"Beyond Terror" was, unfortunately, for me another painful reminder never to set my hopes and expectations too high. This formerly obscure early 80s Spanish stood on my watchlist for more than a decade, but there never was a half-decent dubbed or subtitled version available. I spent more money than I usually do on the Cauldron BluRay edition, but I was wholeheartedly convinced this film would be worth it.
Alas, all those years of anticipation deceived my brains. "Beyond Terror" is a mediocre horror film at best, and nowhere near as awesome as the Spanish horror I hoped it would be like, such as "Tombs of the Blind Dead" or "Night of the Skull". The first half of the film is extremely violent and entertaining but hugely derivative, whereas the second half is more original and atmospheric but sadly tedious. What a terrible combo.
The characters are totally unconvincing. I personally didn't see these four young biker thugs capable of going on such a bloody and relentless killing spree, which includes letting an old lady and innocent kid deliberately burn to death, and the two hostages also don't act (or react) like any normal person would. The sequences that take place in the abandoned monastery and its grisly catacombs during the final act are reasonably creepy, but slow and not leading to painful enough death sequences.
Short word to fellow reviewer Fella_shibby, who mentioned me in his user-comment: I sincerely wish I could have given this a higher rating and more favorable review. Can't win 'em all, I guess...
