I will update this page with the latest comments, which can be entered on the form page. Please use the form for all EMail, as I am tightening my SPAM controls to only accept EMails in my address book. Thanx.
Here is some great advice from the undisputed champ of B movies, JoeBob Briggs:
The best way to find a copy of something like that is, first, the Library of Congress, and, second, the Museum of Television and Radio in New York, which has the largest archives of works that aired originally on TV.
Later gator,
Joe Bob
www.joebobbriggs.com
6/14/2007A little more trivia for you - The name of the island where the Mud Monster episode was filmed is Hill Island and it in indeed near Gananoque. This island is split in two by the border between Canada and the US - The Thousand Islands bridge goes over it. On the US side it's called Wellesley Island. My friend watched this movie specifically because it was filmed in the Thousand Islands Map
1/27/2007I am in the process of migrating my site to several other sites. I have a site for The World Beyond aka The Mud Monster. It is under construction but it contains some shots of the film. My plan is to move everything from here to there and make my copy of the film available for dowload as a .ISO. This will alow those with DVD burners to have copies. I am slow at these things so please bear with me. Thanx
4/5/2004 I can't believe that after all these years I ran across a photo image of the TV guide listing for the two movies I remember as being the most horrific I had ever seen (well, at that age, they were pretty horrific!). It's funny that so many remember these movies, people I've talked with, people who visit here. These movies had impact, by whatever chance, and need to be shown again. I remember the mud monster, and the salt hurting it, and how they tripped it into the water to kill it. I remember the next movie being the giant turtle and the woman named Jenny, who was actually a woman turned into a sea monster created by the devil. They were shown back to back, and I remember curling up with my blanket in a darkened room with all the doors locked (yes, I KNOW they were locked because I locked them), and watching as the mud monster terrorized the hapless victims. I wish they would show these two movies again, back to back, just as they did before. That would be totally awesome.
9/14/2004 Here are some great pics provided by Stephen Banes. Thank you Stephen
Note: If you wrote this please send me your email address!
Thank God!!!!!!! I am not crazy. Although most of my friends and anybody else that I have ever spoken to about this movie, think that I am. I can not begin to tell you how relieved I am to know that "THE WORLD BEYOND" actually existed. For years I was able to remember all the details about the movie. The mud, the salt, he was a sports writer who almost died, he was able to communicate with the dead... I started my search last week after I saw an actor playing the part of "Todd Phillips" on an episode of Mike Hammer (More that Murder). For years I thought that the actor playing "Phillips" on this episode was the actor who played the lead in "THE WORLD BEYOND". I searched the net for the show and the cast listing. I found the name Sam Groom listed but I had no luck with that name. None of the movies listed to his credit sounded like anything this movie was about. After giving up for the rest of the week, I finally got smart and searched for "Mud Monster M! ovie" and found this sight. Now I know that I was wrong about the acotr but who cares. Now I know that I am sane and that my friends and all the people that I have ever mentioned this to, have all missed out on one great movie. It's a shame that there is a legal battle keeping it off the air again. I would like to see it at least one more time before the end of my time here on Earth. God willing that will be a long, long, long time from now. Thank God for the internet and its abilities to find even the most odd ball subjects and searches. A big thank you to all of you who have written in to this sight and vindicated me. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1/15/2004
FINALLY!!! I watched this movie 25 years ago when I was 10 years old and it has haunted me ever since. Is there any new info on getting this played on SciFi? Thanks for posting this site. I will have to add it to my favorites for updates.
Here are some specifics I remember:
1.) The creature could regenerate by laying on the ground and absorbing the soil. 2.) The hand gets cut-off by being closed in a door and somehow ends up thrown down into the basement/cellar.
3.) Someone ends up going into the cellar to get something and is tripped by the hand grabbing at them. There is a struggle and a shelf is knocked over. A bag/jar of salt falls on the hand igniting it in flames. At that exact moment, the creature screams in agony because its hand is on fire.
4.) The characters then realize that salt will destroy the creature and the decide to use one of themselves as bait to cause the creature to chase them.
5.) They tie a rope between two trees and as the creature is chasing one of them, they trip the creature into the salt-water, destroying it.
11/2/2003
25 years ago, a then-13-year-old me sat down to watch TV. I didn't know
what was coming on, but I was told by my folks that it was "some kind of scary
movie." Good enough for me. I had no idea that what I was about to see was
going to be one of the best TV movies I ever saw, and a storyline that has stuck
in my brain all these years. I remember an exceptional amount about the film even
now. (Not bad, considering that even after just viewing it, I didn't know the title!)
Searching various books and, now, internet sources, I finally tracked down the fact
that this was THE WORLD BEYOND. (Sign me up for any petition to get this re-aired!)
I have yet to see the original WORLD OF DARKNESS, which was the true pilot episode
for this proposed series, and apparantly had to do with vampires. Anyway, here's
some of the stuff I picked up along the way to this site: '77 saw The World of Darkness,
about sportswriter Paul Taylor (Granville Van Dusen) who has a near-death experien!
ce while on the operating table. He can now hear voices of the recently deceased,
who send him to help people facing supernatural danger. A year later a second pilot,
The World Beyond, featured Van Dusen again as the sportswriter. The plot concerned
a golem, a creature of clay and mud, running amuck (pun intended) on a Canadian
island. Fred Karlin wrote the score for The World Beyond.
5/8/2003
Just some recollections to add to the webpage: Me and a lifelong friend watched the original airing of this program. We could barely hang on throughout the program we were so terrified! My buddy's father snuck up behind us and scared the hell out of us. Needless to say, that night we poured lines of salt around our beds, windows and door frames, and slept with baggies (no ziplocks then) of salt. Of course we didn't sleep a wink, but at least the Mud Monster didn't get us. To this day my friend's child still ask to be told the story of the night his daddy saw the Mud Monster!
4/12/2003
This is one of the first things my father recorded with his then new Betamax. Recently, for his birthday, my mother had it transfered to VHS. The quality isn't too bad (considering the age of the original tape and the fact that it was recorded over the air from a not so great signal). They just sent me a copy for my birthday a few days ago. It was really great to see it again after all these years. Even the commercials are fun to watch with adds for Leggs and the new '78 Fords. It was indeed called "The World Beyond" with the subtitle "Episode: Monster". Aside from JoBeth Williams as Marian Faber it also starred Bernard Hughes as the boat captain and Granville Van Dusen as our hero. Good spooky flick.
2/27/2003
I remember the movie well because I wrote about it in my diary. It aired on CBS, Friday January 27, 1978. I was 11 years old and it scared the hell out of me. I have been searching for information for years with no luck, then my husband finally found this sight for me. As there seems to be no copy to be had, I continued my research and I contacted CBS who informed me that Colombia pictures in Colver City, CA. own the rights to the film, The World Beyond AKA World of Darkness. I called Colombia pictures and I was told that there must be some sort of legal issues over the music or something else and that is why the film cannot be released on video or dvd and although the director has his own copy, he cannot legally supply anyone else with a copy. However, I asked if a station such as Scifi could air the film and she said probably if they requested to do so. I then e-mailed the scifi program department (program@www.scifi.com)which "cannot provide individual responses." So I called and left a message with a gentleman at the Scifi station about our dilema and put in my request for the airing of the film or any other helpful information - but unless they can come through for us it looks like an unfortunate and diappointing dead end for us thriller seekers. Maybe if more of you contacted Scifi with a request they would notice the demand. I'll keep in touch as I hope anyone else with new information will too.
I just received an E-mail back from Noel Black and he also suggested that we flood the Sci-Fi channel (station manager and programming manager) with requests to re-run the episode. He said he would also try to contact them about televising it as well. He also mentioned there were two different movie versions one with the mud monster and severed hand, the other without, so we need to specify the mud monster version.
K Scheffey razmatzjo@wmconnect.com
1/2/2003
I have been in contact with Noel Black himself about this film. He as told me about how he used different hands for the "hand" scene. He recomeneded contacting CBS to get info on how to get this film. I am having no luck reaching them. Can anyone help?
copied from my email with Noel Black (i asked if there was notes about the movie somewhere to read)
There's no memoir. The producers relied on this inventor to create this mechanical hand and his
efforts didn't work. So we created 12 different hand concepts - each one using a different technique. For instance - when the severed hand landed on the floor - that was a rubber mud hand that was simply tossed on the floor. We then cut a hole in the floor and had a guy underneath the floorboards stick his own mud covered hand up and lay flat. On cue - he moved his hand - and the effect was that the hand had a life of it's own. That will give you an idea of how we did the effects with the various hands.
Noel Black"
Mike McGill kacrack_2001@yahoo.com
MudMan/Monster movie solved! After a lot of research by a lot of avid detectives, we've concluded that we're all remembering the same movie about a Mud Man/Monster and a hand that gets chopped off in a cabin door. It was a Canadian-produced 1978 tv pilot for cbs called "The World Beyond," directed by Noel Black and one of the stars was JoBeth Williams. Although currently unavailable on video/dvd, a few of us have requests in to the director Mr. Black, and are exploring other avenues for getting a knocked-off copy of this one-hour movie.
Any further help or information would be welcomed. Also, if any individuals would like to be included should we procure a copy, let me know. smeltfisher@hotmail.com
More Info: I do know it was filmed in and near Gananoque, Ontario in Canada (small town of 5000 on the St. Lawrence River about halfway between Montreal and Toronto). It was quite
a big deal there when this occurred. Several people from town had bit parts near the opening. Most of it took place in the cabin and woods, on an island near town. We all watched TV the night it aired, like I said, it was a bit of a big deal around town. Been trying to track it down for a long time. I always remembered it as The Mud Monster.
Mark Grice
My neighbor wants to know if you can tell her the name of a movie that came out in the late 70's (that's when she sawit) about a mud monster. It was set out in the woods there was a cabin and when the monsters arm got chopped off it grew back. Also salt water killed it. It may not of been made out of mud but that's what she thinks it was. Sorry for so few details but she was a kid when she saw it .
Thanks again! Shea
I would also like to know the name of the movie about the mud monster. I was just a kid when i saw it and dont remember much about it. I do remember there was a lake and a cabin and during the movie they cut off its hand when they slamed it in the door. The hand was still alive and moving around the room. At one point the Hand cought on fire but I dont rember why. It had something to do with salt.
More Comments by a visitor:
Your solution for the "MudMan/Monster Movie" mystery sounds like a good one, but I don't see how it can be. I was actually JUST looking for the same movie when I came across this site. I also remember that his parts grew back and that salt killed him. I remembered it having the title "The Mud Monster," but a search on imdb.com turned up nothing.
Here's the problem, I saw it at a drive-in theater with my parents some time in the late seventies or early eighties in Waterville, Maine. I can't see how it could have been a TV only movie in Canada.