Beyond the Darkness (Buio Omega) 1979/ review by the Director

 

The edge of Darkness:

Frank Wyler is visiting his beloved Anna Volkl in the hospital. She is very sick. As they kiss Anna dies in Franks arms. Tormented Frank is not ready to let Anna go. Now we go onto the darkness aka madness and beyond.

In the Beyond:

To give you a little backstory on Frank. His parents were quite wealthy. Frank has inherited their gorgeous villa, a lot of money, stocks, and investments. He is set for life. Frank has a passion for taxidermy, women, and jogging. He is a good-looking well dressed a stereotypical affluent out of touch with reality playboy. Frank’s home is taken if care of Iris, who clearly has concupiscence for young Frank. It’s clear early on she takes care of Frank beyond her household duties. Doing things for him like letting him nurse from her nipple and jerk him off when he is stressed. Nice of her huh? Frank still treats her like shit. He even slaps her around at one point, not a good thing to do to someone who practices voodoo.

Frank has a plan to keep his beloved Anna a part of his life. He is beyond devoted. You will probably figure out soon enough it involves his taxidermy skills.

Frank is quit the lunatic and will go to any lengths to keep his macabre tactics operating.

This results in several deaths and some truly gruesome dissections. I don’t mind gore but italian film makers use real organs in their special effects and it was difficult to watch while I ate my raisin bran.

Frank’s murders don’t elude police investigation. Iris helps Frank cover his murders up. She obviously enjoys the dastardly deeds they engage in. There is another man investigating Frank and he becomes a problem for Frank and Iris. How all this unfolds you can enjoy for yourself when you go beyond the darkness.

Acting: Frank (Kieran Canter) is very believable in this role. He is the highlight, carries the movie, and has voice over work by Ted Rusoff who works on several Joe D’amato Italian films for the english voice over. Ted does fantastic voice over work. I enjoy listening to him. Iris (Franca Stoppi) is creepy and steals her scenes. Other than them the rest of the cast are supporting and rather thin characters, but they don’t need to be well established for their small roles.

Gore:

This is a gore hound buffet. It’s a good example of video nasty. A reputation the Italian horror films earn quite deservingly. Very, very realistic needle injections, if those are fake I don’t know how they pulled them off. Close up stabs that look very real. Ripped off finer nails with pliers. Chopped up bodies and burned or disintegrated by acid baths which looks awesome.

A disgusting dissection scene you won’t soon for get. Great looking large scalpel incisions. Copious organ gore and it all looks very real, probably actual animal organs.

Nudity: Frank flashes his cock. Iris flashes her boob and four different girls get naked full frontal with large italian bush.

Two of the women are dead with they are striped, not so sexy. But lots of nudity!

Directing:

The setting is gorgeous. The scenes are well shot.

It’s classic Joe D’Amato. Good looking actors. A subtle sensuality about the film and the dread of madness through out. I enjoyed several scenes, the dissections, the grave robbery, the even, yet sort of slow, pace.

The dissections were particularly well shot, well lit, to maximize the great special effects. D’Amato did well keeping as little as possible hidden from the camera.
Classic ‘zoom ins’ for zingers on peoples’ faces for reaction shots. This was popular around this time because zoom technology on film cameras had taken a leap forward and Joe D’Amato loved to use his zoom. Reminds me of Bruce Lee films. If you like Joe D’Amato’s solid work you will see more of it here.

Music: The score is by The Goblins who are great. They have done the music for popular foreign films like Susperia where they really shine. Again the Goblins score in Beyond the Darkness is a great highlight to the movie.

Final Thought:

There is a slight drag in the movie about 60% of the way in. You pretty much know where things are going and you feel a little anxious for this creepshow to finally end. So I can’t give it a perfect score. The film holds up. Great score by the Goblins. It’s still gross and there is lots of nudity and madness.

It’s classic video nasty cinema and I highly recommend getting a copy.

-The Director

5 Dolls for and August Moon (1970) -review from the Director

5 Dolls for and August Moon (1970)

The lowdown

3 ultra rich business men coerce a scientist to sell his formula for an industrial resin. They all can get rich. The good scientist refuses. The group enjoys themselves on an exclusive island which one can only get to by boat.

This is how we millionaires get down. 

Though the professor is trying to relax with his wife its difficult because he is constantly being offered millions of dollars for his formula. Suddenly the yacht is missing along with a small boat. The boat hand shows up dead. The group is stuck on the island.

Now What?

Now people start getting murdered one by one. It’s a thriller who done it. Husbands and wives are dropping like flies. Until only a few remain. The end if full of twists. Including a long innocuous twist that completely makes the entire previous movie seem nonsensical.

Sex:

All the women and most of the Italian men are gorgeous. No nudity but a nip slip and no sex scenes. There is a strong erotism coming off the women, a secret lesbian affair, and numerous affairs among the married couples. Some of the men even pimp their wife out. Some very dysfunctional rich couples on display. This film could have had a smorgasbord of nudity and lesbian soft core. There was none.

Gore:

Just a silly looking stabbing. Terribly fake gunshots. High body count, this butchered cow.

Acting:

I thought all the acting was par. It’s not hard to play angry, conniving rich bastards, and womanizers.

Directing:

For it’s time, 1970, this was great stuff. Mario Bava was highly regarded by the then film world. The zoom lens had been invented around that time and Bava loved close-ups.

Final Thought:

The very sexy girls and the mystery was all this bird had going for it. I’m not big into traditional mysteries so I had no idea who the killer was nor did I see the double cross later. There didn’t even seem to be clues as to who the killer was, certainly no clues to guess the horrendous twist at the end. The movie needed some eroticism desperately. I don’t even get the title, what is that supposed to mean? As a horror movie it’s one I would pass on. If you are a Bava fan then watch it. If you are looking for something like Black Sunday, this is not it. It was an okay way to spend two hours but I wouldn’t recommend it. Though I’m giving it a low rating, I respect Mario Bava’s huge contribution to film.

1.5 stabs out of five.

-The Director