The film
- Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Is monstrous-Pretorius a human sadist endowed with Body Horror powers by the "beyond", or a native shapechanging entity from the unseen realm which assimilated Pretorius's mind (and perversions) when it ate the real Pretorius?
- Katherine wants to run the resonator from the get go so her repeated use of it is believable, but Tillinghast and Bubba protest using the machine yet do not try to destroy it or leave or restrain Katherine. Are there merely holding the Idiot Ball, or are the addictive effects of the resonator preventing them from quitting cold turkey?
- Complete Monster: Dr. Edward Pretorious is a sadomasochistic Mad Scientist seemingly munched by an outer-dimensional creature through the use of his device the Resonator. Far from dead, Pretorious becomes one of the monstrous creatures on the other side of reality and starts to drive his own colleague Dr. Crawford mad alongside his companions, gleefully changing their minds and having one of them horribly devoured by eldritch bugs. Pretorious drives Crawford into becoming a brain-eating maniac, molests his companion Dr. MacMichaels, and tries to transcend back to the human world to devour the entire human race, gloating how he's become the most powerful being in the universe.
- Cult Classic: The film was a Box Office Bomb (making only a quarter of its budget back in America) and B-grade reception from critics (2.5/4 stars from Roger Ebert and 74% from Rotten Tomatoes), From Beyond is a favorite for Horror fans, Science Fiction fans, Lovecraft fans and others for its impressive creature designs, Ken Foree's cool-dude performance, Jeffrey Combs being a camp mental bastard and some of the best wet puppets you will ever see.
- Narm: Jeffrey Combs somehow managing to say this line with a straight face while staring right at the camera:Tillinghast: It ate him... bit off his head... like a gingerbread man!
- The hospital's automatic doors use the exact same sound effect as the automatic doors from Star Trek: The Original Series. It's really distracting.
- Nightmare Fuel: This is based off Lovecraft after all, and Came Back Wrong Praetorius is every bit the gory abomination that The Thing was.
- Squick: All of Pretorius forms... the movie spares no expense in showing off how gross his transformations can get - they rival The Thing for sheer Nausea Fuel.
- What's left of Bubba's body after the flesh eating bugs attack him. They almost strip his flesh and viscera to the bone.
- After his overstimulated pineal gland starts coming out of his head, Crawford stops eating normal food and instead is found eating medical waste, before moving onto human brains.
- In order to escape the bomb blast, Katherine has to jump out the window of the top story to the ground. She ends up shattering her kneecap after landing on the ground, with HORRIFYING results.
- Too Cool to Live: Bubba dies about two-thirds into the film, despite being the most level-headed of the trio. The fact that he's played by ex-zombie fighter Ken Foree only adds to his coolness factor.
- The Woobie: Tillinghast — at least until his feeding frenzy.
