Beyond the Walls (TV series) explained

Native Name:
Genre:	Horror
Creator:	Marc Herpoux, Hervé Hadmar.
Director:	Hervé Hadmar.
Composer:	Eric Demarsan
Country:	France, Belgium.
Num Episodes:	3

Beyond the Walls (French: Au-delà des Murs) is a miniseries about a haunted house made for French television in 2016.

Plot

A lonely young woman, Lisa, moves into an apartment opposite an empty house. Soon afterwards, police discover the body of a man which has been sitting in an armchair inside the empty house for 30 years. Although Lisa does not know the dead man, he left her the house in his will. She moves in. At night she hears anguished cries from behind the walls. Investigating further, she becomes trapped in an eerie realm of hallways, rooms, forests and monsters. She meets a young man, Julien, who has been wandering this realm for years, and together they attempt to escape.^[1]

Episodes

• Episode 1: Lisa, a speech therapist living a solitary life, unexpectedly inherits an old house across the road from her apartment. She moves in. Intrigued by cries at night from behind the wallpaper, she smashes through brickwork to investigate. Trapped in a haunted maze of rooms, she flees a strange figure with a boar's head and is rescued by Julien. (43:59 long)^{[2] [3]}
• Episode 2: Lisa sees a little girl. Believing it to be her dead sister, Sophie, she tries to follow. Julien says the exit lies behind a red door. (44:15 long)^[4]
• Episode 3: Lisa encounters a mysterious old woman named Rose, struggles to save her sister, and then attempts to rescue Julien. (52:21 long)^[5]

Cast

• Veerle Baetens - Lisa.
• Geraldine Chaplin - Rose.
• François Deblock - Julien.
• Lila-Rose Gilberti - Sophie.

Broadcast

• Australia: broadcast on SBS Viceland in October 2016, rated PG.
• France and Germany: broadcast on Arte in September 2016.^[6]
• United States: streamed on Shudder in October 2016.^{[7] [8]}

Viewed in succession, the episodes are about the length of a feature movie, and so have also been screened at film festivals.^[9]

Reception

The A.V. Club described the miniseries as captivating and sophisticated, with gorgeous set design.^[10] Starburst gave it 9 out of 10 stars, saying it had incredible cinematography.^[11]

American Cinematheque said it was a mesmerizing thriller and an innovative take on the haunted house genre. The Sydney Morning Herald said it had beautiful production design, taut pacing, and was a sophisticated take on the haunted house genre.^[12]

External links

• IMDB
• Rotten Tomatoes
• Allocine

Notes and References

1. Web site: Beyond the Walls, Season 1, Episode 1 . SBS On Demand . Special Broadcasting Service . 12 December 2016.
2. Web site: Beyond the Walls (Au-delà des Murs) . Anderson . Jonathan . Starburst . Starburst Magazine Limited . 13 December 2016.
3. Web site: Beyond the Walls, Season 1, Episode 1 . SBS On Demand . Special Broadcasting Service . 13 December 2016.
4. Web site: Beyond the Walls, Season 1, Episode 2 . SBS On Demand . Special Broadcasting Service . 13 December 2016.
5. Web site: Beyond the Walls, Season 1, Episode 3 . SBS On Demand . Special Broadcasting Service . 12 December 2016.
6. Web site: Au-delà des Murs: La série . Arte . ARTE G.E.I.E. . 13 December 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161219094033/http://sites.arte.tv/audeladesmurs/fr . 19 December 2016 . dead .
7. Web site: A woman inherits a mysterious house in Shudder show Beyond the Walls — exclusive trailer . Collis . Clark . 17 October 2016 . Entertainment Weekly . 12 December 2016.
8. Web site: AMC's Horror Streaming Service Shudder Acquires First Exclusive Series . Roettgers . Janko . 24 August 2016 . Variety . Penske Media Corporation . 13 December 2016.
9. Web site: Beyond Fest 2016, Free Screening!: Beyond the Walls . 3 October 2016 . American Cinematheque . 13 December 2016 . This mesmerizing French thriller mini-series takes everything you know about the haunted house genre and turns it on its head, from grand set pieces to cults that exist only in the imagination. Lisa (Veerle Baetens) is a young speech therapist who moves into a townhouse she has inherited; there she discovers hallways and rooms that suddenly appear then disappear. The ever-shifting house is manipulating other occupants, too, interweaving space-time continuums that lead Lisa on a journey into the deepest recesses of her psyche..
10. Web site: Beyond The Walls is engrossing fantasy horror for adults . McCown-Levy . Alex . 20 October 2016 . The A.V. Club . The Onion/Univision Communications . 13 December 2016 . The miniseries is a superlative example of open-ended and imaginative storytelling that nonetheless moves at an efficient and captivating pace, somehow managing to feel both fleet and exploratory at once ... Beyond The Walls is the rare example of full-fledged television fantasy that wows its audience purely on the merits of smart, sophisticated storytelling. With hardly a naked form or intimate encounter in sight (the fleeting instances of both are so tame as to be incidental), the new three-part miniseries delves into the world of the supernatural with inventive flair and sharp-edged narrative ... The set design and production are as much the star of this limited series as Baetens; even when there's no one in sight, the show is gorgeous..
11. Web site: Beyond the Walls (Au-delà des Murs) . Anderson . Jonathan . Starburst . 13 December 2016 . The cinematography is incredible, despite the fact the sets seem relatively simple and not a lot happens in several scenes. Its success is how it completely captures the imagination, taking you back to a time when, as a child, you read that book or watched that film that first truly scared and engaged you..
12. Web site: Monday's TV: French drama Beyond the Walls is an unnerving horror of the mind . Northover . Kylie . 27 October 2016 . The Sydney Morning Herald . Fairfax Media . 13 December 2016.