This is another one that isn't all-that-bad! It's a post-Sachetti scripted story (co-written by Fulci), but it's still a great supernatural-mystery sprinkled-with the horror that Lucio Fulci-fans adore. A brief-synopsis: a young-girl's father has been murdered by-poisoning, and a telepathic-link is formed between the deceased and the child. However, time-is-slipping-away for them, as the communication between the dead-man and his daughter is dependent-on the decay of the corpse--the more he rots (which Fulci shows us in delightful-detail), the weaker-the-link of communication. Will they discover who murdered him? Reminiscent of the opening-prologue of "Sunset Boulevard", Fulci delivered his last good horror-film here, there would be no-others. Having a narrative partly-delivered-by a dead-man was (and is) still uncommon, and an interesting experiment by Fulci which bears-fruit.
I found-myself pondering on the many-many issues of mortality watching this film, and it can certainly be read as a parable of the link the living share with the dead--the dead do speak-to-us, but we have to listen-carefully, and usually with detecting and forensics!Understanding the dead--in-part--is understanding the human-condition. Eventually, we have to let-go of the deceased, and move-on. One has to marvel that such an ailing-man (diabetes plagued Fulci his entire life) was capable of such a film, done with an almost non-existent budget. Fulci had a very tender-relationship with his daughter, so it could be inferred that there is some autobiography at-play here.Fulci knew he was dying slowly of diabetes.
Fulci was a valued-director--he could deliver under austere-conditions, and with over-50 films, his "hit-ratio" is surprisingly-high. He was cheap, and he usually delivered a solid-film with so little. Always remember that a majority of his films were made for under $1 million, and you begin to understand how truly-great he was as a director, a veritable-magician. People who compare other films by a director aren't worth listening-to, because people and times change. Yes, the films are frozen, but why should we be frozen too? Voices From Beyond is well-worth repeated-viewings, and almost totally-forgotten. Sure, it isn't his best film, but it's pretty good. It teaches us that we can let-go of the deceased, since they are always with us anyway. Long-live Lucio Fulci's legacy!
I found-myself pondering on the many-many issues of mortality watching this film, and it can certainly be read as a parable of the link the living share with the dead--the dead do speak-to-us, but we have to listen-carefully, and usually with detecting and forensics!Understanding the dead--in-part--is understanding the human-condition. Eventually, we have to let-go of the deceased, and move-on. One has to marvel that such an ailing-man (diabetes plagued Fulci his entire life) was capable of such a film, done with an almost non-existent budget. Fulci had a very tender-relationship with his daughter, so it could be inferred that there is some autobiography at-play here.Fulci knew he was dying slowly of diabetes.
Fulci was a valued-director--he could deliver under austere-conditions, and with over-50 films, his "hit-ratio" is surprisingly-high. He was cheap, and he usually delivered a solid-film with so little. Always remember that a majority of his films were made for under $1 million, and you begin to understand how truly-great he was as a director, a veritable-magician. People who compare other films by a director aren't worth listening-to, because people and times change. Yes, the films are frozen, but why should we be frozen too? Voices From Beyond is well-worth repeated-viewings, and almost totally-forgotten. Sure, it isn't his best film, but it's pretty good. It teaches us that we can let-go of the deceased, since they are always with us anyway. Long-live Lucio Fulci's legacy!