Death from Beyond (2006)

   

Executive Produced, Edited, Written & Directed by: James Panetta

Starring:

Trish Hershberger .... Marcia / Nefratis
Sarah Marie Muhl .... Robin
James Panetta .... John
Chris Ryons .... Mark
Danielle Savage .... Tanya
Steven Moreti .... Tony
Jen Murphy .... Jacki
Juan Fernandez .... Jake
Jacki Vogel .... Molly
Mike E. Pringle .... Haremka

Special Appearances:


Debbie D .... Palace Guard #1
Suzi Lorraine .... Palace Guard #2

Release Date: Direct-to-DVD: August 15, 2006

 

Rating:

 

The Egyptian princess, Nefratis (Trish Hershberger) made a pact with the god Set where she would gain ultimate power by consuming the life forces of young lovers. Her lover Haremka became disgusted with her Appetite and killed her. He burned her body and sealed her amulet in an unmarked tomb. For added protection he also sealed the amulet of Osiris in the tomb as well.

In the 2004 an archeologist finds the tomb and disappears. Some time later a film crew working in the house of the archeologist must fight for their lives as Nefratis hunts them for their souls.

 

During the very beginning there's some cheesy close up shots on Marcia preparing to hang herself but when she does she looks phony when she's choking.
There's some interesting shots on Marcia creeping up with a fake looking dagger and doing some people in as well as a scene with her ripping out a heart from a porn filmmaker named Mark.
We spot many good discussions between Robin
and John as they're the one of the only one's that looked good in the scene's.
We spot a neat flashback scene that involved Marcia in a computerised egyptian and doing sacrifices with good shots on the victims feet with blood oozing down.
There's a good struggling moment with Haremka strangling Marcia which looked quite impressive.
There's a good discussion between Robin and John after reading a book about a curse on the Nefratis woman and trying to solve it.
There's corny blocking with Marcia strangling Jake and him punching her which looked terribly amateurish. But then we have a good camera shot on Marcia herself holding up her hand and about to rip his heart out which looked a bit better but not much.
There's some good moments with both
Robin and John trying to run downstairs and is hit by a forcefield which looks cheesy but enjoyable. They also do well acting possessed and making out with one another along with clips of Molly acting out of it while there's flashbacks on her making out with Mark in which he was well done by acting out of it too.
There's a good cheesy blocking with both Robin and Marcia sword fighting which didn't look believeable at all but fun to watch.
Bottom line is that this is a film made on no budget at all but yet they try their best to make it look scary but it fails. There's computerised effects which makes it fun to watch though. However, when the story is going along with rehearsals to do a scene for a porn flick it looked not at all convincing. We spot some good flashback moments with the computerised egyptian scene's as well as people's minds being taken over by the Nefratis so I will give credit for that. Other than that this short film is fun to watch if you're in the mood for it and it's nice to see a filmmaker try their best and have it released onto DVD.

The acting is not too bad at all for a film with no budget. Lead actress Trish Hershberger (Marcia / Nefratis) however needed a bit of improved and some acting lessons could do the trick and she'd be right on track but she wasn't extremely terrible palying an evil Nefratis spirit terying her best to do her wicked laughs and really did well with her foreign language too when she casts a spell.
S
arah Marie Muhl (Robin) brought great energy to her performance as a shy one trying out for the porn industry with good strong words when something had to be done with the curse that's going on at the building. You could really tell she tried her best and pulled it off. I can see her working in bigger low budget films.
James Panetta
(John) was another good one in the film showing a good nice guy next door attitude as well as being funny and charming too. At times he was rusty but picked it right up when those moments have happened.
Christopher A. Ryons
(Mark) kinda stood out as a slobby and sarcastic type porn filmmaker but seemed low on energy. He does make you think of those lazy types that loved to jump in the sack with a hottie. His reactions are a bit phony when his heart gets ripped out.

We have the odd bloody stabbing and blood spitting out of people's mouth's
A heart is ripped out
Some open stabbings

The music isn't anything special just a synthesizer composing classical music but it's nothing too suspenseful or terrific. Probably something taken off the internet.