Grab your barf bag and get cozy with
Beyond the Darkness, Italian horror master Joe D'Amato's demented slice of Euro-sleaze from 1979!
Frank is a young taxidermist who is heartbroken over the death of his fiancee, Anna. But just because Anna is dead doesn't mean Frank can't have her all to himself. Within hours of her being buried, Frank digs Anna out of the ground and brings her back to his secluded home where he removes all her organs, stuffs her, and uses her as his own personal love toy. With the help of his creepy housekeeper Iris, who was jealous of Frank and Anna's relationship when Anna was still breathing, Frank does away with anybody who discovers the secret he's hiding in his bedroom. A chubby pothead has her fingernails ripped off before being dismembered and thrown into a bathtub full of acid and an unfortunate jogger Frank picks up one afternoon has a chunk of her throat torn out by Frank himself when she discovers there is an uninvited guest in bed with them! Frank and Iris' little castle of horrors is on its way to being exposed however when a nosey investigator begins snooping around the property and Anna's twin sister Elena decides to show up unexpectedly to pay Frank a visit, not realizing she's in for a whole lot of shit!
Starting out weird and becoming more depraved before the film's jolting climax, Joe D'Amato threw in every piece of grotesque imagery he could possibly think of to make
Beyond the Darkness the sick piece of cinema that it is. From the much older Iris allowing Frank to feed from her breasts to the ultra gory and graphic organ removing sequence (which is made all the more goetastic with the use of an actual cadaver and features Frank munching on Anna's blood spurting heart),
Beyond the Darkness is not everyone's cup of blood. The film is actually pretty light on the necrophilia subject matter, playing more like a gory melodrama with a dead girl thrown in for kicks. Another issue is that the film's lack of plot is dragged out to a 96 minute runtime but regardless of its slow pace, each scene that is supposed to shock packs a punch when it finally comes, and the contribution of rock group Goblin to the soundtrack adds a lot to the macabre nature of the film. While some may find it a bit tamed and/or boring
, Beyond the Darkness will appeal to those who like their horror a bit more fucked up and no matter how you feel about film, you'll want to take a shower the second the credits begin to roll!
Shriek Show's new release of
Beyond the Darkness is in a special Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack (though the original single DVD version can still be found online). Not owning a Blu-Ray player, I can only go by what I saw on DVD and the film looks pretty great. Presented in an anamorphic widescreen transfer, Shriek Show presents D'Amato's film looking way better than it should be allowed to! Colors pop, gore looks stunning, and detail is great! Extras on the DVD include an audio interview with art director Donatella Donati, who not only states that he doesn't like the film but that he wasn't even the art director! An on-camera interview with actress Cinzia Monreale, who plays the corpse of Anna and Anna's twin sister in the film, is also included on the DVD. Monreale, who still looks gorgeous, looks back with fondness on her time working on
Beyond the Darkness, discussing what it was like to play a corpse, and briefly mentions her work with Lucio Fulci in his masterpiece
The Beyond. Rounding out the extras is a gallery of production stills and publicity material for the film, as well as the theatrical trailers for
Beyond the Darkness,
The House on the Edge of the Park, Seven Blood-Stained Orchids, and the superb giallo
What Have You Done to Solange? Get this film and show it on a first date!
