Beyond the Darkness

Using voodoo housekeeper Iris (Franca Stoppi) causes her employer Frank's (Kieran Canter's) girlfriend Anna (Cinzea Monreale) to fall deathly ill. Iris hopes that Frank will abandon Anna for her.

Frank, however, is hopelessly in love with Anna and pledges that her death will not separate them. He disinters Anna's body and, after inadvertantly picking up a hitch-hiker, sets to work preserving her cadaver. Understandably the hitch-hiker is alarmed when she wakes up to find Frank at work and he is forced to kill her.

With Iris's assistance Frank disposes of the hitch-hiker's body. Iris still wants Frank for herself and cannot accept his continuing relationship – as far as it can be termed such – with Anna…

Cinematographer turned director Aristide Mascessi, AKA Joe D'Amato, was never one to let taste get in the way of box office. He knew there was a market for material like Beyond the Darkness and met it.

The film, also known as Buio Omega has acquired a reputation as both his most accomplished and most repellent. When one considers that his seemingly endless filmography also includes 'delights' like Emmanuel in America, complete with convincing snuff footage and a horse masturbation scene, and Anthropophagous, in which the titular monster rips the foetus out of a pregant woman and eats it, the latter might be considered an achievement of sorts.

Yet, to be honest, I'd far rather watch Beyond the Darkness than Hannibal. There's no intellectual bullshit here, simply a determination to go as far as possible to give the jaded gorehound something to remember.

If you're looking for a dose of seriously messed up Eurotrash, Beyond the Darkness will deliver the goods. If you're not, don't even think about this film.

Shriek Show have lavished care on this Region One NTSC DVD, which comes in a reversible cover giving a choice of sleeve designs.

The menus are presented in English and Italian. Select an option and you get the Italian text, deselect it and you get the English. Very educational.

The film itself looks remarkably good, considering its age and obvious low budget and is presented in anamorphic widescreen. Sound wise, the dialogue feels flat and muffled, with Goblin's atmospheric piano and synth based score faring better.

For the extras Shriek Show have scored interviews with Cinzea Monreale, stil looking hot after all these years and somehow capable of discussing the film and her role in it with a more-or-less straight face, and art director Donatello Donati.

A trailer gallery for the film, Solange, Seven Blood Stained Orchids and the nonsensically titled House of the Park on the Edge and a stills and poster gallery, which advances automatically to the strains of Goblin's score, round off the package nicely.

Joe D'Amato page.