From Beyond starts late one night as a man enters a room looking for his best friend Crawford who sent him a letter saying to meet him there, inside the room sits a strange looking machine, a chair & a television. The man sits down & his friend Crawford appears on the television screen explaining that he has created a machine that allows us to see creatures from another dimension & it's right next to him & as it fires up the man realises Crawford was telling the truth as all sorts of grotesque creatures appear around him...
Written & directed by Michael Granberry this is a short (it's only 9 minute 40 odd seconds long) adaptation of the short story by H.P. Lovecraft that had already been filmed as a full length live action feature film by Stuart Gordon back in 1986 with impressive results. I have never read the original Lovecraft story so have no idea how faithful this is but since it was short story & this is also very short I would imagine Granberry doesn't deviate too much. The central figure looking for his friend Crawford never says a word & the entire short is set inside a single room but at only ten minutes long it has a good pace, it has a decent story & while I wasn't quite sure what to make of the twist ending (was he mad & he was just making it all up or were the monsters real? Both possibilities are hinted at) there's absolutely nothing wrong with this at all. Certainly worth a watch if you have a spare ten minutes & can find a copy (no User Comments or External Review links on IMDb at all & this was made four years ago) & like the horror genre or are a Lovecraft fan.
The style of animation used here is the very time consuming stop-motion probably with a few CGI enhancements, as a comparison the same technique was used to make the likes of Corpse Bride (2005) & Coraline (2009) although on a much more meagre budget & while the magnificent detail of the two later films is absent here it still looks good. Oobviously when your dealing with tentacled monsters from another dimension stop-motion lends itself well but the main human character doesn't come off quite as well with chunky looking hands & very glassy blank eyes although this may have been deliberate. The monsters are cool & the makers seem to have a strange fascination with tentacles as every creature has some, Crawford show's up at the end as a mutant monster too. The makers do actually manage to create some creepiness here & there's some nice shots including the man sitting frozen in a chair as in the darkened background all sorts of tentacled creatures crawl up the wall & float past.
From Beyond the animated short is a fine stop-motion sci-fi horror adaptation of a Lovecraft short story, while not as good as the mid 80's film it's still worth a watch although I have no idea where you would find a copy.
Written & directed by Michael Granberry this is a short (it's only 9 minute 40 odd seconds long) adaptation of the short story by H.P. Lovecraft that had already been filmed as a full length live action feature film by Stuart Gordon back in 1986 with impressive results. I have never read the original Lovecraft story so have no idea how faithful this is but since it was short story & this is also very short I would imagine Granberry doesn't deviate too much. The central figure looking for his friend Crawford never says a word & the entire short is set inside a single room but at only ten minutes long it has a good pace, it has a decent story & while I wasn't quite sure what to make of the twist ending (was he mad & he was just making it all up or were the monsters real? Both possibilities are hinted at) there's absolutely nothing wrong with this at all. Certainly worth a watch if you have a spare ten minutes & can find a copy (no User Comments or External Review links on IMDb at all & this was made four years ago) & like the horror genre or are a Lovecraft fan.
The style of animation used here is the very time consuming stop-motion probably with a few CGI enhancements, as a comparison the same technique was used to make the likes of Corpse Bride (2005) & Coraline (2009) although on a much more meagre budget & while the magnificent detail of the two later films is absent here it still looks good. Oobviously when your dealing with tentacled monsters from another dimension stop-motion lends itself well but the main human character doesn't come off quite as well with chunky looking hands & very glassy blank eyes although this may have been deliberate. The monsters are cool & the makers seem to have a strange fascination with tentacles as every creature has some, Crawford show's up at the end as a mutant monster too. The makers do actually manage to create some creepiness here & there's some nice shots including the man sitting frozen in a chair as in the darkened background all sorts of tentacled creatures crawl up the wall & float past.
From Beyond the animated short is a fine stop-motion sci-fi horror adaptation of a Lovecraft short story, while not as good as the mid 80's film it's still worth a watch although I have no idea where you would find a copy.
