A young animal taxidermist loses his girlfriend prematurely. Obsessed and unable to process her grief, after the funeral he goes to the cemetery and exhumes the body of the much-loved young woman, takes her home and, on her body performs the ritual of embalming in order to be able to halt in time the decay that, inevitably, decomposition would exert on the corpse.Later, a buxom hitchhiker seeking adventure circuits the young man who, aroused, leads her to his home with the intention of consummating a brief (and insignificant) sexual relationship.
The coitus is performed in the room where, hidden among the blankets, the stuffed corpse is also present--and when the girl accidentally discovers it, she flees in terror.
But by now madness has taken hold of the young man who, in a violent and brutal attack, first pulls the nails off the careless girl, then kills her.
The housekeeper of the house, who is infatuated with the boy, becomes an accomplice and helps him cut the victim's body into pieces, before burning the remains...
When the twin sister of the beloved arrives in the house, the young man's initial dream slowly turns into a long, bloody nightmare for everyone who, in one way or another, will have to deal with the necrophiliac's madness...
The catch phrase that stood out on the publicity posters at the time (certainly apocryphal) is curious: Hitchckock had this to say after seeing Beyond the Darkness: "... just thinking about this film, I get the chills!"
Joe D'Amato, who has proven on several occasions that he is well versed in this genre, makes what will most likely remain etched in the annals of cinema as one of the bleakest, claustrophobic and violent films of Italian cinema. On a par with the best Lucio Fulci.
The presence of Cinzia Monreale (the blind woman from The Afterlife), a good character actress in our cinema, and the music by the Goblins are a hallmark of a kind of film that delivers what it promises from the very first minutes.
And that is a lot of blood, a lot of violence, but also, in the background, a streak of melancholy and sadness.
The film was re-released in theaters in 1987 with the less incisive title (and riding the success of the strand about cursed mansions) as ...In That House - Beyond the Darkness
D'Amato has never hidden the fact that the "high" model for the film (with an identical plot, but very little development on effects) is a B&W film dated 1963, directed by Giacomo Guerrini and starring Franco Nero: The Third Eye.
A rare example of a cinema that has always enjoyed great prominence abroad while in Italy (and it is paradoxical that a very "visceral" type of horror cinema originated here) it is almost unknown.
The ephemeral and temporary success the film enjoyed at the box office gave the director the cue to later make what arguably remains in his testament as Massaccesi's best horror film, Anthropophagus.
Joe D'Amato, who has proven on several occasions that he is well versed in this genre, makes what will most likely remain etched in the annals of cinema as one of the bleakest, claustrophobic and violent films of Italian cinema. On a par with the best Lucio Fulci.The presence of Cinzia Monreale (the blind woman from The Afterlife), a good character actress in our cinema, and the music by the Goblins are a hallmark of a kind of film that delivers what it promises from the very first minutes.
And that is a lot of blood, a lot of violence, but also, in the background, a streak of melancholy and sadness.
The film was re-released in theaters in 1987 with the less incisive title (and riding the success of the strand about cursed mansions) as ...In That House - Beyond the Darkness
D'Amato has never hidden the fact that the "high" model for the film (with an identical plot, but very little development on effects) is a B&W film dated 1963, directed by Giacomo Guerrini and starring Franco Nero: The Third Eye.
A rare example of a cinema that has always enjoyed great prominence abroad while in Italy (and it is paradoxical that a very "visceral" type of horror cinema originated here) it is almost unknown.
The ephemeral and temporary success the film enjoyed at the box office gave the director the cue to later make what arguably remains in his testament as Massaccesi's best horror film, Anthropophagus.
Review by Undying1
