Beyond the Door (1982) Poster

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5/10
Beyond Comprehension
sol121818 April 2004
****SPOILERS**** Sleazy as well as confusing movie that's hard enough to follow but has some of the worst dubbing I've ever heard. "Beyond Obsession" is so bad that you have to learn to lip read, as well as Italian, just to understand the plot which is a convoluted mess to begin with. Set in Morocco "Beyond Obsession" is a mind numbing love triangle between Matthew, Tom Berenger, a young and handsome American oil rig worker with Nina, Eleonora Giorgi. Nina'a also having an affair with her step-father Enrico, Marcello Mastroianni, who's in jail for the death of Nina's mother Barbara.

Enrico being a former diplomat has privileges in jail that most of us don't even have being free where he seems to leave the lock-up almost any time that he feels like it. The prison officials also provide Enrico with a car for his transportation that he uses to keep an eye on as well as have an affair with Nina.

Enrico out finding that Nina's having an affair with Matthew gets jealous and starts to put the screws on it to get Nina back to him which gets Nina very upset. We learn that Nina's mother, Barbara, caught Enrico and Nina in a hotel room years ago, when Nina was a teenager. After sending a letter to her mother, Nina's grandmother, Barbara tells her that Enrico is going to murder her she then overdosed on drugs, it was that letter that got Enrico behind bars. Later it's found out by Matthew that Enrico may very well be Nina's real father! Nina's real father tells Matthew that he's not really sure if he is or not since him and Enrico where both having an affair with Barbara before Nina was born.

Nina hurt and depressed over what's happening with all this gossip attempts, like her mother who succeeded, suicide. Matthew trying to straighten this mess out gets to have Enrico finally meet and talk to Nina's grandmother, who's dying of old age, in order to find out what this whole crazy story between Nina Enrico and Barbara was all about and separate the truth from the BS.

Grandma tells Enrico that she sent a letter some time ago to Nina to give to the courts and police stating that it was Barbara who killed herself not Enrico who at the time was arrested by the police for her death. Nina's grandmother being a shut-in and cut off from the world didn't know that the courts and police didn't get that letter, and that poor innocent Enrico was in jail all that time.

It turned out that Nina, in order to keep Enrico for herself and punish him for driving her mother to suicide, kept the letter from the police and had her lover Enrico in jail all that time as well as having complete control of him. With her grandmother dead and Nina now, after getting all her money and her house in Morocco to live in, goes off with Enrico to live happily ever. As for Matthew, who helped straighten this whole mess out, he's left holding the bag and out in the cold.

Brain twisting movie that takes everything out of you and leaves you senseless trying to follow it. Poor Matthew he tried to get everything right but ended up only screwing himself in the end.
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4/10
Frustrating at times to watch
jh9264712 March 2008
Warning: Spoilers
I too am a huge Berenger fan, and am interested in his earlier works, some of which I've never heard of, including this one. While he looked positively gorgeous here, and while I enjoyed hearing him speak French, it did detract from the flow, since there were actors (i.e., the maid) who would speak English at times, but then switch to French at others. Fortunately, the French teacher at our school was able to translate, which helped me understand things better, although she too had some difficulty with the sound (esp. in the beginning, when Matthew picks up the priest). Does anybody have a good translation of that conversation?

I have to agree that the DVD was cheaply made, and some things didn't make sense, i.e., why didn't they just get blood tests to determine who was Nina's father. But then, we wouldn't have a movie, would we?
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6/10
Better than expected. Hardly sleezy.
PatrynXX30 June 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Full of mystery this one. Can be confusing this is true but it all evens out in the end and Tom isn't exactly a cool guy..What is very confusing is why most of the dvds and videotapes lack subtitles. I'm used to the Italian to English dubbing. (hey go for the Clint Eastwood movies and you tell me bad dubbing) but at least give me subtitles. Which some sound French and Italian...I'd rate it higher if I understood what they were saying. It doesn't deserve the low rating. It'll stay in your head for quite some time.

Quality: 5/10 Entertainment: 8/10 Re-Playable: 4/10
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A near miss.
Cranstonman9 March 2004
Marcello Mastroianni has a rather cushy life to himself in a Morrocan jail. Working in the library,popping in and out as the fancy takes him, and enjoying conjugal visits from his daughter,(yes, its Cavani territory alright) Life becomes complicated when Tom Berenger falls in lust with the girl, much to the distaste of her father.

The brothel scene, early on in the movie probably remains the main talking point, but it is worth sticking with.The film is seedy and sleazy but strangely compulsive.

Cavani nearly pulls it off, but not quite.
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1/10
Beyond Boring
Rainey-Dawn8 February 2017
So a guy kills his wife, he is put in prison for it and his stepdaughter visits him. The stepdaughter is sexually involved with a man and her stepdad. The girl is no good and both men know it but both men "like her in that way" so both like to have sex with her. This weird, awful movie is done in the most boring way possible. It's a sick story to begin with but they could have at least created it in an interesting way that it would get more viewers.

I would have never even watched this movie but it came in the Midnight Movie Madness 50-Pack by Mill Creek and I always watch every movie in film packs - even if I have to fast-forward and skip through them to watch the ending. I had to do the fast-forwarding this with this mess of a film that hardly ever gets viewers or reviewers - and I know why now, it's not worth it.

1/10
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1/10
Boring waste of time
ODDBear20 October 2005
What a waste of time this movie is.

Giorgi and Mastroianni play stepdaughter and stepfather who are doing each other because she feels guilty over something in her past and blah blah blah. Berenger pursues her relentlessly (God knows why), eventually wins her over but her stepdaddy seems to have a firm grip on her. Will she choose Berenger or Daddy dearest?

The fact that I stayed to find out is a testament to what a true fan goes through. I'm a huge Berenger fan and while he has definitely made some stinkers, none compare to this dud.

Due to a very sloppy VHS edition the dialogue got through very badly and some scenes very spoken entirely in french without subtitles so I have only a faint idea what went on there.

The film looks incredibly cheap and it's hard to imagine that the same DP here made Dario Argento's incredibly beautiful Suspiria. The film is incredibly slow moving, nothing much happens and it's also very tasteless in many respects.

My advice; Avoid
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