“Beyond The Darkness” (1979)

Studio:
Starring: Kieran Canter, Cinzia Monreale, Franca Stoppi
Directed by: Joe D’Amato
Rated: Unrated
Running Time: 91 min.

Synopsis: A man digs up his recently dead girlfriend and props her up in his castle while him and his demented servant kill and eat some of their victims.

REVIEW

Chris Woods

This film directed by Joe D’Amato, mixes murder, grave robbing, cannibalism, taxidermy, adult breastfeeding, and a tease at necrophilia. A film that doesn’t deliver on story and characters, but makes up for it a bit with those shocking elements. The movie starts off with Frank, who is a taxidermist, who lives in a huge castle in the Italian countryside. He and his so-called servant, Iris, are the only ones who live there. Iris is with an old woman who gives her a voodoo doll and she starts to stab it. Meanwhile, a woman, Anna, is in a hospital dying from something or other, starts to get worse all of a sudden. Anna happens to be Frank’s finance and when he gets wind of her about to die he rushes to the hospital, but he’s too late.

After the death of Anna, Frank sits he his old dead parents room when Iris enters to comfort him. I’m still not sure if Iris is just a servant or some sort of relative. Anyway, she ends up letting Frank feed off her breast, a bizarre scene. On the day of Anna’s funeral, Frank injects something into her body. Unaware to Frank, an older man who works there witnesses this act. Later on in the film the older man spies on Frank and tries to figure out what he’s up to. That night, Frank sneaks back into the cemetery and digs up Anna’s body then sticks it in his van and takes off. While driving back to his home he gets a flat tire and while he changes it a girl who is hitchhiking jumps in his van. He is reluctant to give her ride when she doesn’t want to leave. The girl just ends up falling asleep from all the pot she’s been smoking. Little does she know that there’s a corpse in the backseat. Frank returns to his home and leaves the girl sleeping in his van while he attends to Anna. He starts to dissect her like he does with all his animals. He vows that now they’ll be together forever. The hitchhiker finally wakes up and stumbles upon Frank cutting open his dead girlfriend. He takes care of her by cutting off the tips of her fingers and then suffocating her. Iris helps him dispose of the body by chopping off her limbs and throwing them in a bath of acid. The rest of the scraps are buried and some are put in a stew that Iris gladly eats but Frank is disgusted by it and throws up.

There are plenty of bizarre moments in the film. Frank keeps the dead body of Anna in his bedroom and invites a jogger he meets down the road to his house when she sprains her ankle. The two end up making out on his bed next to the covered corpse of his finance. As he kisses the woman, he takes sheet off for he can look at Anna while he attempts to have sex with the woman. The jogger sees the body and screams in terror. Then Frank bites into her throat and takes a huge chunk out of it. There’s also great atmosphere to the film. The castle is an interesting setting but it’s not as creepy as others but is still cool looking. There’s a great soundtrack from horror favorites, Goblin. Only thing lacking is story and character development. Not a lot is explained about the two of them. Just that Frank inherited the place from his parents. Other than that Frank and Iris fight with each other because Iris is jealous of his dead girlfriend. Like a good little servant, Iris covers up his tracks and is probably more twisted than he is. The film is still worth a look and has a pretty good climax at the end.