From Beyond the Grave (1973)

From Beyond the Grave is a British horror film first released in 1973, directed by Kevin Connor.  The film stars Ian Bannen, Ian Carmichael, Peter Cushing, Diana Dors and Margaret Leighton.  It has also been released under the title: Creatures.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


Edward Charlton cannot believe his good fortune when he persuades a crusty old antiques dealer to sell him a 400-year-old mirror for twenty pounds, a fraction of its true value.  But the mirror is not what it seems...  By holding a séance in his flat, Charlton awakens a spirit trapped behind the mirror, a spirit that demands blood sacrifices so that he may be set free... 

Christopher Lowe suffers a similarly dismal fate when he steals a medal from the same antiques dealer.  He did this to impress an old war veteran, Jim Underwood, whom he has recently befriended.   Underwood’s daughter takes a liking to Lowe and offers to release him from his loveless marriage... 

If Reggie Warren had known what became of Charlton and Lowe he probably wouldn’t have conned the antiques dealer into selling him a valuable silver snuff box for four pounds.   It isn’t long before retribution comes Warren’s way, in the form of an invisible elemental that sits on his shoulder, scaring away dogs and generally sucking the goodness out of him.  Luckily, Warren meets a clairvoyant who knows how to exorcise evil spirits - or does she? 

William Seaton is victim number four.  He cannot afford to pay the full asking price for an ancient wooden door but the antiques dealer accepts what he is offered.  Seaton’s girlfriend thinks he is mad to fit such a grand door to a stationery cupboard but Seaton soon realises that the door is actually a portal to something far more portentous.  Passing beyond the door one day, he finds himself in a large room lit by an eerie blue glow.  On a table is a book which explains the room’s purpose.  It was built by the 17th Century Occultist Sir Michael Sinclair to trap all those who enter it, so that he may be perpetually renewed by their soul.  If Seaton short-changed the man who sold him the door he is surely doomed...

From Beyond the Grave was the last, and easily one of the best, in a series of anthology horror films made by Amicus Productions in the 1960s and ’70s.  In common with its nearest rival, Hammer Films, Amicus was almost exclusively dedicated to making low budget horror films, and did so with great success, many of its films now being considered cult classics.  It was the classic British horror film Dead of Night (1945) that inspired Amicus to make Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), the first of its portmanteau horror films, establishing a sub-genre that proved to be immensely popular on both sides of the Atlantic for well over a decade.

Unlike Hammer, who were pretty well wedded to the Gothic horror format, Amicus had more freedom to explore different facets of horror, and consequently came up with films that were often more interesting and frightening than anything that Hammer made.  From Beyond the Grave is a good example of a British-made horror film that surpasses Hammer’s usual output in both the quality of its writing and its sheer creepiness.  For one thing, it features Peter Cushing in one of his spookiest roles, that of a Northern-accented antiques dealer who has a particularly nasty way of dealing with dishonest customers.

From Beyond the Grave actually has one of the strongest cast line-ups of any British horror film of this era, and, in addition to Cushing, includes such stars as Donald Pleasance, Diana Dors, Ian Carmichael and Nyree Dawn Porter, all turning in performances to die for (literally, as it turns out).  R. Chetwynd-Hayes’ short stories are intelligently adapted as well-formed short films in their own right, each directed with immense flair by Kevin Connor.  Alan Hume’s cinematography contributes much to the film’s unremitting eeriness, providing frights that are far more subtle, and far more effective, than you would ever find in a contemporary Hammer horror film.

As in all anthology films of this kind, there is a strong segment and a weak segment.  The strongest story is the second one, in which Donald Pleasence and his daughter Angela evoke dark forces to free a man from an unhappy marriage (or so it would seem).  Not only does this part of the film offer the strongest performances (Diana Dors is marvellous as the housewife from Hell), but it is the most unsettling, eschewing obvious thrills for something much darker and sinister.   Pleasence brings an understated Pinter-esque menace to his portrayal, although his daughter manages to out-do him in the creepiness stakes.  Of the four stories that make up the film, this is the only one that could have been extended into a feature.  As it is, it still compares favourably with that year’s other notable film forays into the supernatural: William Friedkin’s The Exorcist and Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now.

It is a pity that the strongest story in the film is followed by the weakest, and the difference in tone and quality is felt immediately.  Ian Carmichael and Margaret Leighton are clearly there to provide comic relief but come close to reducing the film  to the standard of a tacky madcap comedy (of the kind that was rife in British cinema at the time).  Leighton’s over-the-top portrayal of a professional clairvoyant (who charges a discount on Thursdays) is worth savouring but the story lacks substance and seems out of place in this anthology.  It is merely a comedy diversion, and an unwelcome one at that.  Still, it is probably worth it for Cushing’s line: "I hope you enjoy snuffing it."

The other two segments of the film (the first and the fourth) are not quite as impressive as the Pleasance fright fest but they still manage to deliver a few well-honed scares.  The first, featuring a man who is converted into a serial killer so that he can release a spirit trapped within a mirror, is an early attempt at a slasher movie and must have been quite shocking for its day, in spite of the overt black humour.  The last segment, which owes something to C.S. Lewis’s Narnia Tales, may offer less in the way of visceral horror but is actually more disturbing, the dreamlike composition and claustrophobic feel sustaining its ample terror quotient admirably.

Despite the gradual demise of the British film industry, Amicus continued making horror films in this vein right up until the end of the decade, ending with the now oft-derided The Monster Club (1980).   With audiences in decline and sources of funding drying up, Amicus would struggle to fend off the inevitable, but From Beyond the Grave showed what the company was capable of.  Had the economic climate been more favourable, Amicus could well have been a significant player in the inception and development of the modern horror film, rather than a comparatively minor influence.

© Alex Sullivan 2010

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