16. Beyond The Darkness (1979)
Due to Frank's housekeeper's (Iris) voodoo doll machinations, Frank's beloved girlfriend Anna dies of an illness. Deranged with grief, Frank grave robs her body and mummifies it (he is a taxidermist so he knows what he is doing). He takes Anna's body and it lies - perfectly preserved like Lenin - in his bed. Frank keeps picking up girls - but nine of them compare to Anna, so he kills them, usually assisted in the cover up by Iris. There are some pretty gruesome scenes - bodies being cremated, dissolved in acid, a girl being choked to death, a girl having her fingernails pulled out and a girl having a chunk bitten out of her neck. Iris has done such a good job of helping Frank in his murderous depravity, she feels that she deserves to be his fiancee and she brings all of her family to the house for a dinner in which she expects Frank to propose to her. Whenever this doesn't happen, and Frank comes back with a girl from a disco, Iris gets insanely jealous and grabs her meat cleaver... If you like strong gore in your Euro horror, Beyond the Darkness will hit the spot. The embalming of Anna is extremely gruesome and realistic looking. There are plenty of young women just waiting to be tortured in the film which is dark, nasty and sadistic. It is also quintessential Euro horror because it is directed by the Sultan of Italian Sleaze - Joe D'Amato - who manages to direct a straight ghoulish horror film without women dropping their knickers every two minutes. Definitely D'Amato's finest hour.