3. Joe D'Amato (1936-1999)
Joe D'Amato was the name that Aristide Massaccesi assumed for the bulk of his career (for his most well known films in any case) which spanned the best of 200 film productions. This was because he had - in his young career - built up quite a reputation as a competent cinematographer and he wished to preserve that. His pseudonym - Joe D'Amato - would soon become a by word for the best and the worst excesses of Italian subterranean cinema. He entered into the horror/Giallo arena with Death Smiles Upon a Murderer. Later in the 1970s Joe D'Amato began to direct a series of 'Emanuelle' films starring the beautiful Laura Gemser as the eponymous globetrotting photo journalist who gets into all sorts of sexy hijinks. These films included Emanuelle in America, Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals. D'Amato also directed two hardcore porn/horror hybrids Porno Holocaust and Erotic Nights of the Living Dead. It was clear by now that he would spend his directing career in Exploitation at best and porno at worst. D'Amato made two interesting and fairly successful entries into the world of straight horror - Buio Omega (Beyond the Darkness) and Anthropophagus. Buio Omega, with its savage gore and necrophiliac overtones, has a considerable cult following and is probably D'Amato's most successful film. Anthropophagus achieved brief notoriety as a Video Nasty in Britain but was not as successful as Buio Omega. In his career in the 80s and 90s, D'Amato directed over 100 hardcore porn movies under many pseudonyms. However, one of the highlights of his career (and he knew it too because he used his real name for the film) was acting as producer on Michele Soavi's slasher masterpiece - Stagefright - Aquarius. In January 1999, D'Amato died suddenly of a heart attack in his home in Rome. He was only 62. His career will be exalted by cult Italian cinema fans who enjoy his mishmash of horror and erotica. Fans of extreme cinema revere D'Amato for his more out there films - Buio Omega and Emanuelle in America. His vision was certainly a sleazy one, but the man had great talent as a cinematographer and producer. His name will forever evoke fond memories among fans of Italian exploitation cinema for his exotic oeuvre.