beyond the Door, but it wasn’t anything special, so I gave it 3.5 out of 5 Stars.

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