Review of Beyond the Wall of Sleep

I have my own stereotypical ideas of how insane people might act. I also have my own ideas of how people who are possessed by demons or other beings might act. The acting by most of the main characters in Beyond The Wall Of Sleep does not fit in any category of acting except Bad Acting. Many of the lines are delivered as if being read for the first time with the actors following parenthetical guidelines and sideline instructions from their coach or stage mother. The actors portraying insane characters could pretty much get away with anything, but the so-called sane characters are not in the least believable. Sanderson is okay in his muttering portrayal of an inbred degenerate, but by far most of the other actors were simply horrible, over-emoting and stretching their facial expressions to comedic proportions. Horrible acting does not make a good horror show. Yount, as Edward Eischel, is perhaps the ultimate BAD actor. I noticed when I clicked on Yount's name that, at the time of this writing, there were no other filmography credits for Yount. Hopefully there never will be.

I would not recommend this movie to anyone as an example of what H. P. Lovecraft's writing can conjure in a fertile mind. For me, one of the biggest failings in all the Lovecraft inspired movies I have seen is the portrayal of the creatures. Usually the creatures are poorly made-up, poorly animated, and just overall not living up to the feelings of terror inspired by Lovecraft's writing. Beyond The Wall Of Sleep has believable horrific creatures, but the portrayal of humans is not to be believed.