Beyond the Door III

A group of American students sets out from Los Angeles to Yugoslavia to meet Professor Andromolek and bear witness to a sacred pagan ritual performed only once every hundred years. They sense the gravity of the expedition and the otherworldly expectations surrounding the ceremony. The journey marks the first step into a dark sequence of events that will change them all.

Back in Los Angeles, Beverly's mother is killed when a construction beam beheads her as she drives away from the airport after dropping Beverly off. A telegram meant to inform Beverly of the tragedy is intercepted and destroyed by Professor Andromolek. This cruel interference hints at the professor's influence over events to come.

The students are ferried by boat to a remote Yugoslav village to bear witness to the sacred pagan ritual performed every hundred years. Villagers seal ramshackle rooms, mark them with blood, and set them on fire, trapping them inside. The students escape the fiendish setup, choosing to flee toward safety by train.

The group boards a passenger train in a bid to escape the village. As they ride, two students fall from the train and are left behind, their fates already sealed by the train's dark energy. The surviving members press on toward an unknown end.

The train becomes a possessed entity, turning the railway into a killing field. The driver is decapitated by the cowcatcher, the fireman is dragged into the firebox and burned, and the conductor is crushed when the engine disconnects and lurches. The surviving students begin to realize they are racing toward a fate worse than death.

The two students who fell from the train are eventually run over by the oncoming locomotive in a swamp, yet the train itself continues along its tracks without pause. The unstoppable entity seems to exist outside normal physics as it devours its survivors. The ride toward a dark destiny continues unabated.

Yugoslav rail authorities make only feeble attempts to stop the runaway train, and their efforts prove ineffective. The train collides with a stationary train, causing an explosion, but the possessed engine remains unscathed and resumes its deadly voyage toward the altar. The supernatural force seems invincible.

The train arrives at a profane altar where Beverly has been marked since birth for eternity as Satan's bride. The ritual of the century culminates, seemingly sealing her fate within the demonic prophecy. The tension peaks as the ceremony draws near conclusion.

On the train, Beverly sleeps with Marius, an 11th-century monk who rides with them, making her temporarily unfit as Satan's bride. Marius is long dead, but he returns to Beverly with a book her mother had given her. The moment hints at forces that manipulate fate and memory.

After two or three days, Beverly returns alone to America, feeling homesick and unsettled by the strange expedition. The trip seems to have changed her in ways she cannot fully articulate. The sense of displacement lingers as she leaves the foreign land behind.

While the plane cuts through a raging storm, Satan's arm crashes through the window beside Beverly and tries to drag her from the aircraft. A flight attendant intervenes, startling everyone and interrupting the attempted abduction. Beverly awakens from her dream and voices a longing to go home.

A flight attendant wakes the shaken Beverly, suggesting that the horrors may have been only a nightmare. The scene closes with Beverly's quiet wish to return home, leaving the fate of the other travelers unresolved. The dream ends as she longs to escape the memories of the strange voyage.