Demencia

Demencia es una película de terror visualmente austera, ambientada principalmente a la luz del día. La lógica y la dirección de la trama no juegan mucho papel aquí, Joe D'Amato se concentra principalmente en masacres naturalistas de víctimas, perversión sexual (vieja Iris/joven Francesco) y elementos de necrofilia (Anna muerta/Francesco vivo). Y lo hace acompañando las escenas de terror de música por, y las escenas de sexo de la música romántica de Goblin. Una depravación notable, que -si hubiera mejores actores y música tétrica- podría haberse convertido en una de esas películas después de las cuales no puedes dormir. Dentro de la filmografía basura de D'Amato, sin embargo, una obra de primera categoría. (15.04.2003)

A young man cannot live without his dead girlfriend, so he decides to dig her up from the grave, take her home and mummify her. This sets off a chain of events that leads to three murders. This film is considered by many to be D'Amato's best work. Yet, or perhaps because of this, I cannot help but be disappointed. I can ignore the stupid dialogue and the awful actors, they aren’t that important in the gore genre. What's worse is that the film has zero atmosphere, the bright, garish colours don't have much of a horror feel and even the music by The Goblins, otherwise so great in Argento's Suspiria, doesn't really fit. The murders themselves are not very sophisticated, they aren’t very “gore”. In this respect, perhaps only the bathroom scene with the butcher's cleaver and the acid will satisfy die-hard gore fans. Ironically, the most impressive scene is the one that doesn’t show a drop of blood, when Amato alternates between shots of the full mouth of the dining housekeeper and the remains of a body dissolved by acid. That moment will make you lose your appetite. (22.09.2003)

I quite like rooting for the main characters sometimes, but here it impossible, there isn’t anyone who’s normal. That wouldn’t be that much of a problem, but the villains are perverted in such a nasty way that it was hard to watch. Some scenes are disgusting, but it’s nothing that would shock me, D’Amato would have to try a little harder for that. In terms of execution and direction, Beyond the Darkness is not bad, what I can certainly reproach, though, is the music, which, besides being terrible, is played where it has nothing to do. As I’ve already said, the film is not bad, I just didn’t like it. (18.08.2008)

Si uno ha visto alguna película de terror, Demencia no puede ser tan impactante y extrema como obviamente intentaba ser en el momento de su creación. Sobre el «amor de ultratumba» se hizo cine mejor y más entretenida años más tarde, como en las dos partes de Nekromantik. Cuando se prescinde de lo perverso, queda la rutina de terror italiano repulsivo y barato que no entretiene lo suficiente y cuya trama no va a ninguna parte. (18.11.2018)

"Beyond the Darkness" is a movie that you may not like because it is not easy to identify with the characters. I like that D'Amato does not play to please the masses, but he strives to really tell what he wanted. And so, even a relatively normal man becomes a madman, although in this case there were certainly some predispositions. Nevertheless, you can see a sick animal in him, which is suffering on its own. For me, definitely at least one thumbs up. (07.02.2014)