Greetings, and welcome back to Horror Business. We have one awesome episode in store for you guys because we’re talking about two films by Italian filmmaker Joe D’Amato: 1979’s Beyond The Darkness and 1980’s Anthropophagus!

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We start by talking about what we’ve done involving horror recently. Liam talks about reading the newest Jonathan Hickman run of X-Men, and Justin talks about seeing Day Of The Dead, An American Werewolf In London, and Poltergeist  at the Mahoning Drive-In and the films The Boogeyman, Unwelcome, Walking Against The Rain, Dark Nature, Creepypasta, Pearl, Brooklyn 45, She Came From The Woods, Influencer, Jethika, and Mind Body Spirit.



Up first is Beyond The Darkness. We start by talking about how the film could’ve been a straight up slasher film but instead chose to lightly pepper supernatural elements in it. We discuss how the film is not a giallo film despite having several elements in common with giallo.



The film’s focus on gore that is more than blood but instead focuses heavily on “guts” and grossness rather than blood soaked violence is discussed. We talk about the film’s strange detachment from any sort of leering or luridness, as opposed to something that Fulci would produce.



The film’s unexpected and hard to pin down sense of surrealism and dreaminess is discussed, as is the almost apathetic feeling the film has in that it seems almost uninterested if you actually watch it.



We talk about how the film is actually far more skillful and effective at upsetting the viewer than a film like The Human Centipede or A Serbian Film in that nothing about it is cheap and unearned. We talk about how the film is a rare example of a film using sex as a source of discomfort without falling back on showing sexual assault.



            Up next is Anthropophagus. Justin starts by talking about while he doesn’t consider the film restrained he loved the idea of characters arriving in the aftermath of something terrible and being forced to unravel a mystery and how this film does an excellent shop of taking its time in revealing to the viewer exactly where it’s going.



We talk about the film’s absolute effectiveness at establishing a very upsetting atmosphere and how despite being legendary for the amount of violence in it, it’s actually mostly characters waiting to be murdered. We discuss how even though it has somewhat of a cheesy premise it is deeply upsetting. We compare it with Beyond The Darkness in that this film actually has a boatload of violence.



The idea of putting the film’s climax on the poster as an act of confidence in the effectiveness of the scene is talked about. We discuss how despite the film being seen as a “cheap” movie, it’s more an example of a lot done with a little. We talk about how there’s no real resolution, emotionally, for the surviving characters. The films claustrophobic feel and how that results in a dreamlike atmosphere is discussed.

First and foremost,