This is Fulci's next to last movie, dedicated "to my few real friends, in particular to Clive Barker and Claudio Carabba." At this point, Fulci was shooting TV movies and direct to video stuff, often lending his name to lesser directors.

Giorgio Mainardi lies dying, surrounded by his uncaring family, wondering why. He has an internal hemorrhage from an ulcer and nothing can be done. His daughter Rosie comes for the funeral and the reading of Giogio's will, which has caused a family rift. Giogio's stepmother refuses an autopsy. Giorgio's father is on death's door from a stroke. And Giogio's stepbrother was having an affair with his third wife. It's Fulci, the soap opera!

Giogio is rotting away in his coffin, but his spirit communicates with Rosie. At the funeral, everyone remembers the dead man and how he treated them. Lucy remembers that he hated how frigid she was. Mario remembers being humiliated. Hilda remembers how cheap he was. And Rita, his mistress, remembers him going back to his wife and cutting her off. In short, Giogrio loved - and was loved by - nobody. It gets worse - Rosie gets the entire will, but Lucy is allowed to stay in the house. However, there is no money for David, Lucy's son who Giogio would not claim as his own.

An autopsy happens despite protests and the pathologist (hello, Fulci!) discovers the small intestines are damaged. And those intestines - kept for further observation - are destroyed.

Despite Hilda's objections, an autopsy on Giorgio goes ahead. The pathologist (Lucio Fulci) takes a sample of his small intestines and discovers some lacerations to the interior wall. He puts the sample in a jar of formaldehyde for later inspection. A little later, Rosie and her college boyfriend Gianni (Lorenzo Flaherty) discover that the jar containing the organ pieces removed from Giorgio's corpse has been "accidentally" smashed. But Gianni, a medical student with access to the pathology lab, tells Rosie that he'd found tiny splinters of glass in the intestines before the accident accrued later that night. He suggests that they go the police with their suspicions, but Rosie, who is now frequently and telepathically in touch with the spirit of her dead father, insists they investigate themselves rather than attract a public scandal.

After some twists and turns, Hilda is revealed to be the culprit, using David as her patsy. She created a game where he would use a mortar and pestle to smash up light bulbs and put them in Giogio's ice cubes. However, instead of informing the police, Rosie tells the family that her father will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

There are plenty of gory dream sequences, a decomposing corpse and lots of blood being vomited. But the script - by Fulci - has a nuance missing from much of his work. It's not his best film, but it's interesting. And definitely worth watching.

If repeated eye close-ups, a soft-focus lens, and dream sequences moving in slow motion are your thing then this abysmal supernatural thriller from Lucio Fulci may be the film for you. Otherwise, skip it, as this is a Fulci far from the success of ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS or any of his other classic zombie gut-munchers. This is an old, muddled embittered Fulci, a man preoccupied with being over-the-top "arty" and supposedly stylish when instead all he can do is make the film look cheap and tacky, a director who had seriously lost his 'bite' when it came to horror films in 1990. At least he had some of the gore dripping for his next film, his swansong, NIGHTMARE CONCERT.

VOICES FROM BEYOND is a film packed with cheap scares and bad dream sequences, with attempts at atmosphere by having sets enshrouded in cheap-looking dry ice whilst monotonous synthesiser music plays loudly over the images on screen and threatens to blow your mind. None of the old acting hands are around to give the film any kudos either or any of those "cool, look, it's him!" type moments. Here, the cast is a bland one, a gang who couldn't act their way out of a paper bag, and even the repeated bared breasts of blonde female lead Karina Huff fails to generate the excitement that Fulci was desperate for.

The film's singular gory highlight comes at an autopsy, when a pathologist (played by a gleeful Fulci, up to his old tricks again) pulls out the guts from a corpse in graphic detail, snips them up and chucks them in a jar. Aside from the opening sequence which takes the term "death bed" literally with gallons of blood pumping from the mouth of a dying man (which promises a return to the old days which never occurs) this is a relatively bloodless and shoddy offering. The rest of the horror comes from repeated shots of a corpse decaying in its coffin, as while we watch flies appear and maggots crawl from the body's eye sockets - bizarre, seeing as the coffin is buried six feet below ground level. I guess it's those "burrowing flies" causing trouble again - or maybe it's just a film "of images".

Sure, this movie does have a few cool moments - I liked the voice-over narration of the corpse, a good effect used in literature a lot but rarely in films, and Fulci harks back to the old days by throwing in a nightmare sequence involving an attack by a few mouldy-looking zombies. But what a let-down of a non-ending! Our female lead laughs in the graveyard and walks off, what the heck?! Then watch closely for a final message from the director in which Fulci pays tribute to his "real friends" - one is none other than Clive Barker! This film's a poor mess from a disillusioned mind.

"Voices from Beyond" is an overall solid Italian thriller, padded with typical Fulciesque gore scenes. I say padded because you'll quickly notice that, albeit very cool and delightfully gruesome, the gory bits are absolutely irrelevant to the story and they just seem to be included because the fans expect no less from Mr. Fulci. The gore occurs during several nightmare-sequences, a totally gratuitous autopsy and through repeated images of a slowly decomposing corpse. The rotting process goes incredibly fast here, by the way. Only moments after the burial, the corpse is already covered in maggots and cobwebs! Anyway, you certainly don't need these gloriously gooey moments in order to follow the story, but they sure make the movie more entertaining and easier to digest (…except if you have a weak stomach, of course). The actual story, written by Lucio Fulci himself, is quite compelling and revolves on the arrogant and despicable Mainardi family. The patriarch – Georgio – died from food poisoning, but his soul is restless and can't help thinking his dead was a carefully planned murder conspiracy. Therefore he seeks supernatural contact with the only remaining person he can trust, namely his cherubic teenage daughter Rosy. Guided by the voice of her departed father, Rosy investigates the various reasons why the entire Mainardi family wanted Georgio dead. The premise might sound a little silly; yet "Voices from Beyond" is quite involving and the tension is adequately build up. The film as a wholesome may not rank among his best efforts, but this is definitely one of Lucio Fulci's finest achievements in directing! There are several highly imaginative scenes to state his mastery, most notably the part where Georgio's body lies in state and the family members come to pay their last 'respects'. With each person standing before him, we are informed – through flashbacks - about the conflicts (read: possible motivations for killing) between him/her and the deceased. Very powerful! There are negative aspects as well, of course, like the occasionally poor dialogs and monologues, especially when Georgio's soul speaks! I suppose this is why dead people don't talk… They say stupid and cheesy things. Also, you should prepare for a dull and completely UNexciting climax. It's a really lousy ending to an overall recommended thriller. Now then, who wants a slice of eyeball-omelet?