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Beyond the Darkness More at IMDbPro »Buio Omega (original title)

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75 reviews in total

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23 out of 27 people found the following review useful:
A perfect movie to vomit!, 14 July 2003

Author: HumanoidOfFlesh from Chyby, Poland

Joe D'Amato's "Beyond the Darkness"/"Buio Omega" is one of the most transgressive horror movies ever made.Regarded as Joe D'Amato's best film "Buio Omega" certainly delivers some of the most disgusting gore ever put on screen(fingernails are ripped off with pliers,a body is dismembered with a butcher knife and its pieces are thrown into a bath of acid etc.)The infamous embalming sequence is truly revolting.Kieran Canter is perfect as a young taxidermist Frank Wyler and Franca Stoppi gives excellent performance as Iris.The film is certainly twisted,so if you're a fan of Italian extreme horror you can't miss this depraved masterpiece.Check it out.9 out of 10.

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21 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
One of the nastiest highlights ever made!, 7 April 2004

Author: Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls

Murder, mayhem and mutilation…shown in all its pride and glory! Buio Omega a.k.a Buried Alive a.k.a Beyond the Darkness is a finger-licking and ultra-gory sleazefest. D'Amato's film certainly is a landmark in the Italian shlock/sick cinema as it contains some of the grossest and explicit nauseating sequences ever shot on film. The young and introvert Frank cannot live without his recently deceased girlfriend Anna, so he digs up her corpse, embalms her and keeps her around his mansion. After this, he descents further into madness and starts to kill girls randomly and his freaky housekeeper Iris assists him. Now, Frank is pretty messed up in the head but Iris is just downright insane!! She makes a hobby out of dismembering dead bodies and she breastfeeds the 22-year-old Frank! The first half hour may seem a little lame and low on bloodshed but, as soon as the gore kicks in, it doesn't stop till the end credits role and it becomes more and more repulsive by the minute! D'Amato servers a disturbingly realistic embalming-process along with some detailed torturing scenes, dissections and gruesome butchering! Of course, like it should in Italian's nastiest, there are a lot of perversely orientated undertones present such as necrophilia, cannibalism and even a variant on the ‘Oedipus'-theme!

Joe d'Amato never was world's most brilliant director. That's okay, since he never claimed to be and he always clearly mentioned his influences. He's more like a businessman with more adult films on his repertoire…The horror films he made are vicious but technically weak, all together! Nonetheless, Buio Omega is an exception! Unlike his other horror films, Buried Alive has tension, a great soundtrack, a constant morbid atmosphere and even a bit of surprisingly good acting! Cinzia Monreale, who plays the dead love-interest Anna, became more famous after starring in Fulci's masterpiece the Beyond and the creepy aunt Iris also starred in a few delightful `babes behind bars' flicks. The circle of fans that likes this kind of films is rather small…but they're very devoted. For them, Buio Omega is a must see!

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15 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
Admirably sleazy Italian "classic", 31 December 2003
Author: fertilecelluloid from Mountains of Madness

D'Amato's adherence to all things vile and sleazy sometimes produces rubbish. In the case of BEYOND THE DARKNESS, he's delivered something great.

The theme is necrophilia and obsession. A man obsesses over his recently deceased girlfriend and beds her in his country house. Sexual intrigue with his maid livens proceedings and a sequence in which a hitchhiker has her fingernails removed is the one to write home about.

I'm not reluctant to say it: I love stuff like this when it's relentless, made without guilt, and moves at a quick clip.

The Goblin soundtrack feels just right and the special make-up effects are more than adequate.

D'Amato achieves a vile, putrid, rotten atmosphere with this gem, and you can't fault the guy for that, can you?

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12 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
The Sick twisted world of Joe D'Amato., 12 June 2005

Author: Mauro Cosentino from Argentina

Aristide Massaccesi a.k.a Joe D'Amato directed Buio Omega in the early 80's. Back in the day when movies weren't accused of being the cause of violence in schools and nonsense like that, filmmakers as D'Amato dared to stretch the limits of what can be seen in a screen. The gory scenes in his movies are not unintentionally funny they look like awful and painful, and D'Amato uses incredibly long shots in these murders shots. That is the main difference between his films and the American production to set an example Underrated as only an exploitation director D'Amato showed he had a trademark mixing gore and sex. He tried to take horror to the extreme without making a parody.

The plot is quite simple, out of this simple story we get a collection of bizarre strong images. The gore is hard as a punch in your nose. This rawness makes Buio Omega unique as one of the most extreme pieces D'Amato made (along Anthropophagus). As we watch the hideous acts of this taxidermist we are surprised because he is not judged using the old trick of put phrases that make him look evil. Buio Omega is almost a silent movie. The moral view is on the viewer not in the filmmaker. But the last act has a common moral resolution that could let the people feel they are living in a just right world. The place you probably will find Buio Omega is an old rack of a dirty old video store, the kind of video that is found only for those treasure-seekers of unseen rare films.

The music of Goblin is adequate for this kind of production; with their intense tunes they make the viewer feel even more uncomfortable. Synthesizers is all what this band needs to create dark ambient.

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6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Repulsive, twisted, perverse...but GREAT!, 24 January 2003

Author: squeezebox from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This perverse, disgusting, but extremely well-made horror movie is considered by some to be the ultimate "spaghetti splatter" flick. If it isn't, there aren't many that surpass it for sheer repulsiveness. It's imagery and tone are still shocking by today's standards. Even AUDITION director Takashi Miike has yet to make a movie this unrelentingly sordid and creepy.

A taxidermist goes quite a bit off the deep end when his girlfriend dies (unbeknownst to him, due to a voodoo spell cast by his jealous housekeeper) and steals her body from the cemetery so he can embalm her and continue their relationship. Anyone unfortunate enough to get in his way (mostly pretty young women) is murdered savagely.

We are given explicit scenes of outrageous gore, including our hero eating his girlfriend's heart, dismembering a body and dropping the parts in a tub full of acid, a young hitch hiker getting her fingernails ripped off with pliers and the now infamous scene involving the disembowelment of the girlfriend's body. For years it was rumored that a real cadaver was used for this scene, but it was eventually proved to be an incredibly impressive special effect.

Though having never become as infamous as his cohorts Lucio Fulci and Ruggero Deodatto, one could argue that director Aristide Massaccesi (credited here under his best-known pseudonym, Joe D'Amato) is the true "godfather of gore" just because of this film alone. You be the judge, just make sure to have your barf bag ready. This is also the only Italian horror movie to actually make me jump from my seat. Massaccesi delivers one of the screen's most effective jolts. I will not disclose what happens. Let's just say my heart was racing for a little while after it!

NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!!!!!!!!!!!!

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Entertaining Euro sleaze, 14 October 2008
Author: slayrrr666 (slayrrr666@yahoo.com) from Los Angeles, Ca

"Beyond the Darkness" is a prime example of European-sleaze at it's best.

**SPOILERS**

Following a tragic death, Frank Wyler, (Kieran Canter) finds himself unable to move beyond mourning his ex-fiancée Anna Völkl, (Cinzia Monreale) due to the weird circumstances surrounding it. Unwilling to accept the fate from Mr. Kale, (Sam Modesto) the local mortician, of her death, he enlists the help of maid Iris, (Franca Stoppi) to help exhume her corpse, embalming her and placing her body in his room as a reminder of their love. Still unable to cope with her death, she takes it upon herself to bring in local girls back to the house to cheer him up, but when they discover the deadly secret, he dispatches them to keep them from talking about it. When Elena Völkl, (Cinzia Monreale) arrives looking into her sister's death, he falls for her, but soon learns the true cause of her death and sends him into a psychotic rage, leading all in his way into a race for survival to get away.

The News: This is one of the very best of the Italian exploitation films. What makes it so is that there's so much of it's sleaze feelings coming from the subject matter. The fact that this one contains so many exploitative elements, and seems to be so comfortable with them, is what really drives this one and makes it such a fun watch. Nowhere else is this more on-display than the suitably disgusting embalming scenes to preserve her corpse. From the overt and quite bloody removal of the inner organs to a complete dissection of the corpse and one scene where he even eats the heart, complete with blood squirting from its arteries onto the surroundings, this scene is incredibly graphic and disturbing. Another rather tough scene is the sequence when a corpse is cremated in an incinerator, the tendons shrink and this pulls the body into a fetal position. There's a lavish attention to detail reproduced in this part that makes it more disturbing than any film burn scene, but it happens in this scene. Adding to that is a scene of really sleazing it up with a zoom-in on the nipple of a charred breast, and it's a really grotesque sight. Beyond these elements, the film is also packed with a series of extreme gore scenes that are effective and really well-done. All of a person's fingernails are pulled out with pliers in an act of pure sadism and the corpse dismemberment is a sickening, uncompromising gore sequence as it is completely and utterly cut to pieces and dumped into acid, complete with gruesome close-ups provided of the flesh-less pieces immersed in acid. The scenes involving the preparation of the corpse following the exhumation deliver all the grotesque gore you could ask for, and it's with these scenes that the film kicks in to the extreme. No detail is spared as the naked Anna is laid out, split open and gutted, never shying away from the nudity or the gore and it looks like actual autopsy footage is inserted for the close up details. Beyond the gore, it's even got some really well-done suspense scenes, especially the truck ride with the hitchhiker as the rattling truck rattles the corpses' hand out of a window inches away, with each rattle getting closer, and then trying to get it back before it's discovered. A later scene where the two are getting into bed and the corpse is in the bed next to them has a really creepy, disturbing air to it. Also worthwhile is the mansion, which looks like a retro-Gothic design that delivers some great atmosphere, and the various shots of her ghostly corpse are morbidly effective. There was a couple problems to it as well. There's the fact that there's a really lethargic pace to it that hinders it somewhat, as it tends to unfold rather slowly without really building much adrenaline or energy through it's running time. Not that it ever becomes dull, but it does have a tendency to move a little slower than expected. The other flaw is that the ending to it is pretty problematic. The mystery surrounding the sister showing up is also never explained, as it sort of appears out of the blue and somewhat without meaning, and it's not really sure what the meaning was for the inclusion. It does seem a little unlikely that a twin sister would throw a shock into them for someone in their kind of relationship, as it seemed to be that it would've been information revealed early on and it did seem as it was a serious relationship. Plus, there's also the weirdness surrounding the appearance of the detectives into the end, and their confrontation with the guilty parties is a mystery as the whole thing is played out in a silent manner, offering no clue as to what it's intent was. As it stands, though, these are minor quibbles and aren't as damaging as the other issue.

The Final Verdict: One of the strongest films to ever get through in the European sleaze genre, it's got a lot to look forward to. Due to the subject matter and extremes presented, this is one for the strongest-willed of Exploitation fanatics, while those who have no desire for these films should avoid.

Rated UR/NC-17: Extreme Graphic Violence, Full Nudity, several sex scenes, themes of necrophilia and Language

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7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Sick, Twisted and Kinky, 20 January 2009

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

When the wealthy orphan taxidermist Frank Wyler (Kieran Canter) loses his beloved fiancée Anna Völkl (Cinzia Monreale), victim of voodoo conducted by his jealous housemaid Iris (Franca Stoppi), he robs her corpse, embalms and brings to the bed in his room. He does not overcome his feelings for her, killing every woman he has some involvement. Meanwhile Iris wants to marry Frank and helps him to dispose the bodies.

The sick, twisted and kinky "Buio Omega" has all sort of perversions and disgusting scenes, with sequences of necrophilia, mutilation, torture and embalming. However, the characters are awfully developed, and the viewer never knows, for example, whether Frank changed his behavior after the death of Anna, or he was indeed a twisted character. The weird Iris is also badly developed. The graphic and gore scenes are among the nastiest I have ever seen in a film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
A true masterpiece of the macabre., 23 December 2007

Author: Leonard Smalls: The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse from Arizona

Say what you will about the acting, the music, the script, or even the plot of this potent and disturbing flick...it hits you like a ton of bricks and leaves you with a dropped jaw, hungry for more.

It's ashame that D'Amato didn't make more films like this. His repertoire includes a few cannibal flicks and lots of porn. This, along with "Anthropophagus," stands out as his most effective work. With "Beyond the Darkness," it's like he set out to make the most horrific and disgusting slasher flick he could fathom, and he pretty much hits the nail right on the head. There is something deeply disturbing about several scenes in this film. The bathtub scene, along with the housemaid eating the stew scene are among some of the most disturbing scenes I have seen in a film ever. And I've seen my share.

All this being said, "Beyond the Darkness" is a film that can be watched over and over. D'Amato somehow still keeps it fun. Unlike other extreme horror films of the era, it remains watchable. To think that he made a film like this with what was, no doubt, a tiny budget, and it came out so beautifully unflinching and nihilistic, is nothing short of genius. "Beyond the Darkness" is one of the coolest movies I've ever seen. And like a fine wine, (made from blood and guts and acid,) it just keeps getting better with age. Watch it with your mom.

A solid 9 out of 10, kids.

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5 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Sickest movie ever...., 19 February 2002
Author: Michael Rogers (miker@rochester.rr.com) from New York

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

It takes a lot to get under my skin and this movie did it.

When this guy's girlfriend dies, we watch as he preserves her. We watch as he slices her open and removes her organs and drops them into a metal bucket. we see her being embalmed, we see the whole deal.

But that was nothing compared to the murder of a female drifter. Before he kills her he tears off her fingernails one by one for good measure.

After she's dead, both him and his housekeeper (she is just as deranged as him) makes an acid bath. The housekeeper strips the girl and take a hatchet and dismembers her and drops the severed legs, arms, etc into the acid bath. Toward the end of the segment the head resurfaces from the acid bath, half eaten away.

But still, it's not over. The housekeeper is rounding up the leftover flesh scraps and blood on the floor with a(I think) dust pan and makes a stew out of it.

We get a nice close up of the housekeeper sloppily eating away at the stew, causing the man (and us) to retch.

And that's not even half the movie!!

This movie is good as an endurance test, can you take it?

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5 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Shocking, 30 September 1999

Author: stephen morris (morris22) from malden, mo.

As shocking and gruesome as any film ever made, Buio Omega(Buried Alive) is one of the best horror films of the 70's. It is widely considered to be the best film of the late Joe D'Amato. The plot is a modern spin on Psycho and concerns the character of Frank. After his fiance dies, Frank becomes deeply disturbed and digs up his fiance, stuffs and preserves her and puts her on display. I hesitated to watch this movie because it sounded really sick. It was. As shocking and twisted as it all is it maintains an eery quality and has enough of a plot to make it a fine movie. Those who can stomach shocking films like this should check it out. Love it or hate, it's an unforgettable movie.

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