05/06/2026
Sage Stallone would be 50 now. Been seeing a lot on line about him the past few days and even though I’ve probably said these words numerous times in print or on socials I’m saying it again. Sage was one of my heroes. If you really know me you must know how obsessed I was with The Beyond growing up… that Lucio Fulci fandom and all the stuff I was doing in the 90’s got me on Sage’s radar and we became friends. I’ll never forget the day he called me to let me know he was traveling to Italy with his dad to make the film Daylight and he was going to try to get the rights to The Beyond in his spare time. A few years later he invited me to a private screening in LA. It was the first time Sage and Bob Murawski screened their new struck 35mm print of The Beyond. It was in a small private screening room in a mini exclusive theater hidden above the old Planet Hollywood restaurant in Beverly Hills. We had waiters serving us all the food and booze we could pour down our throats. The evening started off with an old 35mm print of Zombie just to wet our pallets and then The Beyond. I saw the face of GOD that night people. It was an entirely new experience. Up until this moment the majority of fans had only experienced The Beyond from 5th generation VHS bootlegs or the cut 7 Doors Of Death release. To only know the film from these inferior versions on our 19 inch tube TV’s to BLAM a jaw dropping gorgeous new 35mm print right in front of me, front row seat. I literally had tears in my eyes. I saw things I had never seen before, it was like watching it for the first time. One of the best days of my life. Folks these days that watch The Beyond on their cellphones and stream it on their 65 inch flatscreens have no idea what the struggle was like or how much we owe Sage. I will never forget. -Shawn Lewis
