10 Most Messed Up Horror Movie Monsters
3. Dr Pretorius - From Beyond (1986)
We now begin our journey further into the realms of cosmic horror with a film based on a story by H. P. Lovecraft himself.
From Beyond tells the cautionary tale of a perverted scientist, Dr Pretorius (Ted Sorel), who develops a machine called the Resonator in order to stimulate the pineal gland (because his in-house sex dungeon just wasn’t enough). In doing so, a portal to another dimension is opened, containing all sorts of cosmic nasties. Pretorius is dragged into said dimension, only to return later as a slimy, shape-shifting, sexually charged monster, whose pineal gland now protrudes phallically from his head. Eeww...
Much like in Hellraiser, our antagonist (Pretorius) revels in the far-out pleasures that exist in this other dimension, and soon sets his sights on taking beautiful blonde scientist Dr Katherine McMichaels (Barbara Crampton) there with him. Pretorius subjects Katherine to some properly gross sexual trauma, licking her, groping her with his elongated digits, and at one point brainwashing her to dress like a dominatrix (hmmm…). By the end of the movie Pretorius literally resembles a monstrous, insatiable phallus.
From Beyond ticks all the sexually charged horror boxes: body horror, sadomasochism, and the cosmic realm where horror and sex converge to fulfil the ultimate taboo pleasures.