Howard Phillips Lovecraft has been my favorite author since I discovered him during my senior year in high school. I had purchased a book, for the purpose of a project for my creative writing class, said to include pieces that are said to be his very best. Among the masterpieces such as 'The Call of Cthulhu', 'At The Mountains of Madness' and 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth' was 'Herbert West-Reanimator. I was excited to read it because I had seen Stuart Baker's cult classic "H.P Lovecraft's Reanimator" before hand. However, no more then two years after the film's release Baker directed another movie based off a Lovecraft story; "From Beyond". Most of the actors from "Reanimator" returned for the production, seemingly making it a follow up to it.
The short story itself wasn't in the book I owned. 'From Beyond' never received the praise that 'The Call of Cthulhu' did and fell into obscurity. I searched book stores and libraries for it, but not many Lovecraftian books contained it. I cut my losses and read it offline. Call me old school, but I just like having a physical copy out in front of me.
Like the rest of Lovecraft's works, 'From Beyond' walks the bridge between horror and science fiction. The plot goes as follows; the narrator describes his scientist friend, Crawford Tillinghast, to be shunned by the scientific community. The focus is a machine that Tillinghast created. It emits vibration waves which heightens human senses, stimulating the pineal gland. The pineal gland is the part of the human brain which regulates sleep. With these heightened senses, the human subject is able to see the parallel reality exists within our own. Creatures, not of this Earth, appear. They float around in mid air, appearing as glowing blue masses which cannot be described without difficulty.
The story revolves around narrator recalling experiencing this with Tillinghast. Here the story makes the jump from science fiction to horror, growing more darker. It is revealed that the machine works both ways, allowing the creatures from the other dimension is see humans. In fact, one of the creatures killed Tillinghast's house servants. Terrified when one of the creatures near him, the narrator destroys the machine by gunfire. Tillinghast has a stroke and dies while the narrator falls unconscious. The police show up later; they take the narrator in for questioning and investigate the scene. They come down to the conclusion that Tillinghast killed his own servants for reasons unknown. While the narrator is released, he can never feel alone knowing that a whole other world exists within his own.
I was happy to finally be able to read it. It's no 'Call of Cthulhu', but its one of the entries in the Lovecraftian libraries that shouldn't be forgotten. It's a short read and is easily accessible by the internet. Stuart Baker's film is a whole other story, taking a four page story and turning it into a movie. It made sense with 'Reanimator' because the story itself was split into chapters with events occurring in a chronological order. This one is just one event after an explanatory introduction. Watch the movie not to compare to the short story, but for the special effects.
All in all, 'From Beyond' is intriguing, thought provoking and enjoyable. The premise of a mad scientist, with seemingly good intentions, creating something that only brings chaos and terror is prized in the genre of horror.
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