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Film: Voices from Beyond (Voci dal profondo)
Year: 1991
Director: Lucio Fulci
Writers: Lucio Fulci and Piero Regnoli
Starring: Duilio Del Prete, Karina Huff and Pascal Persiano
Review:
This was a film that I heard about through podcasts. It is one that doesn’t get talked about much as this is a later Lucio Fulci film, who was the co-writer/director. Part of the issue I feel like is that this one was difficult to find. I was able to find it and check it out as an Odyssey through the Ones as well as for Italian Horror Month.
Synopsis: when a father passes away abruptly, his spirit returns to aid his daughter in finding his killer.
We start this with a couple making love. The husband is Giorgio (Duilio Del Prete) and his wife is Lucy (Dettina Giovannini). They’re interrupted by a child crying. It turns out to be Davide (Damiano Azzos). This is their son, but Giorgio is so angry that he kills the boy with a dagger he grabbed. This turns out to be a dream.
This then shifts over to Giorgio in bed with doctors trying to help him. Blood is coming from his mouth and there isn’t much that can be done. He passed away. The doctors want to do an autopsy and his stepmother, Hilda (Frances Nacman), refuses. She believes that he died of natural causes so they don’t want his body cut up. Giorgio’s father is unable to speak up or even be there, as he uses a wheelchair. He is played by Paolo Paoloni. The hospital continues due to the nature of what happened to Giorgio.
We then see the reason why they don’t, it will hold up the will reading. Hilda has a son who was Giorgio’s stepbrother, Mario (Pascal Persiano). Through a flashback, we see that Giorgio denied him a position with a foundation they run. He didn’t think Mario was capable. There’s another where Hilda is denied funds without permission from her stepson. Giorgio wasn’t a beloved person as we can see.
There is another child here, Rosy (Karina Huff). She comes home and is greeted at the station by Gianni (Lorenzo Flaherty). Mario was also there to collect her and we see that they don’t get along. Rosy was Giorgio’s favorite while still being hard on her. At the will reading, we see that everything in the will was left to her. This dismays everyone, including Lucy since her husband ignored their other child. Giorgio had reason to believe that Davide wasn’t his son.
Giorgio isn’t at rest though. There is a great scene where Lucy is haunted by his voice, but it turns out to be a television program celebrating his life. Rosy on the other hand is visited by her father in her dreams. He needs her to figure out who killed him, before it's too late. His corpse is rotting and if she doesn’t solve it before he’s no more, then he won’t be able to contact her. There are secrets to be discovered and her father had many enemies, making this more complicated.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that I dug the concept here. There is a Stephen King story that has a character in suspended animation and there’s also Short Night of Glass Dolls. Now this does things differently with the idea because we see from the opening scenes that Giorgio is dead. He needs Rosy to solve his murder before he fades away. I do think that last part doesn't make complete sense, but it would put his soul at rest. It is something that I can still roll with though if I’m honest.
Having now set that up, let me delve deeper here. I like the set up. It does well in showing us that Giorgio is a horrible guy through this nightmare sequence. What I like there though, it made me think he is as bad as Lucy thinks. There are then other flashbacks that we see through the will reading as well as at his funeral where we see partially why Mario and his mother despise him. They even show that he was hard on Rosy, despite being his favorite. We never truly soften his edges, but he didn’t necessarily do anything that shows he deserves to die.
Then going along with that, I do like that after the setup to kill off the lead, we meet who we’re truly following Rosy. There’s that idea that she doesn’t necessarily want the money so she is the best person to leave it to. She doesn’t care for Mario. Hilda is someone that I got the idea she was indifferent toward. She loves her mother, grandfather and little brother. The mystery element here was interesting when she sees different things and starts to piece it together. It also helps that her boyfriend, Gianni is a medical student who ends up with evidence that she needs.
I do need to shift over to a negative and it will be in filmmaking. This movie is a bit muddled. How they develop things hooked me, but then it just meanders unfortunately. It did well in building tension when the family was trying to block the autopsy. Then we see that someone destroyed evidence. It is there that the movie didn’t seem to know what to do to get back on track. It does, I will say that. It just didn’t work for me as well from that point on.
There are good things though with how this was made. It feels like a made for TV movie at times. I do like the fuzzy focus to show us that we’re in dreams. This is a plot device I’m not always a fan of, but I’m forgiving here since we need it. That works best to have him communicate with Rosy. I’ll credit the cinematography and framing there. There are good effects to show us time passing with Giorgio in different states of decomposition. I liked that. We also get surreal things in the nightmares that work. I’d also say that the soundtrack and design fit was needed there as well.
All that is left then is acting. I do want to start with Del Prete who dies right at the start, but he is this haunting figure. It is interesting how villainous they make him. Making him be so mean to everyone around, but then having Rosy try to solve what happened. She doesn’t do that until after the reading of the will. He was even hard on her. That does feel real though since all the other members of the family, sans her grandfather, are also not great. Huff works in her role as I’ve said. Persiano, Giovannini and Nacman are good as all these family members I’m referring to. They’re greedy and maybe not as harsh as Giorgio, but not that much better. I do like this cast of characters that we don’t like except for Rosy. Flaherty and the rest also rounded this out for what was needed.
In conclusion, I don’t think this is a great effort from Fulci, but I was also pleasantly surprised. How they present the story is something that we see done in a similar fashion in other movies. I do think there could be a tweak there to make it work slightly better. We have a cast of unlikeable characters which makes this almost a giallo as we figure out who killed Giorgio. What they did there was interesting. The acting is solid across the board, Del Prete and Huff leading the way there. I’d also say that this was made well enough. The cinematography and framing were solid. The rotting look of Giorgio was good. I’ll say one more time, not great, but I enjoyed this overall.
My Rating: 6 out of 10