punishmentpark Exploitation with a capital 'E'. The soundtrack by Goblin is certainly not their best. At times it is simply dull and not befitting of the horrors that are going on on the screen. At other times it is adequate, simply funny or even a little surreal. The acting is good enough for an exploitation flick, Kieran Canter and Franca Stoppi have just the right creepy faces, and then there's loads of pretty female skin and flesh ready for the slaughter.The premise may have some potential on a dramatic level, but the story and many of its details are ludicrous - but what did I expect? This film is all about the gore and the creepiness, and it has that in spades. Not that I can really look at this all that seriously (for such a type of film, I would for instance recommend 'Dans ma peau' by Marina de Van), but there is some strange balance between the excellent gore and the sheer, sometimes almost comical, madness that goes on here.A more than decent 8 out of 10, plus note to self: watch more by Joe D'Amato.

Tender-Flesh Yes, this is definitely a guilty pleasure. And the guilt comes from giving the movie a 7. It doesn't deserve that high of a rating. None of the film's alternate titles really seems to quite fit. And D'Amato's direction is run of the mill. A rousing soundtrack by Goblin is a highlight(I prefer this soundtrack to Suspiria's). The biggest complaints are the hand-held shots, which are slipshod, and the beautiful countryside setting is almost completely ignored. Also, the dubbing is atrocious, but you just have to expect that with old cheesy foreign movies. There are a few people speaking during the dinner scene who don't have moving lips.And now, I shall gush. The reason why I watch this repeatedly is due to the presence of the severe, the exquisite, the succulent Franca Stoppi as house governess or whatever she is suppose to be. Her hair in a bun, her always-conservative dress hanging off her whisper of a body, well, I guess I'm probably in a minority, but she's nails. And her portrayal of Iris is delicious and devious. It's fortunate she was allowed so much screen time. Frank and Iris and Anna have a rather unusual relationship. Anna is dead because Iris wants young Frank for herself. Iris employees a local gypsy to perform a bit of voodoo to drive Anna into the grave. But Frank's having none of that, so he steals her body from the boneyard(a woefully mismanaged scene that has the casket only about 1 foot below the soil). In a fantastic autopsy scene that would make Savini cry, all of her organs and her brain are removed so Frank, a taxidermist, can preserve her. He keeps her in his bed so he can kiss and fondle her corpse. Iris takes it in stride and helps dress the corpse and even paint the fingernails. She knows this is just a phase(and what a phase!) and in good time, Frank will be hers. A few girls fall afoul of Château Frank and are murdered, with the smirking Iris helping the process along by dismembering a body and helping give it an acid bath or tossing a corpse in the incinerator. Eventually, she grows tired of the game and demands Frank dispose of Anna's body once and for all so he will belong to Iris. But, Frank has grown quite attached. Two scenes to further highlight the strange relations between Frank and Iris show the young man suckling at the older governess's breast and then Iris giving him "a hand up" while he pines over Anna's body.D'Amato gives a few solid scenes. My two favorites are when Frank loads the freshly disinterred Anna into the side of his van(a super creepy red, windowless jalopy that would make Ted Bundy jealous) and the interior shot looks like she's going back into a grave or coffin, and when Frank is on his way home with a hitchhiker and the back window of the van's cab opens slightly, and the deathly white hand of Anna slides out, bobbing along with the twists and turns in the road dangerously close to the hitchhiker's head. Very effective.Towards the close of the movie, Iris has had enough of all this weirdness, and in her best Mrs. Bates, she stalks through the dark to kill Anna's twin sister. She must have a killer knee, because she kicks Frank in the crotch and he starts bleeding all over the place through his trousers(wince). It's a showdown between Frank and Iris that ends rather bad for both of them, but not before Frank can give a final twist to the plot. Highly recommended for fans of the sick.

zuccozoid Sickening but effective drive-in fare: if you can take the acid-bath/dinner scene, good luck! Reminds me of schlock/grossout fare like DEVIL TIMES FIVE and DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT, only nastier.D'Amato was a workingman's director who didn't seem to care much about the content; an Italian William Beaudine; he was, however, far better than Jess Franco!From the IMDb bio:During the 1980s and 1990s D'Amato directed over 100 hardcore porn sex films for the Italian video market, although under his many pseudonyms he continued to direct and produce other films. One of them was Deliria (1987) directed by Michele Soavi on which, under his real name, Massaccesi served as producer. He then directed two "Ator the Invincible" films. He directed the violent, hardcore Caligola: La storia mai raccontata (1982), using the name "David Hills", a commercial exploitation (some might say "rip-off") of the successful film by Tinto Brass.His long film career came to an abrupt end when, in January 1999, he suffered an unexpected and fatal heart attack at his home in Rome. He was 62. Joe D'Amato had made his mark on Italian cinema as a talented director, scriptwriter, producer and cinematographer with scores of films and more than a dozen aliases to his credit.

Human_Remains Aristide Massaccesi better known as Joe D'Amato is an interesting director whose work crossed genres from XXX pictures to horror. A few films even mixed the two like "Erotic Nights of the Living Dead" and "Porno Holocaust" but today we are watching "Buio Omega" which many people consider his best horror piece (others insist on it being "Anthropophagus").A young man mourns the death of his lover but a taxidermist by trade he isn't ready to say goodbye just yet. Stealing her body and preserving it with careful attention to detail he is unable to part from his love. Little does he know his maid is the reason behind his loss and madness it seems she has had her eyes on him from the start. Dealing with his twisted feelings and pain his thoughts turn to rage and anyone that stands of the way between him and his beloved are murdered. The maid helps him cover up these atrocities but not before long a woman comes between them once more his dead lover's sister comes to visit and shes's the spitting image of his lost love.This film is atmospheric and disturbing with graphic scenes of torture and the now legendary scene of embalming which spares no detail (it was once rumored that an actual cadaver was used). Recommending this film to the average viewer would be hard to do but for the seeker of grisly Italian horror this is one that you might consider watching.