Question: What sort of movie do you get when you have a visual effects supervisor write, direct and edit his own movie?
Answer: Why, THE BEYOND.
Hasraf Dulull, the writer, director and editor of THE BEYOND has a well established career as a visual effects supervisor and in many other roles generally revolving around visual effects. And, truth be told, the visual effects in THE BEYOND are superior in almost every respect. As one professional reviewer noted, Dulull is quite expert in executing visual effects "in ways that make the movies feel bigger than their budgets". Dulull has very much succeeded in making THE BEYOND "LOOK" like a science-fiction summer blockbuster. Unfortunately, THE BEYOND fails in every other aspect of professional moviemaking.
Not to put too fine a point on it, Dulull can't write, can't direct, and pretty much can't do anything else effectively when it comes to moviemaking OTHER than create superior visual effects. The storyline is appalling, any grasp of basic physics is missing entirely (sort of a failing in a science-fiction movie...), the majority of the acting is stiff and wooden at best, and so on. Glacially slow, THE BEYOND is literally painful to watch. Adding insult to injury, the movie concludes on an incessantly preachy note that is all but unstomachable.
I know that brutally negative reviews are not well received on IMDb and that this review will be condemned as "unhelpful". But this movie is what it is and one would have to lie to say anything else.
So A+ for visual effects and straight F's across the board for literally everything else for THE BEYOND.
