From Beyond

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From
http://www.horrorchannel.com/dread/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=671

"Sometimes it’s hard to believe that the man who created the brutal punishment that was King of the Ants and peeled the face off an old man in Dagon could be such a nice guy. But that’s just how this crazy horror stuff works, I guess.

We dropped a line to Stuart Gordon to see what more info we could dig up about yesterday’s announcement of the discovery of lost footage from and plans for a Special Edition of his 1986 Lovecraft-inspired classic From Beyond. What we got was some amazing detail as to just what we can expect from the missing footage:

"I'm still flying high from the discovery. I've been working on the upcoming DVD release of FROM BEYOND with Greg Carson at MGM and got a call a couple of days before Christmas that they had found some footage. So I went to their postproduction facility in Century City not sure what to expect.

They showed me a small film can full of trims, picture and sound. The can was labeled "For video version" and I recognized the writing of my FROM BEYOND editor Lee Percy. My heart started to race. The trims were threaded up on an old flatbed, and there they were: all the scenes that had been cut by the MPAA nineteen years ago. I had looked for this material in the early 90's but was told it had been thrown out. I assumed it had been lost forever. I almost cried.

The footage includes the complete brain sucking sequence in which Crawford Tillinghast (Jeffrey Combs) sucks out Dr. Bloch's (my wife Carolyn Purdy Gordon) eyeball and spits it out. The eyeball lands on the floor looking up at the camera (it took forever to get that shot). And then we push in on his mouth as he sucks out her brain through her eye socket. I can still remember the lady from the MPAA scolding me about this shot like I was a bad kid sent to the principal's office. "How could you have ever thought we would give you an R rating when instead of cutting away you continue to push in closer and closer AND CLOSER?!"

There is also some extended brain munching, nudity and violence. The only scene that is still missing is one I cut out myself. It occurs early in the film when Crawford goes to tell Dr. Pretorious that the Resonator is working. As Pretorious leaves his bedroom Crawford hears moaning inside and looks in. He sees a beautiful naked young woman trussed up S&M style. In her mouth is a large three-penny nail that has been pounded through her tongue. Crawford frees her and pulls out the nail. She throws a coat over her shoulders and runs out. I cut this scene because I thought the MPAA would never allow such perversion, and now every other kid has a pierced tongue. The lesson I learned is to never censor myself. The good folks at MGM are still looking for this scene.

The plan is to recut the lost footage back into the film and release a Directors Cut. They also plan to release the first wide screen version of FROM BEYOND and are planning a ton of extras to make it comparable to Elite's Millennium Edition of RE-ANIMATOR.

I'll keep you posted on future details.

After such a wonderful Christmas present, I'm hoping this will be a great year for us all."

Now that’s the kind of stuff you can sink your teeth into! I just hope that one missing scene is found soon so we can truly experience From Beyond the way Stuart Gordon intended. Stick around for more as it comes to light!"


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Karl Hungus

EXCELLENT!

I always loved the old Stuart Gordon films, and Jeffrey Combs especially, but From Beyond was one of them that I never managed to catch. I remember scouring for a copy not so long ago. Damned happy to read that!