Product Details

• Actors: Kieran Canter, Cinzia Monreale, Franca Stoppi, Sam Modesto, Anna Cardini
• Directors: Joe D'Amato
• Format: NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English, Japanese
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: SHRIEK SHOW
• DVD Release Date: April 19, 2011
• Run Time: 91 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B003E1R5V4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #114,161 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Studio: Allegro Media Group Release Date: 03/22/2011 Run time: 91 minutes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the most horrific films of its type, May 29, 2011

By 

Ian M. Zapczynski (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beyond the Darkness: Buio Omega (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (Blu-ray)

The Good:

I have been a fan of this movie since I first saw it on VHS as BURIED ALIVE 20 years ago or more. Despite some crazy lapses in logic (as typical for Italian horror films of this era), this movie is effective, horrific and disgusting even today. Director Joe D'Amato also made hardcore porn films, and BEYOND THE DARKNESS aka BUIO OMEGA - even more so than his first horror film, ANTHROPOPHAGUS - is very much like hardcore horror. Very little is left to the imagination. Since the effectiveness of a film like this relies heavily on the special effects, it gets high marks for a couple of very convincing effects, notably the embalming sequence and the scene in which one woman has each of her appendages removed with a meat cleaver. Even with gore effects like that, there is something to be said for a film that can make the viewer most queasy simply by showing a woman sloppily eating her dinner.

A beautiful Italian villa adds to the film's atmosphere and feelings of isolation. Also to be said about the film itself is that it features an excellent latter-period score by the Italian rock group Goblin.

The Blu-Ray disc is a significant upgrade over the previous Shriek Show DVD (also included in the package). Anyone looking for an upgrade in picture quality will no doubt agree that we have one here in what is obviously a brand new HD transfer. Colors are natural and vibrant and the grain is very film-like. The audio track is also very much improved over the DVD, resulting in the music, dialogue and sound effects much less muffled without sounding as if heavy noise reduction was used. Extras from the previous DVD release are ported over here although one previously listed as a "commentary" is now listed as an interview, likely because it runs 30 minutes rather than being feature-length.

The Bad:

As has been noted in other reviews, this transfer is missing less than 30 seconds near the beginning of the film where Frank exits his van and carries a monkey into his villa. Even though I have seen this film many times over from several different prints, I may not have even noticed it being missing if I hadn't read other reviews. The footage itself is quite inconsequential other than it resulting in us not being able to hear some of the excellent Goblin score. While it is somewhat mind-boggling that this footage is missing, it is available on the DVD version also included in the package and in my opinion certainly does not make this disc "worthless".

There are also noticeable problems with the audio track, mostly in the first half of the film. For one thing, the first dialogue scene between Frank and the guy who gives him the monkey is strangely sped-up. Also seemingly as a result of re-syncing the audio, at the beginning of some scenes we can hear a short blip of the audio track cut and repeat itself. This is somewhat distracting and honestly the result in someone simply not taking enough pride in their work. Luckily it only occurs a handful of times. Honestly, I find this error more annoying than the loss of less than 30 seconds of inconsequential footage. Still, it is not apt to keep me from making this my go-to version of the film when I wish to revisit it.

The Ugly:

A previous reviewer gave this release one star here and has been condemning this release on internet forums. It should be noted that he previously worked for Media Blasters/Shriek Show and is clearly showing a case of sour grapes. Despite a few flaws on this disc (which sadly is far too common even with beloved genre labels like Anchor Bay and Blue Underground), there are many reasons one can still enjoy it whether you already own a copy of the film or not. As for people promising that a more perfect Blu-Ray release will come out and urging fans to hold off until it does, I'm not holding my breath. If you miss this one, you'd be missing out on the best looking and sounding release (by far) of one of the most recommendable sleazy Italian horror films.

3.0 out of 5 stars shocking movie, average blu ray, December 3, 2011

By 

Michael P. Dobey (colorado springs) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beyond the Darkness: Buio Omega (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (Blu-ray)

This company , shriek show is putting some of their titles on blu ray. Ok, they do have a better definition: barely. The color is not restored though so the type of film here looks dull on blu ray. But it's better than the dvd version. HOwever there is no scratches and dirt damage that some other blu rays have. This was shot on cheap film in 1979. So like I said it's got a dull unrestored look, the color was never great on this one, but it was better when it came out back then. Ok, now for the movie, this was a low budget horror film from joe d'mato, and it's a decent one. It shocked people so bad back then that it caused outrage. They claimed that the movie used real dead people in it!! IT DID NOT!, it's a horrific story of a nercrophilliac who embalms his dead girlfriend. THe actress playing the dead girl also plays her living twin so that was good news for here. THis is dubbed into english which is fine. Their are interviews and a few other extras. But shriek show please do some more restoration work on your blus please. But at least there's no lines on this one.... The movie is four star for horror fans, who love italian gore flicks. NOn horror fans of this type of movie ,well you won't buy this one anyway.

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars BLU-RAY IN WORSE SHAPE THAN DVD INCLUDED, July 18, 2011

By 

milissa - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond the Darkness: Buio Omega (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (Blu-ray)

in the SAME PACKAGE, which is the same as the previous DVD release. I will be EXTRA CAREFUL when upgrading my favorite
films to BLU_RAY from now on,because a lot of these I really can't see very much difference at all between these brand new
BLU_RAY editions and the brand new 2 disc special editions i've purchased in the last 5 years, especially when played in a BLU_RAY!