Beyond the Darkness (1979)

After an embalmer’s girlfriend dies, he decides to bring her body to his family home, where even more bloody madness and insanity ensues.

Anna (Cinzia Monreale) is at death's door in the hospital.

Anna briefly revives and her husband Frank (Kieran Canter) arrives. Frank is an unbalanced recluse who lives in a remote mansion where he practices taxidermy.

Anna tells Frank she wants to make love to him one more time before she dies. Franks tells her to not speak this way. "Death has no power to separate us."

As they embrace, Anna's arms go limp and she dies.

At the funeral, Frank stands beside Anna's casket and waits for the mourners to leave.

Once everyone is gone, he injects her with embalming fluid.

That evening, Frank digs up Anna's corpse and takes her home.

On the way home, Frank's van has a flat tire. When he returns to the car, he finds a hitchhiker named Jan sitting in the passenger seat. He begrudgingly takes her along.

Jan smokes a joint, oblivious to the fact that Anna's cold dead hand has emerged from the back window and is resting right by her head.

Arriving at his mansion, Frank carries Anna's body out of the van while Jan remains asleep in the cab.

Anna's funeral gown is removed and she's laid naked on the taxidermy table.

Frank ties on his apron, grabs a scalpel and proceeds to prepare Anna the same way he prepares his taxidermy specimens.

Her organs are removed.

After her abdomen is stitched back up, Frank prepares the suction.

The two nozzels are put up Anna's nose. The suction draws out any liquid in her body.

Jan wakes up. She cautiously gets out of the van and walks around the place.

She comes up this macabre scene where Frank is replacing Anna's eyeballs with glass ones.

Frank strangles Jan to death. Her body is placed on a blanket and she's dragged to the van.

The incident is witnessed by Iris (Franca Stoppi), Frank's house servant. She has filled in for his late mother, and they have a rather problematic relationship.

Anna's body is laid in the bedroom where Frank and Iris proceed to dress her.

Iris helps Frank dispose of Jan. Her body is carried to the bathroom.

Frank pours acid into the bathtub while Iris removes Jan's clothing.

Iris then proceeds to chop Jan up with a butcher knife.

Frank goes for a jog in the beautiful countryside. He comes across another jogger (Anna Cardini) along a dirt road.

The jogger sprains her ankle and Frank gives her a hand.

They have sex, but when the jogger sees Anna's body next to them she screams. Frank rips her throat out with his teeth. Iris once again arrives to help dispose of the body.

Her body is carried to the incinerator.

Iris expects some gratitude for all her hard work. She insists that Frank get rid of Anna's body, and announces to everyone that they're going to get married. However, Frank isn't on board with her plans.

At the discotheque Frank sees a gorgeous blonde (Simonetta Allodi).

Later, he invites her to his place.

She takes a bath.

Iris answers the doorbell and can't believe her eyes. Anna's identical twin sister is here.

Frank rushes upstairs and tells the disco girl to get dressed and get the hell out as fast as she can.

The disco girl doesn't understand what the rush is all about, but she does as she's told.

Anna's sister discovers all their ghoulish secrets. Iris knocks her out, but the servant is then killed by Frank. When the investigator arrives, he finds the body of Anna's sister, but mistakenly believes it to be Anna.

The sister is placed in the casket. The final frame has Anna's sister suddenly regaining consciousness and jumping out of the coffin. THE END

VZ6 SCORECARD

I can't deny this is a sick and twisted movie.  It all manner of problematic subjects, namely necrophilia. So, while I can see this is a pretty damn good film, you certainly have to be in the right mood for it. 

What jumps out at me from this film is the performance by Cinzia Monreale.  She plays a dying girl at the start of the film, then a twin sister at the end of the film.... and in between she's a completely nude corpse! I remember watching the DVD commentary of this film many years back, and Monreale was featured.  She said she really didn't think much about the nudity - it was pretty normalized back then, and she was young.  Looking at it now, it's a pretty damn long ghoulish nude scene; pretty impressive that she was able to remain still and not breathe throughout.

Not only do we get an extended FFN scene in the taxidermy room, but also as she's dressed in the bed.  Yes, I get that she's dead - but we all understand this is fake right? It's just a movie, and a bush is a bush.  Let's not take anything away from Cinzia Monreale, she is fully naked on camera for the entire second act of this film and deserves our respect.

But let's get back to the land of the living, shall we?  Simonetta Allodi provides a wonderful bathtub scene, then FFN as she gets out and puts on her clothes.  I find it fascinating that she provided the Italian dubbed voiceover for the Arrested Development series.

While on the one hand, if this is your favorite movie of all time, there might be some red flags there.  This is much too problematic and disturbing to be a 'fave'.  However, let's face it - it's done well, and cetainly achieves the dark and disturbing vibe it's going for. This is a master class in not giving a shit, and just delivering ghoulish sleaze, judgemental critics be damned.  

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 7/10