Confession: I
sometime own movies that I haven't seen. This is usually a result of
buying something on sale, buying a rare film, or just plain
forgetfulness.
I believe I got "Beyond The Darkness" as part of a Shriek Show set of
five films (for a bargain price) and I never really watched the whole
thing.
I recently saw the Bluray Edition of "Beyond The Darkness" and
remembered that I have the original DVD release... so I recently put on
the movie again.
It's not masterpiece theater, but the movie offers plenty of gore and
nudity, typical of Italian horror cinema of the time in the late 70s.
The film was directed by Joe D'Amato, who is well known to rip off other
film genre of the period, including directing knockoff films of Django
and Emmanuelle and Night of the Living Dead (he made "Erotic Nights of
the Living Dead" which experts hardcore pornography into his zombie
film).
"Beyond The Darkness" is fairly original. It might have been inspired
by "Pyscho", but the twist is that the son's mother is alive and it's
his former girlfriend that's dead. He murders two girls (three if you
count the last 'disco' girl by the hands of his mother) to keep his
secret. The bumbling detectives on the case is laughable at best, and
you wonder why the cops were even introduced in the film.
Anyway, it's a pretty gorey movie, not recommend at dinner time. Will I
buy the Bluray Edition? Probably not, I think the DVD version I have
looks fine.