Beyond Darkness

source: Beyond Darkness

La casa 5

Well, I'm not going to talk much about that movie, cause I agree in most point with the comment by Zantara, but I just had another thing concerning the Title. &The original title "La Casa 5" an the american subtitle just can't beat the german title "Horror House 2". I never saw a movie called "Horror House" in any video-tape library or on TV an no german homepage knows the first part. So if you think calling it House 5 is ridiculous, nope, german video producers beat that by far.

This is the last in the Casa franchise and it surely shows why. this is really a turkey but somehow you keep watching to see what happens next. It's even so worse that the last shot just before the end credits aren't correct, you know what should happen but don't worry, if you wait until the end credits are over your wish will come true. The acting is so over the top, really wooden and normally flicks with haunted children should be scary but here it's just laughable. Nevertheless, all imaginable effects are used. Mostly the very cheap ones, scary, sigh, lights and smoke, an annoying score, bad make-up. Really, a must see to believe but that's the problem, it hasn't had a proper release and is only available on VHS. It was made in 1990 so for the effects available then this is really a turkey. And each time you think, ahaa the end is coming something new happens. And still I'm glad that I have seen it...

This movie is a little bit stupid. But that is one of its best qualities. Acting ain't great. Special effects even worse (OK, they're better than SOME of the actors). I couldn't get over David Brandon (Caligula in http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082133/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_152) playing a priest. He may be a drunk, but still a man of the cloth. I still can't make it through Caligula 2: The Untold Story in one sitting. It is not only kind of mean-spirited, but actually gross. I got this on X-Rated (German video label, not MPAA) DVD in a fat box (große hartbox) and the box/case is actually a whole lot better than the film. Way better, as a matter of fact. It's called "Ghost House 6" on the box. Pretty sure it's called "Beyond Darkness" in the credits.

If you watch this, in the first six minutes you are treated to an eerie death row scene. One in which a satanist eating souls of children is a female psycho-path. Or, genuinely in league with the devil. Some weird and miss-timed camera cut aways that add to the eerie-ness, and a spooky house. If the rest of the movie was boring (it's not) this would be more entertaining than most movies now-a-days. This is classic Italian-made-set-in-America movie stuff. Right era, right setting, right pre-tense. Smart people would find new residence once the damn swan started rocking, just saying. This movie should also serve as a warning to those fallen priests that think they can just buy a trench coat and some booze and wander around saying the devil can just take your soul. Roving schools of ghost children will find you. Also... Just say no to ovens used to burn bad children.

"La Casa 5"/"Beyond Darkness" is another lamentable horror film from Claudio Fragasso,the man behind incredibly awful "Troll 2"(1990).The plot is simple:a priest(Gene Le Brock)and his family move into new house.Unfortunately the house was built over the place where twenty witches were burnt at the stake.Soon the terror begins..."La Casa 5" is a typical Italian possessed house horror which owes a lot to "The Amityville Horror"(1979).The script is mediocre,the acting is horrible and there is absolutely no gore.The special effects are also pretty bad including a possessed radio and flying cleaver.The film is not as painful as "Troll 2",but it's close.Skip it.My rating:4 out of 10.

Beyond Darkness is a b horror picture about a haunted house. It's Poltergeist meets The Exorcist. A reverend and his unsuspecting family move into a house with mysterious supernatural symptoms. Even more mysterious was why a married Protestant minister was a part of the Catholic Church, but these are details, just a minor technicality! The creepy ambient music was doled out with a heavy hand and it worked. The special effects were on point, and the tone was camp-free. The acting was what you would want to see in this type of story. The hag and the Catholic exorcist killed it. The minister and his wife, not so much. The writing didn't make a whole lot of sense. It could have used more development, such as the backstory about the property being built on the sight of a mass witch lynching. The opening scene more than made up for the gaps in the narrative logic. Beyond Darkness is nobody's classic, but it delivers.

Explanation for this title. Evil Dead was La Casa in Italy. Then, Evil Dead II was La Casa 2. But, Ghosthouse, from Umberto Lenzi, was La Casa 3. Witchery, from Fabrizio Laurenti was La Casa 4. And this, the fifth.