Back in 1974, director Ovidio G. Assonitis and actress Juliet Mills teamed up for the supernatural horror film Beyond the Door. Although two sequels to Beyond the Door have been released in the years since both were sequels in name only; in fact, they were both original films that simply had the Beyond the Door title slapped on them by distributors. But now, 47 years later, Beyond the Door is set to receive a proper sequel, as Assonitis and Mills are re-teaming for Beyond the Door: Embryo (via THR).
The original film told the story of Jessica Barrett, played by Mills.
When Jessica learns she is expecting her third child despite her efforts at birth control, the horrifying truth of her condition begins to materialize. A vastly accelerated gestation period rules out the possibility of an abortion and the metamorphosis begins. Jessica changes from a sweet, loving mother and wife into a raging, demonic beast, nothing stop it now! Dimitri (Richard Johnson), Jessica’s first love, suddenly reappears from her past and offers to help. Where has he come from? How does he know so much about what is happening, and what does he really want?
Beyond the Door: Embryo is set
30 years after the events of the original and will see Mills reprise her role as Jessica Barrett. Her daughter — one of the twins born in the first movie — finds herself pregnant and fears, like her mother, that the true father might actually be the devil.
Assonitis has written the screenplay for the sequel and will be producing it, with the hope being that Embryo will go into production sometime next year.
The Beyond the Door follow-up is just one of several projects Assonitis currently has in the works. Others include a young adult romance, a Western, a biopic about conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker, and a drama about George Floyd. Quite a line-up for a filmmaker on the edge of turning 80.
Assonitis is set to be honored at the Oldenburg International Film Festival later this month. The festival will be hosting a retrospective of his career in the entertainment business, which includes directing the films Tentacles, The Visitor, and Madhouse (1981). He also gave James Cameron the chance to direct his first feature when he hired him to take the helm of Piranha II: The Spawning. He later fired Cameron and took control of Piranha II himself. For a brief period of time, Assonitis was also chairman of the legendary studio Cannon Pictures.