Beyond the Darkness

Beyond the Darkness is a visually modest horror movie that takes place predominantly in broad daylight. Logic and the direction of the plot don't play a major role here, as Joe D’Amato focuses mainly on naturalistic massacres of victims, sexual perversion (old Iris/young Francesco) and elements of necrophilia (dead Anna/living Francesco). The horror scenes are underscored with pop music, while the band Goblin provides the romantic accompaniment for the sex scenes. The film is a remarkable perversion that – with better actors and darker music – could have become one of those films that keep you up at night even after the closing credits have rolled. Still, it’s a highlight of D’Amato’s trash filmography. (04/15/2003)

A young man cannot live without his dead girlfriend, so he decides to dig her up from the grave, take her home and mummify her. This sets off a chain of events that leads to three murders. This film is considered by many to be D'Amato's best work. Yet, or perhaps because of this, I cannot help but be disappointed. I can ignore the stupid dialogue and the awful actors, they aren’t that important in the gore genre. What's worse is that the film has zero atmosphere, the bright, garish colours don't have much of a horror feel and even the music by The Goblins, otherwise so great in Argento's Suspiria, doesn't really fit. The murders themselves are not very sophisticated, they aren’t very “gore”. In this respect, perhaps only the bathroom scene with the butcher's cleaver and the acid will satisfy die-hard gore fans. Ironically, the most impressive scene is the one that doesn’t show a drop of blood, when Amato alternates between shots of the full mouth of the dining housekeeper and the remains of a body dissolved by acid. That moment will make you lose your appetite. (09/22/2003)

I quite like rooting for the main characters sometimes, but here it impossible, there isn’t anyone who’s normal. That wouldn’t be that much of a problem, but the villains are perverted in such a nasty way that it was hard to watch. Some scenes are disgusting, but it’s nothing that would shock me, D’Amato would have to try a little harder for that. In terms of execution and direction, Beyond the Darkness is not bad, what I can certainly reproach, though, is the music, which, besides being terrible, is played where it has nothing to do. As I’ve already said, the film is not bad, I just didn’t like it. (08/18/2008)

For someone who is used to horror films at least a bit, Beyond the Darkness won’t get even close to the shocking and extreme film it apparently meant to be back then. In more recent years, the theme of ‘love beyond the grave’ has been addressed in significantly more convincing pieces, for example both parts of Nekromantik. And if you strip away the perverse theme, all that is left is just another cheap disgusting Italian horror flick which fails to entertain and doesn’t go anywhere in terms of plot. (11/18/2018)

"Beyond the Darkness" is a movie that you may not like because it is not easy to identify with the characters. I like that D'Amato does not play to please the masses, but he strives to really tell what he wanted. And so, even a relatively normal man becomes a madman, although in this case there were certainly some predispositions. Nevertheless, you can see a sick animal in him, which is suffering on its own. For me, definitely at least one thumbs up. (02/07/2014)