When I think of the most disturbing films of all time, Beyond the Darkness AKA Buio Omega always ranks near the top. There is so much violence, debauchery, and perversity in this film; I cannot begin to imagine why you would NOT want to check it out! Director Joe D'Amato is at it again, and is in rare form, as he succeeds in sickening our souls down to their very core. Japan Shock adds yet another title to the Joe D'Amato collection with Beyond the Darkness, and fans should be pleased.

Francesco (Cinzia Monreale) mourns over his ailing fiancée Anna before she has even passed on. In the mean time Francesco's bizarre relationship with Iris, his housekeeper since childhood seems to offer him some form of comfort (she suckles him in one scene and manually arouses him in another). Well, the inevitable happens and Anna passes on (did I mention that her illness spawned from some sort of voodoo ritual, ALA Iris). Francesco, overcome with grief, decides to excavate Anna's body, and stuff her. Anna now lies in the bed next to Francesco staring up at the ceiling with her new glass eyes, how sweet. It gets even more uncomfortable as Francesco brings home many women, one right after the other, possibly trying to find a replacement for Anna, only to brutally dispose of each of them with the help of Iris. Have you heard enough, because we haven't even begun to scratch the surface.

Japan Shock does a fine job in bringing this rare and seldom seen film in its uncut form. The source material is far from perfect, but considering the age and rarity of this title, one cannot complain too much. There is some minor print damage including speckles or a scratch here and there. Some scenes fare better than others with no visible print damage whatsoever; it's hit or miss. Colors are fairly strong and stable, if not a bit over bright. The colors do seem a bit over saturated which poses slight problems, but a few minor adjustments to your TV settings and it's solved. The mono sound is fine with the little or no distortion, at times it does seem a bit muffled, or what I like to refer to as the "tin can syndrome" (voices sound like they are coming from a tin can). The score provided by Goblin, is one of their best non-Argento soundtracks and sounds great! Overall, for a title like Beyond the Darkness, we couldn't have asked for much more, and this is definitely the best this film has ever looked.

Extras include a cool trailer, D'Amato Liner Notes that amounts to a brief BIO, and a cool still gallery sideshow set to the awesome Goblin score. Any of my overseas friends in PAL territory should not hesitate to pick up this title. Japan Shock has done it again. As an import, it's a tough call as another company is set to release this title locally. You can get Japan Shock's disc locally in the US for about 20 bucks, so if you have the means to play PAL, and don't want to wait, you'll prob wanna check it out. I know I'm happy with this edition myself and don't need another.

NOTE: This is listed as a PAL Region 2 DVD. It is definitely PAL, but I had no problems playing this DVD on my player with the Region set to 1 as with some other Japan Shock titles. You will need a player that can play PAL DVDs or a DVD ROM to watch this fine and wholesome DVD.