Beyond the Door III Reviews

BEYOND THE DOOR III, a clunky, Italian-produced horror opus, strains belief at every turn of its piecemeal plotting. Professor Andromolek (Bo Svenson) brings a group of seven L.A. students to a remote Serbian village to witness an "ancient Balkan rite," although his true aim is to force young Beverly (Mary Kohnert) to participate; a virgin, she will mate with the Devil. Stumbling onto the plot, Beverly and three others escape and board a moving train, which becomes, along with Beverly, possessed by said Devil. Efforts by the youths, who are killed one by one, aided by the gypsy Sara (Savina Gersak), fail to stop the train and carnage, and it reverses direction and returns Beverly to the original village. However, along the way, she's made love with strange, flute-playing youth Marius (Igor Pervic) and, no longer a virgin, ruins the ensuing ceremony. Enraged, the Devil destroys Andromolek and the worshipping villagers. This stodgily directed film's true star is its medieval-looking Yugoslav locations and sets. And, of course, there's the steam-spurting train on which most of the movie takes place; it's more possessed than Beverly, and hence able to jump the tracks at will and run through forests, swamps and such. Sheila Goldberg's script is illogical and unintentionally laughable in spots, killing off its teen victims as if this were a FRIDAY THE 13TH set in Frankensteinland. Acting is strictly perfunctory, with Svenson (NORTH DALLAS FORTY, FINAL CHAPTER-WALKING TALL) managing to keep a straight face behind a thick beard and a surprisingly effective slavic accent. The special gore effects by Angelo Mattei are adequate but crude. Released direct-to-video and sporting a 1989 copyright, BEYOND THE DOOR III bears no resemblance to its predecessors: BEYOND THE DOOR, THE EXORCIST rip-off which was also produced by veteran Italian schlockmeister Ovidio Assonitis (TENTACLES, THE CURSE), and BEYOND THE DOOR 2, the next-to-last work of cult horror director Mario Bava. (Violence, profanity, nudity.)