Wealthy businessman Giorgio Minardi (Duilio Del Prete) dies of a massive internal hemorrhage. His last words are “Why?” Even though he dies surrounded by his family, none of them seem to be particularly upset about his passing. Every one of them — from his much younger wife to his stepmother to his son — is more concerned with who is going to get Giorgio’s money than the fact that someone murdered him by grinding up glass and putting it into his food. The only person who truly seems to be upset by Giorgio’s passing is his daughter, Rosie (Karina Huff). Even though Giorgio is dead and soon buried, his spirit remains and soon, he is showing up in Rosie’s dreams and imploring her to help him discover who murdered him.

Released in 1991, Voices From Beyond is one of the films that Lucio Fulci made for television towards the end of his career. By this point, Fulci was not doing well, personally or professionally. After the box office failure of films like Manhattan Baby and Murder Rock, Fulci found himself struggling to raise the money to produce the type of films that he wanted to make. Also, his critical reputation never recovered from the controversy surrounding the violence in The New York Ripper. There’s an undeniable bitterness at the heart of Voices From Beyond. Though the film features several close-ups of Giorgio’s decaying corpse and a few surreal dream sequences, the true horror comes from the way that the family reacts to Giorgio’s sudden death. No one cares that he died. No one cares that he was murdered. They just want what’s left of his estate. Giorgio, trapped in spirit form, discovers just how unloved he was. Watching the film, one gets the feeling that Fulci saw a lot of himself in Giorgio. The family becomes a stand-in for everyone who deserted Fulci during the final years of his life.

I’ve seen Voices From Beyond advertised with a rather tacky pull quote — “The last good movie Fulci made!” While the quote is accurate in that the film is better than most of Fulci’s later films (even if it can’t match the delirious heights of Zombi 2, the Beyond Trilogy, or even The New York Ripper), to call it the last good film that Fulci made is to do the director a great disservice. Even Fulci’s lesser films were uniquely his own and, as a result, they were all good Fulci films regardless of whether or not they were good on any other level. To his credit, Fulci never really sold out. He did the best with what he had. Even this made-for-TV movie manages to open with a threesome and a rather gory knifing. The film features Fulci’s characteristic touches. The camera tracks through the darkness with style. Where it suffers is with a plot that makes the identity of the killer far too obvious and also with a less-than-inspired cast. Del Prete, unfortunately, doesn’t really have the charisma necessary to make us want to stick with Giorgio even after he’s died.

In the end, Voices From Beyond is interesting as a personal statement. It’s Fulci’s way of letting audiences know what he thought of those who had deserted him. The film ends with a dedication that is pure Fulci in both its spite and its vulnerability. Rest in peace to the maestro.