Beyond the Darkness

Ahh...Joe D'Amato! In all my years of watching those so called video nasties I never did appreciate the greatness that this man truly had to offer and now Italian Shock smack us in the face with not one but two great D'Amato releases! Hot on the heels of their lovely 'Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals' release (check out our review), we now get the opportunity to see one of his greatest movies on DVD...

'Beyond the Darkness' (aka 'Buio Omega') is the simple tale of a slightly disturbed young man and his love for the dead. In particular, his late girlfriend who dies mysteriously (albeit with some minor interference of the voodoo nature by his lovelorn housekeeper/mistress), but death is not something that this young man will let come in the way of his undying love. You see, he has an ominous interest in taxidermy and spends his spare time stuffing the corpses of local wildlife which enables him with the knowledge and tools to do the preservation business with his late loves body. So after stealing her fresh corpse from the graveside he stuffs the poor girl and keeps her in bed beside him so their love can go on! Although slightly jealous, his mistress/housekeeper blindly accepts the situation - well this lady isn't the full shilling either as we soon discover when she gleefully offers him her breast for feeding and later casually masturbates him whilst he gazes on at his dead love. Matters get slightly more complicated though as the young master gets a taste for despatching young woman in true grand guignol style and his poor mistress starts to get deluded when she starts making wedding arrangements for her and her young charge!

'Beyond the Darkness' is a stunning film and most likely one of D'Amato's best. It has all the ingredients that make this the sort of dark brooding film that most horror fans should thoroughly enjoy. There is the solemn sense of acceptable insanity mixed with lashings of shocking violence and gore. Add to this a subtle thumping Goblin theme throughout (which is both simple and repetitive but highly effective) and you have an all round impressive terror experience. D'Amato's direction is by no means visually stunning (well that never was his bag) but is solid enough with steady pacing to keep you engrossed. Our two insane leads deliver their performances with great aplomb and impressed me no end purely with their ability to keep such a sombre look throughout all the mayhem that ensues. They do not make films like this anymore (and Hollywood never will now) which is a great shame, with the only films to come near this would be Buttgeriet's acclaimed 'Nekromantik' series or touch and go one offs like the rarely seen 'Love Me Deadly'.

Whilst there is a lot of horrific pleasure to be had from the films script, acting, soundtrack et al - it will inevitably be the showstopping gore scenes that many will latch onto and boy are the gore scenes visually great. Enhanced by the core theme around them, the gory moments are the stuff of legend and remind us that for all the Saviniesque material that passes through the BBFC (film censors, yes censors and not classifiers as they like to kid on) there's still some movies that they would have a real problem with...and 'Beyond the Darkness' is definitely one!

The disc from Italian Shock is a simple but solid affair also. The film print itself is a real surprise - mastered direct from the original 35mm print the film has never looked so good. The detail, colour and strength of the image is very impressive throughout and while the audio is relatively free from any defect, the verbal audio is slightly low and you'll find you need to crank up the volume a bit to pick out the dialogue. There's not much in the way of extras but the usual expected selection are indeed on offer with a great extended theatrical trailer for the film (which is spoiler ridden so beware!), a nice stills gallery, bios and a scrolling liner notes section (which was a nice change!)

One of the best retro viewings I've had so far this year and a simple but stunning release from the good folk at Italian Shock. Relive the golden days of gore - an essential purchase, buy it now!

Review by Alan Simpson