The Beyond (1981)
A gate to Hell opens in the basement of a Louisiana hotel.
Genre
Characters/Groups
Liza Merrill - Katherine MacColl
Dr. John McCabe - David Warbeck
Joe the Plumber - Giovanni De Nava and Tonino Pulci
Martin Avery - Michele Mirabella
Character thumbnails with links to profiles
Detailed Synopsis
In Louisiana in 1927, a group of men lead by Mob Leader use boats to cross a swamp leading to Emily's hotel. Emily finds a book entitled Eibon lying on the ground. In room 36, Schweick is painting a landscape of hell. The group of men are met outside the hotel by another group of men in cars. Emily reads the preface of the book which explains that the book contains the prophecies of Eibon. The mob of men rush into the hotel. The mob breaks into Schweick's room and Mob Leader accuses Schweick of being a warlock. The Mob Leader hits Schweick with a chain and as he is being beaten, Schweick says that the hotel and town shall be condemned forever for their actions. Emily reads the book which describes the seven gateways to hell. The mob continues to beat Schweick and end up crucifying him to the wall of the hotel basement and throw hot lime on him, melting his face to the bone. Unknown to the mob, next to the impaled Schweick is a symbol for the gateway to hell.
In Louisiana in 1981, Liza Merrill and Martin Avery are at the now dilapidated hotel. She tells him she only inherited the hotel and no money along with it, but he insists they continue on with the architectural plans he has for it. She calls out to Larry who tells her he will have finished painting one of the sides of the hotel by the end of the day. As Larry is looking into a window, he sees Emily, who now has milky eyes, staring back at him. Larry screams and falls off the scaffolding and lands on his back. He is brought into the motel where he tells Liza and Martin what he saw. Liza asks Arthur where the doctor is and he tells her the doctor is on his way. Dr. John McCabe drives up and tells Liza, Larry needs to get to the hospital. Dr. McCabe then transports Larry to his car and drives away. Martin finds the painting Schweick was painting the night he was killed and shows it to Liza. The buzzer from room 36 suddenly starts to go off, but Liza says no one is in the room. Joe the Plumber arrives and Liza tells him there is no water coming from the faucets, but the basement is flooded. Martha walks up to Liza and Joe in the basement and tells them she made a pathway of wood over the water for Joe. Joe sees a spot in the basement wall where water is seeping from and starts to chisel out the brick. He follows a series of tunnels which go out from the basement and which are marked by the symbol for a gateway to Hell. Liza finds Arthur in her room and he tells her he was looking for keys. She tells him to unclog the chimney and he asks if it was Joe he heard drive up. The wall in the cavern starts to dissolve and a skeletal hand grabs Joe by the face, popping out of one Joe's eyeballs.
As Liza is driving into town, she is forced to stop when she sees Emily and her dog, Dicky standing in the middle of the road. Martha looks for Joe and finds him missing both eyes and drooling a yellow substance. Schweick's body then floats to the surface. Liza drives Emily to Emily's home and Emily tells Liza she must not reopen the hotel and to leave it. Dr. McCabe and Dr. Harris examine Schweick's body and Dr. Harris tells Dr. McCabe he is going to connect his brain scan invention to Schweick's body. Mary-Ann and Jill arrive at the hospital and Mary-Ann walks into the morgue to see the body of Joe. She puts a suit on Joe's body and rosary beads around his hands. Mary-Ann suddenly screams and Jill walks into the morgue and sees acid pouring over the head of Mary-Ann who is unconscious. The acid burns away Mary-Ann's face and a mixture of acid and blood starts to flow towards Jill, who runs away. Liza and Dr. McCabe go out to a bar and she tells him about her past, how the hotel is her last chance to be successful and how Martha and Arthur came with the property. Emily is present at Joe and Mary-Ann's funeral and Liza hugs Jill after the funeral, who now has the same cloudy eyes as Emily. During the night, Liza hears someone calling her name and finds Emily and Dicky in her hotel. Emily tells Liza about the history of the hotel and Schweick, but stops her story when she feels the presence of Schweick. Emily tells Liza to never enter room 36, but Liza doesn't believe her. Emily touches Schweiks painting, but runs away when her hands start to bleed.
The next day Liza enters room 36 and finds the Eibon book. She opens the door to the bathroom and sees the rotting remains of Schweick crucified to the wall. She runs away and Dr. McCabe arrives at the hotel. They both go back into the bathroom, but nothing is in there, but the nails and the Eibon book is missing. Liza tells Dr. McCabe about Emily, but Dr. McCabe says no one lives at the house Emily supposedly lives in. Liza has a meeting with Martin and while they are walking she thinks she sees the Eibon book in a used bookstore, but it turns out to be a different book when she picks it up. Arthur goes into the basement to repair the wall. Martin goes to the parish clerk's office to get the plans for the hotel. The Town Clerk shows Martin where he can find the files on a tall bookshelf and then leaves for lunch. As Martin is looking at the plans for the hotel, he notices something, but falls off the ladder he was on and breaks his back. As he lies unconscious, tarantulas climb onto his body and when he wakes up, they attack his face and chew off his skin and eyeball. Dr. McCabe goes to the address Liza said Emily lived and finds it empty, but does find a burnt copy of the Eibon book. He reads the book and learns about the gates of Hell. Martha goes into room 36 and finds a pool of black liquid in the bath tub. She unclogs the drain and as the black liquid drains away it reveals the body of Joe. Joe's body comes to life and grabs Martha and shoves her head against a nail in the wall, killing her. Dr. McCabe goes back to the hospital with the Eibon book and examines the body of Schweick again and sees he has a tattoo of the gates of Hell.
At her home, Emily calls out when Dicky starts to bark and her piano starts to play on its own. She is surrounded by the living remains of Schweick and Louisiana Hell Zombies and pleads to not be sent back to Hell. She sics Dicky on Schweick and the Zombies, but Dicky eventually turns on her and kills her when he is bitten by the Zombies. Dr. McCabe calls the hotel, but no one answers. Liza goes down into the basement and is attacked by a now zombified Arthur. She manages to get away and runs into Dr. McCabe. He tells her the house Emily was in was abandoned for the past 50 years and tells her he read the Eibon book. They go into the basement to look for Arthur and their is a sudden windstorm and they run out of the hotel. They get into Dr. McCabe's car and as they are driving to the hospital, Liza notices they haven't seen anyone outside. At the hospital, they go to the laboratory and Dr. McCabe gets a gun from his desk, but when he tries to make a phone call, the line is dead. Liza is attacked by a Zombie, but Dr. McCabe saves her. They get separated when Liza gets into an elevator that drops her off at the morgue. She sees Jill and runs to comfort her. Dr. McCabe finds Dr. Harris who is killed when the wind shatters the glass of a window, causing shards of glass to impale Dr. Harris' face. Liza takes the elevator back up along with Jill and Dr. McCabe gets into the elevator and they go to another floor where they see the living dead body of Schweick who starts to walk towards them. Jill attacks Liza, but Dr. McCabe shoots the top of Jill's head off. They run down some stairs and find themselves back in the basement of the hotel. They walk through the tunnels in the basement and find themselves in Hell, just like in Schweick's painting. Their eyes then turn to the milky color and they disappear.