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''Beyond the Darkness'' () is a 1979 Italian
exploitation Exploitation may refer to: *Exploitation of natural resources *Exploitation of Animals *Exploitation of labour **Forced labour *Exploitation colonialism *Slavery **Sexual slavery and other forms *Oppression *Psychological manipulation In arts an ...
horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...
directed by
Joe D'Amato Aristide Massaccesi (15 December 1936 – 23 January 1999), known professionally as Joe D'Amato, was an Italian film director, producer, cinematographer, and screenwriter who worked in many genres (western (genre), westerns, ''Commedia sexy all' ...
. It follows Francesco Koch (Kieran Canter), an orphaned
taxidermist Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body by mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the process ...
who inherits a house in the woods where he lives with his housekeeper Iris (Franca Stoppi), who is determined to become the new owner. After Iris kills his girlfriend Anna (
Cinzia Monreale Cinzia Monreale (born Cinzia Moscone; 22 June 1957) is an Italian actress best known for her roles in the horror classics ''Beyond the Darkness (film), Beyond the Darkness'' and ''The Beyond (1981 film), The Beyond''. Early life Monreale was bo ...
) with a voodoo curse, Francesco steals her corpse from the local cemetery. He then commits murders connected to his enduring passion for her. A local undertaker (Sam Modesto) investigates and meets Teodora (also Monreale), Anna's twin sister. Filmed in two weeks in
South Tyrol South Tyrol ( , ; ; ), officially the Autonomous Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol, is an autonomous administrative division, autonomous provinces of Italy, province in northern Italy. Together with Trentino, South Tyrol forms the autonomo ...
, ''Beyond the Darkness'' is a remake of the 1966 film '' The Third Eye''. It was released in Italy to what Italian film historian Roberto Curti described as relatively poor box office, and was re-released in Italy in 1987 as ''In quella casa Buio omega'' to associate it with the ''La casa'' film series.


Plot

Since his parents died in a car accident nine years before, the affluent Francesco Koch has been living with his
wet nurse A wet nurse is a woman who breastfeeding, breastfeeds and cares for another's child. Wet nurses are employed if the mother dies, if she is unable to nurse the child herself sufficiently or chooses not to do so. Wet-nursed children may be known a ...
and housekeeper Iris in a villa at the outskirts of a South Tyrolian town. Wanting to marry Francesco and become the new lady of the house, Iris hires a witch to curse his fiancée, Anna. When the witch sticks needles into a
voodoo doll A voodoo doll is an effigy that is typically used for the insertion of pins. Such practices are found in various forms in the magic (paranormal), magical traditions of many cultures around the world. Despite its name, the voodoo doll is not prom ...
, Anna falls ill. At a hospital, Anna reveals she wants to make love with Francesco at least once before she dies. As he kisses Anna, her heart stops beating and she dies. At the villa, Francesco mourns his loss. Iris later breastfeeds Francesco, calling him her "little baby boy". At the morgue, Francesco injects Anna's body with preservatives. Unbeknownst to Francesco, the mortician sees him making the injection. The funeral is attended by Francesco, Anna's parents and her twin sister Teodora, who studies at a nearby school. At night, Francesco drives to the cemetery and digs up Anna's body. While Francesco has to change a blown tire on the ride home, a tourist hitchhiker enters the car, and due to the presence of a police car, Francesco is forced to take her with him. After smoking a joint, she falls asleep in the car. At the villa, Francesco unloads Anna's body and starts disemboweling it in his workshop. In the process, he bites into her heart and installs glass eyes into the sockets. After waking up and spotting the corpse, the hitchhiker panics. A struggle ensues, in which she scratches Francesco, who in turn rips off some of her fingernails with
pliers Pliers are a hand tool used to hold objects firmly, possibly developed from tongs used to handle hot metal in Bronze Age Europe. They are also useful for bending and physically compressing a wide range of materials. Generally, pliers consi ...
. He then chokes her to death. Iris and Francesco dress up Anna's body and put her on one side of a double bed. Assisted by Francesco, Iris chops up the hitchhiker's corpse and dissolves the pieces in a bathtub filled with acid, then disposes of the liquid in a hole in the garden. She later eats tripe in a way that reminds Francesco of the dissolved body and makes him vomit. This makes her laugh. Later, as he sits at the bedside looking at Anna's corpse, Iris approaches Francesco and masturbates him. Days later, a jogger twists her ankle near Francesco's home, and he invites her in. They have sex on his bed, until Francesco reveals Anna's corpse right next to them. Another fight ensues. Francesco bites her neck and eats a chunk of her flesh. He and Iris burn her corpse in the furnace downstairs. When Iris threatens to dispose of Anna's body, Francesco gives in and offers to marry her and make her mistress of the house. Iris invites her old relatives to dinner and announces her engagement to Francesco. Yet Francesco leaves her humiliated. The following day, while Iris is drunk and Francesco is out for a jog, the mortician enters the house to investigate, discovers Anna's body, photographs it and leaves. That night, Francesco picks up a woman at a disco but sends her off after seeing Teodora. When alone in a room, darkness falls in and she can hear Anna's voice warning her of a curse on the house. Walking down the stairs, she spots Anna's corpse sitting on a chair in the hall. Iris, who fears Francesco will actually marry Teodora, opens the door holding a knife, forming a silhouette that makes Teodora faint. As Iris is about to stab her, Francesco intervenes. In the ensuing fight, Iris stabs him on his hand and near his groin. He in turn wrestles her to the floor and bites a cheek off. She gouges out his left eye, and he stabs her in the heart, killing her. Francesco listens to Teodora's heartbeat, then carries her downstairs. After incinerating Anna's body, he dresses and makes up Teodora like Anna's corpse. When the mortician returns, he finds Iris' corpse and Francesco badly injured near the furnace burning with human remains. As Francesco collapses and dies, the mortician takes Teodora, whom he thinks to be Anna's corpse, returns to the cemetery and places her in a coffin for burial. While he and his assistant are about to nail down the lid, Teodora pushes the coffin open and lets out a scream.


Cast


Production

''Beyond the Darkness'' was a remake of the 1966 film '' The Third Eye'', which had
Franco Nero Francesco Clemente Giuseppe Sparanero (born 23 November 1941), known professionally as Franco Nero, is an Italian actor. His breakthrough role was as the title character in the Spaghetti Western film '' Django'' (1966), which made him a pop cul ...
as its protagonist. Its director
Mino Guerrini Mino Guerrini (16 December 1927 – 10 January 1990) was an Italian director, screenwriter, journalist, actor, and painter. Biography Born in Rome as Giacomo Guerrini, Guerrini entered the cinema industry in 1954 as screenwriter in Marcello Pagl ...
was friends with D'Amato, and they had devised a number of unfilmed stories together. For the new screenplay, Ottavio Fabbri is credited. The film was shot in two weeks in
South Tyrol South Tyrol ( , ; ; ), officially the Autonomous Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol, is an autonomous administrative division, autonomous provinces of Italy, province in northern Italy. Together with Trentino, South Tyrol forms the autonomo ...
province, in the towns of
Brixen Brixen (; , ; or , ) is a town and communes of Italy, commune in South Tyrol, northern Italy, located about north of Bolzano. Geography Brixen is the third-largest city and oldest town in the province, with a population of nearly twenty-three t ...
and
Sand in Taufers Sand in Taufers (; ) is a ''comune mercato'' (market town) in South Tyrol in northern Italy. Geography Located about northeast of Bolzano, the town centre is situated in the Tauferer Ahrntal (Taufers) valley of the Ahr river, stretching from ...
, in late June and early July 1979. On working with D'Amato, actress Franca Stoppi recalled him saying on set that "We're making a movie to make people throw up. We must make 'em vomit!" D'Amato said in an interview "I personally opted for the most unrestrained gore, since I don't consider myself very skillful at creating suspense....It's my most successful horror movie, and still stands out today above many others of its kind. It did very well commercially." The special effects for the gore scenes in the film were made by using animal intestines, pig skin and a sheep's heart which were provided by an abattoir. D'Amato said "In all four (of my) horror films....we created the splatter effects by using butcher's scraps. There was no real special effects expert....At that time, censorship was fairly mild". D'Amato said the Italian prints were edited a bit, mainly shortening "the embalming scene and the one of the girl who gets cut to pieces in the bath...." The film's score was by
Goblin A goblin is a small, grotesque, monster, monstrous humanoid creature that appears in the folklore of multiple European cultures. First attested in stories from the Middle Ages, they are ascribed conflicting abilities, temperaments, and appearan ...
, who were hired by producer Marco Rossetti, and included music that would later be re-used in ''
The Other Hell ''The Other Hell'' () is a 1981 Italian horror film written and directed by Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso and starring Franca Stoppi and Carlo De Mejo. Plot Sister Cristina is lost in the catacombs under the convent while searching for Sist ...
'' and ''
Hell of the Living Dead ''Hell of the Living Dead'' () is a 1980 horror film directed by Bruno Mattei. The film is set in a laboratory in Papua New Guinea that releases a dangerous chemical, turning the technicians and locals into zombies. A French news reporter ( Margi ...
''.


Release

''Beyond the Darkness'' was distributed theatrically in Italy by Eurocopfilms on 15 November 1979. The film grossed a total of 153.7 million
Italian lire The lira ( , ; : lire, , ) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually fo ...
domestically. Italian film historian Roberto Curti stated that ''Beyond the Darkness'' performed "rather poorly at the Italian box office". The film has been released in a myriad of titles abroad, the most well-known being ''Beyond the Darkness''. A version of the film was released in the United States titled ''Buried Alive'' in 1985 by
ThrillerVideo ThrillerVideo was a horror home video series that began being released in February 1985 to 1987 by U.S.A. Home Video and International Video Entertainment (I.V.E.). Background Released on VHS and Betamax, many of the "films" released by ''Thrille ...
. This version of the film has anglicized the names of the characters and is missing parts of the Italian theatrical version. In the United States, the film had a theatrical release under the title ''Buried Alive'' through Aquarius Releasing in 1984. In Italy, the film was re-released in 1987 as ''In quella casa Buio omega'' in an attempt to pass the film off as being related to the American films ''
The Evil Dead ''The Evil Dead'' is a 1981 American independent film, independent supernatural horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi (in his feature directorial debut). The film stars Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker ...
'' and ''
Evil Dead II ''Evil Dead II'' (also known in publicity materials as ''Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn'') is a 1987 American comedy horror film directed by Sam Raimi, who co-wrote it with Scott Spiegel. The second installment in the ''Evil Dead'' film series, i ...
'' which were released in Italy as ''La casa'' and ''La casa 2''. In Spain, the film was marketed as being a sequel in the ''
House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...
'' franchise as ''House 6: El terror continua'' and in Mexico as part of the '' Zombi'' series of film as ''Zombi 10''.


Reception

From retrospective reviews, in his 2001 book reviewing gory horror films from the decade, Scott Aaron Stine declared that ''Beyond the Darkness'' was D'Amato's "strongest contributions to the orrorgenre", while still finding the film to be "cheap Italian trash ..but it approaches the subject with a certain amount of flair not found in similar productions." Danny Shipka, who in 2011 authored a book on exploitation films from Italy, France and Spain commented on the film, referring to it as "one sick puppy" and noting it "doesn't purport to offer any deep insight other than revulsion, and if the test of good Eurocult is to make the viewer wish he had a bath after watching one of its films, than 'sic''''Buio omega'' would be a classic."


Notes


References


Footnotes


Sources

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External links

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''Beyond the Darkness''
at
Variety Distribution Variety Distribution is an Italian-based film distribution company. It distributes Italian films worldwide, produced from the 1930s onward. History Variety Distribution (formerly Variety Film and Variety Communications) has been in the film ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beyond the Darkness 1979 films 1979 horror films 1970s exploitation films 1970s Italian films 1970s Italian-language films Films about cannibalism Films directed by Joe D'Amato Films scored by Goblin (band) Films shot in Italy Italian erotic horror films Italian exploitation films Italian serial killer films Italian splatter films Films about necrophilia Remakes of Italian films