A remake of Lucio Fulci’s 1981 film is now officially in development, but the case against it is stronger than the announcement’s enthusiasm suggests. Hangtime International Pictures and Severin Films have secured English-language remake rights to The Beyond and named it the first project in a partnership slate. A new version can certainly be made. The problem is that the qualities that make the original unsettling are bound up with choices that are difficult to reproduce on purpose. This article argues that the film is best left as it is.
What has been announced
The announcement, dated October 8, 2026, names Hangtime International Pictures and Severin Films as partners. It says they have secured English-language remake rights to The Beyond and describes the film as the first of several genre remakes planned over the next two years. The announcement lists theatrical, streaming, and physical-media distribution as intended routes for the slate.
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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The Beyond [3-Disc Deluxe Edition] | Buy on Amazon | |
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Beyond the Door [Blu-ray] | $17.43 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Batman Beyond: The Complete Series (Blu-ray) | $18.49 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
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Beyond the Darkness [Blu-ray] | $14.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Beyond the Black Rainbow [Blu-ray] | $9.36 | Buy on Amazon |
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Hangtime co-CEO Frank Murray said the project is “a rare opportunity for an established director to reimagine THE BEYOND, contemporize it as a classic of experiential horror and further the ever-growing cultural significance of Fulci’s work.” Severin Films co-founder, president, and CEO David Gregory said the company “has devoted two decades to restoring and releasing genre films with the utmost respect for their originality and ongoing legacy.” Both are promotional statements from the companies, not independent assessments of the project.
Several things remain unannounced. Fangoria reported no news yet on a director or stars, and no release date has been given in the coverage reviewed. Other films from Fulci’s Gates of Hell grouping have been discussed as possible follow-ups, but none is confirmed. As of this writing, The Beyond is the only title with a confirmed project.
#1 Best Overall
- A young woman inherits an old hotel only to find it sits atop a gateway to Hell and all manner of creatures lurk in the darkness.
The original in brief
The Beyond is an Italian horror film directed by Lucio Fulci and released in 1981. Grindhouse Releasing and an IFC Center screening listing both give its runtime as 87 minutes. The plot follows a woman who inherits a hotel in Louisiana that is built over one of the gateways to Hell. As the building is renovated, inexplicable deaths and supernatural events escalate, and a local doctor becomes drawn into the mystery.
Plot summaries, including Gizmodo’s coverage of the remake news, point to a set of recurring motifs:
Rank #2
- Item name: Beyond the Door [Blu ray]
- Product type: ABIS DVD
- Brand: Arrow Video
- a cursed hotel built over a gateway to Hell
- an ancient book
- ghouls
- a cursed painting
- a guide dog
- a disturbing tarantula attack
Why the film resists a remake
The case against a reboot is aesthetic, and it rests on a judgment about how the film works rather than on any production fact. The argument is that The Beyond produces its effect through a combination of elements that a contemporary production would tend to smooth over. Each of them is worth examining.
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Fabio Frizzi’s music is inseparable from the film’s dread. Grindhouse Releasing’s six-disc 4K edition includes a Composer’s Cut with an alternate, reimagined score by Frizzi, which shows how much the soundtrack can change the feel of the same images. A remake would need either to reuse this music, which would invite comparison, or to replace it, which would change the film’s emotional register.
Rank #3
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The cinematography
The film’s imagery is built on saturated, unnatural color and compositions that feel slightly wrong rather than polished. Modern cinematography tends toward clarity and control. A remake that gets the images cleanly would risk looking like a well-made film about a nightmare rather than a nightmare itself.
Nightmare logic
Fulci’s story does not explain itself in the way a contemporary studio horror film usually does. Events happen with the logic of a dream, and that is part of the unease. Recent horror remakes often answer questions the original left open, which can be satisfying but also deflates the sense that the rules are unknowable.
Rank #4
Gore as texture
The violence in The Beyond is deliberately excessive and sometimes almost ritualistic, closer to a series of tableaux than to a set of scares. Current productions can match the effects, but matching the tone is harder. Gore that feels like a payoff in one film can feel like a tone-setting motif in another.
The dubbing
The original’s audio is part of its strangeness. The Shameless Films Blu-ray lists English and Italian audio tracks, and the uneven, artificial quality of dubbed performances is one reason the film feels so removed from ordinary realism. An English-language remake would have a native-language cast and a naturalistic soundtrack by default, which removes that particular layer of distance.
Best Value
The counterargument
Hangtime’s language about “reimagining” the film points to the strongest case for a remake: a new team could treat Fulci’s work as a starting point rather than a template. That approach could work for a different audience. But it would be a different film, and the original would not become less distinctive because a second version exists. The risk is less that the original is harmed and more that the new film is measured against it and found to be a more conventional, cleaner horror movie.
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The film is available in several editions that differ in format, cut, and supplements. The two below illustrate the main choices.
| Edition | Format and picture | Versions included | Extras and packaging | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grindhouse Releasing six-disc 4K Blu-ray | 4K Blu-ray with a new 4K restoration | Original theatrical version; Composer’s Cut with alternate score by Fabio Frizzi; Americanized 7 Doors of Death version | Commentaries and interviews | Blu-ray.com listed a scheduled release date of July 29, 2025. Current stock and pricing not stated. |
| Shameless Films Blu-ray | 1080p HD, 2.35:1 aspect ratio | Four opening-prologue presentations: sepia, black and white, original color, and golden-toned | Not stated in the listing | English and Italian audio with English subtitles. Region coding not stated. |
The Grindhouse set suits viewers who want the most complete collection of cuts. The Shameless disc suits viewers interested in how the opening prologue can be presented in different tones. Availability and territory compatibility change over time, so check the current listing before buying.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsWhere that leaves the remake
A remake of The Beyond is announced, and it may well be made. But the film’s particular effect depends on a score, images, dubbing, and a dreamlike logic that are hard to rebuild on purpose, and a contemporary production would have to work against its own instincts to recreate them. The original already exists in multiple versions that show what it can do, and it does not need a new version to remain relevant.
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