JOURNEY INTO THE BEYOND

A minor bad taste classic Journey into the Beyond was one of the first shock documentaries directed by Rolf Olsen, a journeyman director whose work includes everything from violent action movies, sexploitation epics and even children’s films. An apparent investigation into the fringes of psychic spirituality with so-called real experts, exorcisms and seances, be warned Journey also manages to be a very sleazy cocktail indeed. There’s many a grotty scene of real brain tumor removal and animal cruelty. An unforgettable scene offers a Third-World doctor yanking out cancers from his patients using his bare hands and no anesthetic. Although it seems less outrageous compared to later films of its ilk i.e. the Faces of Death series, Journey turned many people pale in the Seventies. Some prints came with a warning bell to alert viewers of the more vomitous scenes and when it was shown at a Spanish horror film festival in 1978 it had mass walkouts and numerous retchings. Olsen also directed Shocking Asia and its sequel under pseudonyms. The lesser Shocking Asia 2 shares some footage with this movie.