Movie Review: ‘BEYOND THE GRAVE’

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The opening scenes of Beyond the Grave are stylistically spot-on. The lone hero rides up on his black steed (well, in this case, it’s a black Ford Maverick), steps out with a close-up of his shiny black shoes, and walks into the dank hideout of his enemy. There are four of them: one is playing solitaire, two are cooking slop, and the last is hiding behind a pillar. One of them flinches toward his weapon; the hero draws his six-shooter and guns shoots him in the chest, then the head, then kills the other two before they can even draw. The hiding villain, a bald ninja wannabe, gives him a run for his money with some bad swordplay and lousy martial arts, but in the end is a corpse as well.

No remorse, no flinching. All gunslinger.

The infusion of spaghetti western themes, characters (our first three baddies here are all even dressed like cowboys), and visuals in Beyond the Grave is awesome. I also admit to being a little geeked out when some wall graffiti read “Beware the Walking Dude,” a clear reference to Stephen King’s master evil doer, Randall Flagg, and when a character utters Jake’s chilling phrase, “There are other worlds than these.” In fact, much of the movie reminded me of a tribute to King and his Dark Tower series, but that’s neither here nor there. The question, in my mind, is whether style is ever more important than substance? Can homages to old westerns and modern horror writers save a movie from mediocrity or less?

In most cases, the answer is no, and not much in Beyond the Grave changes my opinion on that.

We’re thrown into a post-apocalyptic world where the seven gates of hell have been opened (that’s probably a movie in and of itself) and the end times are upon us. Our hero, a policeman known as “Officer,” is hunting down a serial killer that body hops (as a side note here, for a much better body hopping serial killer movie, check out Fallen or Wes Craven’s Shocker). We move from the opening shoot-out to a couple of kids picking a lock, presumably to get food. The hero interrupts the kids, joins forces with them (why, we don’t know), but then we find out they’re looking for the same bad man.

The movie propels us from scene to scene with less explanation. Sure, the hero is a broken cop, and ostensibly he’s hunting criminals, but for what purpose? There are zombies, man, and Hell on earth! Are we supposed to believe the cops are still serving outstanding warrants? If these frequent stops relate to the overarching search for the big bad, it’s not made clear.

I do want to mention the zombies in particular. I mean, the movie is set during the end times, so there must be zombies, right? They’ve been the flavor of the month for more months than I care to count and Beyond the Grave doesn’t disappoint, unless you expect actual zombies. These zombies serve little purpose to the movie’s plot other than to provide some gore. When a zombie ignores food here, but goes after it there only to give the characters a reason to do something else, the zombie is only eye candy. They’re not impressive, not believable (yes, I used believable in reference to zombies), and should have been left on the cutting room floor.

Beyond the Grave utilizes two interludes, shades of Tarantino, to provide some back story. The fight scenes, while mostly cheesy, show their western influences throughout the movie, especially the final confrontation. We’re also shown some ritualistic scenes complete with pentagrams and candles and a book bound in skin, more stylistic references to older, better movies.  The actors do a fine job with the script they’re given and there are a few more horror homages peppered within the movie, but I’ll let viewers spot those (think John Carpenter) if they can. Unfortunately, none of these bits is enough to elevate the film above the hundred other films vying for fans.

Writer/Director Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro has clearly watched the classic westerns, read the modern horror masters, and should have relied more on developing his characters than infusing so many styles into his film. From there, his tale of vengeance and death play would have played out organically and been a much better movie.

BEYOND THE GRAVE is available on Netflix Instant for U.S. and Latin America