The Antichrist

The Antichrist

Original Title: L’antichristo

Directed by: Alberto De Martino

Italy, 1974

Horror/Satan/Occult, 112 min

Distributed by: Optimum Releasing.

As far as satanic possession movies go there’s not too many of them tach come off as anything else than cheesy Exorcist rip offs. These past weeks I’ve seen several variants on the old possessed teenage chick story, and it’s fair to say that the most of them all fall into the same pitfalls and needless to say they all have the same familiar traits that we know all to well.

Current stuff like Manuel Carballo’s La posesión de Emma Evans (Exorcismus) 2010, Daniel Stamm’s The Last Exorcism 2010 or even Paco & Balaugeró’s [Rec]2 2009, all play by the book, and you know before the last act rolls through you will have seen bile, rolling eye whites, foul language snarled out by the possessed and in the most cases levitation. Needless to say these movies look fantastic, a lot has happened since William Friedkin unleashed his 1973 milestone movie based on Peter Blatty’s novel of the same name. But I still hold a naïve fascination for those movies released much nearer to that landmark of genre cinema, the stuff so painfully trying to cash in on the success of The Exorcist. I’m obviously talking about movies like Mario Bava’s Lisa e il diavolo (Lisa & The Devil) 1974 - also recut with alternate material to assimilate Fridekin’s movie under the name House of Exorcism, Amando De Ossorio’s La endemoniada (The Possessed) 1975 and Alberto de Martino’s L’antichristo (The Antichrist) 1974 to name a few.

Those movies, despite how they did at the box-office back then, have become somewhat cult classics by today’s standards. Back then they where painfully trying to get in on the action, and being so close to that original flick, I feel that they where lost at the time. Today it’s movies like these that I can appreciate as they tried to pull stuff off on minimal budgets and to some extent succeeded in mimicking the sensationalism of the original.

Since a terrible accident in her childhood Ippolita Oderisi [Carla Gravina] has been paralyzed from waist down. Her religious father Massimo [Mel Ferrer] is supportive and takes her on pilgrimages to various sacred places and statues of saints in hope of some miracle cure. Even Bishop Ascanio Oderisi [Arthur Kennedy] is concerned and holds masses to pray for Ippolita. Although when Ippolita’s brother Fillipo [Remo Girone] turns up at a party with his mate Marcello Sinibaldi [Umberto Orsini] desperately trying to match the two together, Ippolita pretty soon realises that Sinibaldi is a psychiatrist with a hidden agenda.

Convinced that Ippolita’s handicap is rooted in her background, perhaps in a former life way before that childhood accident, Dr. Sinibaldi persuades Ippolita to undergo some regression therapy hypnosis. That’s when the trouble starts. In her previous life Ippolita was a witch, also playing dual roles with a spiffy longhaired blonde wig, and this witch was burned at the stake for being in league with Satan. Obviously this demonic force takes a grip of Ippolita and pretty soon she can’t tell the awoken past life persona from the real Ippolita. Which is a great thing for us as this gives De Martino and his cinematographer Aristide Massaccesi – yes old loveable Joe D’Amato – an opportunity to mess around with back projection, mate screens and creating some pretty neat levitation, transformation and freaky special effect moments including a couple of really impressive imploding mirrors and television screens along the way.

Like any movie in the demonic possession realm Ippolita vomits bile, she spreads her legs and taunts everyone around her with her sexuality, makes sideboards and cupboards levitate around the room and decomposes with each day that goes until there’s only the demon present and almost no Ippolita at all. Finally the moment we have been awaiting is upon us, Massimo's brother, Bishop Oderisi, arrives to take on the age old nemesis of the church and the final battle commences… or wait it doesn’t because this movie holds yet another surprise for it’s audience.

In film theory some studies latch frantically onto what’s known as the image system, it’s at times so farfetched that it becomes almost more parody than anything else. One of my favourite passages in all the writings Russian filmmaker Andrej Tarkovsky left behind is when he discusses the reoccurrence of horses, apples and billowing fields in his work. After years of film students and academics trying to force their theories and interpretations of his “image system” Tarkovsky himself wrote that he simply liked the look of horses, apples and billowing fields. That’s fucking brilliant and such a smack in the face of over analytical bullshit. Which also is one of the reasons I write the crap I write on here, there’s no need to sneer at alternative low budget cinema, as it’s filled to the brim of the same symbolism, traits, storytelling and image systems that the acknowledged filmmakers and art house posers have been using for all time.

Getting back on track, it’s fair to say that the image system of The Antichrist has to be toads. Toads figure in several occasions throughout the movie and these toads are obviously associated with negative values, evil magical beasts and demonic creatures. The reason for this is of course the metaphoric value that they hold, the transformation from tadpole to full grown toad represents the resurrection, the rebirth. Much like the rebirth of the demon in The Antichrist. Then there’s the symbol value of strong feminine energy, clearly the energy of the female demon. It’s also a key part of the antichrist communion, where the torn off head of the toad serves as the body of Satan!

This is a great little movie. It’s entertaining as hell and takes several sudden turns. It has a lot going for it with the back-story that slowly lets out more information as it goes along. For a while I was sure that the Mel Ferrer relationship with Swedish starlet Anita Strindberg would be milked and become a sinister back-story where Ferrer had cheated on his wife with Strindberg before that terrible accident hence being projected guilt that had paralyzed Ippolita. There’s a small indication of oedipal jealousy in there, but nothing that really pays off apart from a few lines of possessed blasphemy and raunchy talk concerning her father and future wife’s sexual appetites. But it never goes for the guilt trip in that classic way. Instead the entire back-story arc is dedicated to the witch trial and execution. A parallel story that’s also reflected in the main narrative, such as the last minute redemption that turns former life witch Ippolita into the saint she visits at during the opening sequence. This opening sequence is mirrored in more than one-way during the movie’s climax, but you’ll just have to check it out to see in what way.

I find that Alberto De Martino’s script, co-written with Vincenzo Mannino and Gianfrano Clerici is satisfying as it uses what we've seen and brings something new with it - a very salty italian twist just the way we want it. This approach is nothing new for Mannino – writer of several character driven Poliziotteschi about Police Inspector Betti, commonly portrayed by Maurizio Merli and epic adventures also “in the familiar style of others” like Enzo G. Castellari’s L’ultimo squalo (Great White) 1981 or Ruggero Deodato’s I predatori di Atlantide (The Raiders of Atlantis) 1982, has been down that path on more than one occasion. But perhaps it mostly the movies he worked as co-writer on, stuff like Deodato’s La casa sperduta nel parco (House on the Edge of the Park) 1980, Lucio Fulci’s Lo squartatore di New York (The New York Ripper) 1982 and Murder-Rock: uccide a passo di danza (Murder-Rock: Dancing Death) 1984 that he’s most known for. Movies he primarily co-wrote with Gianfranco Clerici. Regular readers will know that I have something of a fetish for movies based on Clerici’s scripts, as I feel he very much indeed did write/work on some of the finest genre movies to ever come out of Italy.

Every demonic possession movie demands a grand entrance of Old Nick himself, and at least one moment that leaves it’s mark on the audience. The Black Mass where past life Ippolita engages in a satanic orgy is fantastic. I won’t spoil it for you but there’s a goat scene – which isn’t graphic at all, but fantastically suggestive and really brilliantly edited by Vincenzo Tomassi, who you recall edited all those Lucio Fulci movies. Tomassi brings a great flow to The Antichrist and it rarely feels as if it’s loosing pace, and there’s several brilliant juxtapositions you really need to see if you are into suggestive editing – and fucking amazing movies. Apart from the goat incident, there’s a hilarious moment where Ippolita flashes her lady parts to Bishop Oderisi, and his reaction is priceless, and just one of several splendid moments in The Antichrist.

I’ve hade the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai lying around for years, and it’s finally been a treat to actually put some images to the mental ones those tracks have been conjuring all these years. Needless to say the music is tremendously fitting when you have images to go with it.

Something I find intriguing about The Antichrist is the way De Martino uses, or rather not doesn't use his cast. There are some pretty damned good genre names in there, but none of them really get a moment to shine. Instead the whole movie does belong to Gravina who gives a grand performance in the lead. But it still feels kind of sore not to use the cast more than De Martino has. Mel Ferrer is about as interesting as drying paint, Strindberg more or less disappears from the flick after she once briefly get’s her kit off (next to an obviously bothered Ferrer who has to snog her next), the iconic Alida Valli is merely there for two small sequences and Kennedy, well he does his five minute bit and then fucks off. It’s odd and primarily saved by Gravinas dedicated performance.

As a little bonus for you if you want to get über-geeky, look out for bit part actor Ernesto Colli as the possessed man, he’s part of the mirror imagery I was talking about earlier, he's one of those faces you always remember and recognise in the large amount of movies he had bits in. And keep your eyes open when Filippo walks into the party after the opening segment. That blonde on his arm is another Scandinavian actress, this time none other than Ulla Johannsen! Doesn’t ring a bell? Well perhaps you remember her better as the naked chick with the machinegun in Enzo G. Castellari’s Ouei maledetto treno blindato (The Inglorious Bastards) 1978. There's iconic imagery if there every was iconic imagery!

Alberto De Martino followed The Antichrist with the Poliziotteschi Una Magnum Special per Tony Saitta (Blazing Magnum) 1976, held by many as one of the finest entries into that genre. It’s comes as no surprise to see that Clerici and Mannino wrote the script. Only three years later De Martino ventured back into satanic territory with Holocaust 2000, which wasn’t only a take on Richard Donner’s 1976 hit The Omen, but also sports a great performance from Spartacus himself, Mr. Kirk Douglas.

Image:

1.85:1 Colour.

Audio:

Dolby Digital Mono, 2.0 English dialogue.

Extras:

None.

Paranoia

Paranoia
Directed by: Umberto Lenzi
Italy/France/Spain, 1970
Thriller, 94min

Wrapping up the loose trilogy of Jet-Set thrillers starting with Così dolce… così perversa (So Sweet… So Perverse) and Orgasmo, both 1969, the series comes to an end with Carroll Baker in her third flick for Umberto Lenzi. The suave, mordant and enthralling Paranoia.

Once again relying on Boileau-Narcejac’s novel Celle qui n’était plus (The Woman who Was) which also inspired Henri-George Clouzot’s Les Diabolique 1955, Hitchcock’s Vertigo 1958, not to mention a shit load of other Euro Thrillers including Lenzi’s two previous instalments in the “trilogy “, Paranoia may just be one of the finest adaptations to be inspired by that story and previous movies. Building not only a destructive threesome, the team of writers – including Bruno Di Geronimo (Gianfranco Mingozzi’s Flavia, la monaca musulmana (Flavia, the Heretic)) 1974. Marie Claire Solleville, who also wrote on Orgasmo, and Marcello Cosica who participated on one of my all-time fave zombie flicks, Jorge Grau’s Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti (Let Sleeping Corpses Lie) 1974 and the screenplay to Mario Bava’s La maschera del demonio (Mask of Satan) 1960, put a twist on the story that actually had me going off track a few times. Which was surprising, unexpected and highly entertaining.

Helen [Carroll Baker] is a filthy rich, jet setting race-car driver who belts prestigious vehicles around the tracks at deadly speeds. After a somewhat serious accident she’s put in hospital all banged and bruised. She may be suffering from slight amnesia, this version is in Italian without subs, so I’m not with it all the way during the set up, but I’m going with the amnesia thread as that works better for the movie. Anyways she’s discharged from hospital and goes to rest along side her ex-husband Maurice [Jean Sorel] and his new sugar momma Constance [Anna Proclemer], who mysteriously invited her there to recuperate at their residence. The atmosphere is tense and the threesomes don’t quite know how to approach each other in this somewhat awkward scenario. Despite being divorced, Maurice still makes moves at Helen, and an effective flashback showing Helen and Maurice back at the breaking point of their relationship – a beautiful slow-mo scene where Maurice wrestles a gun out of Helen’s hand, which somewhat supports the amnesia theory as she wouldn’t be there if she’d recalled the bad ending.

After establishing what we suspect is the set up – Helen and Maurice wanting to get back together and Constance being in the way, there’s the obligatory scene of Carroll Baker in the shower peeked upon by not one, but two characters, and the first of several sudden plot twists. Constance starts to flirt with Helen, and there’s a fantastic scene of Helen trapped in a seductive game of footsie where both Constance and Maurice are working her legs and feet. Some nights later when Maurice comes home drunk, Constance suggests sinister plan to Helen, which would see her assist Constance in the murder of most likely cheating bastard Maurice. This also evokes flashbacks of happy times when Maurice and Helen where still in love, and it makes for a neat twist as it see’s Baker slowly falling into a state of disorder as she’s torn between her love and hate for Maurice. There’s a couple of classic deceptive moments as we now are lead to believe that Constance and Helen are going to off Maurice, but when push comes to shove… Obviously there’s a last minute spin and Helen doesn’t have courage to harpoon Maurice, and things take a completely different turn.

With Constance "out of the way", it looks as Maurice and Helen are safe on route to getting it all back together again, but… and there’s always a but, their happiness is threatened when an attorney friend of Constance, who always has his movie camera with him, starts to ask questions about accident that took Constance life. The suspicion and persecution starts to drive Helen round the bend – which to be honest has been done three times by lenzi and Baker at this time – and to make things worse, Constance daughter Susan [Marina Coffa] arrives and wants’ to know what happened to her mother... and finds her mother's husband being intimate with his ex wife!

It’s quite apparent that Umberto Lenzi started toying with the sadism that would become something of a signature trait of his here. There’s a lot of drawn out moments of mental torture like waiting for a corpse to be emerged from the sea, possible evidence on a reel of home movie, and constant suspicious stares. It all comes together wonderfully as editor Enzo Alabiso draws out the edits to the maximum, creating some immensely tense moments. It’s no wonder that Helen slowly goes insane considering the sadistic mind games that are played at her expense. Much like in previous instalments.

Anyways, back to the flick, where Susan wanders the same house as Helen and Maurice, after all it is her mother Constance house, and stats her own investigation into the mysterious accident that supposedly took her mothers life. Helen who in-between bouts of frustration and paranoia takes to snogging and shagging Maurice to keep her mind off the guilt that torments her, still has a harrowing surprise, shock and twist sequence left before the movie comes to it’s closure.

A common trait for all three movies in the “trilogy” is that cinematographer Guglielmo Mancori has something of a fetish for mirrors and composing frames within the frame. It’s not a bad thing, quite the opposite, as it treats the audience to some fantastic moments and at least once in each movie there’s a splendid illusion that a dead character is in fact alive. Something that lies close to the main device of these three movies – who is fooling who, and more than often with a rather cynical dark ending. It’s also noteworthy that Aristide Massaccesi (Joe D’Amato) worked as Mancori’s camera operator on Paranoia, just a few years before he started directing movies of his own.

Being a Spanish/French/Italian co-production, Antionio Ramírez – who edited several Leon Klimovsky & Paul Naschy flicks – accompanied Enzo Albasio in the editing. But that editing is still as ferocious as ever, and goes hand in glove with Mancori’s superb cinematography. Much of the same hard, almost violent editing style that was found in Orgasmo, and later in Il cotello di ghiaccio (The Knife of Ice) 1972, is seen here.

Gregorio Garcia Segura’s score (directed by Piero Umiliani) is groovy and sounds more like a cheaper companion part to Orgasmo than anything else. It even goes as far as reusing the rock act Weiss and the Airdales performing Just Tell Me once again in a club setting much like the one in Orgasmo.

Paranoia neatly wraps up the loose trilogy and sees some interesting traits evolve from the suite. The three movies showcase a progression of Umberto Lenzi traits that he’d later push further with the thrillers and several Gialli to follow. It’s also a treat to see Carroll Baker and Jean Sorel teamed up again as Paranoia with Romolo Guerrieri’s Il dolce corpo di Deborah (The Sweet Body of Deborah) 1968 are the only two movies they starred in together. Umberto Lenzi would follow Paranoia with a seedy sexploitation thriller – Un posto ideale per uccidere (Oasis of Fear) 1971 before starting off his fascinating string of fascinating Gialli that would definitely have him make his mark on the genre scene.

Image:
2.40:1 Original aspect ratio (16x9 enhanced)

Audio:
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, Italian dialogue. No subtitles

Extras:
None.

Here's some freaky opening titles with some suave music for you to enjoy.

Beyond The Darkness

Beyond The Darkness

Original Title: Buio Omega

Directed by: Joe D’Amato

Italy, 1979

Horror, 94 min

Distributed by: Shriek Show

This movie is one sick little puppy. Dealing with cannibalism, voodoo, necrophilia, torture, perverse relationships and violent death, it’s no wonder that it’s one of Joe D’Amato’s most popular movies.

Joe D’Amato, birth name Aristide Massacessi started out as a cinematographer shooting second unit and assistant director work from the late sixties until the early seventies on movies like Alberto De Martino’s Scenes from a Murder and Massimo Dallamano's What Have They Done To Solange? 1972.

When he did direct his first features they where a fist full of Spaghetti Westerns, Go Away! Trinity Has Arrived in Eldorado (Scansati… a Trinità arriva Eldorade); God is My Colt (La colt era il suo Dio), A Bounty Killer for Trinity (Un Bounty killer a Trinità) all in 1972. It was also in 1972 that he directed and shot the movie The Last Decameron (Sollazzevoli storie di mogli gaudeneti e mariti penitenti – Decameron nº 69). The film, which blends comedy and erotic situations in a very Italian Sex Comedy manner is obviously inspired by Pier Pasolini’s Award Winning Il Decameron 1971, and shows the beginning of the traits D’Amato would find himself most comfortable directing, sleazy sexploitation flicks. But that comes later.

1973 Saw D’Amato under his birth name directing the surreal horror/thriller Death Smiles at A Murder starring Klaus Kinski and Eva Aulin in leading roles. The movie was an almost like a contemporary Gothic film using themes of incest, necrophilia, murder and sexuality; all themes that D’Amato frequently used in his horror films. As D’Amato chose to direct the arty flick under his real name, Aristide Massaccesi, a title he usually didn’t use for directing credits but for his cinematography as this was what he took most pride in, it's probably fair to say that he was satisfied with the results

D’Amato continued to crank out movies in a varied range of genres, but not until 1975 would he tackle the franchise for which he would forever be associated with, the sexploitation classics that make up the Emanuelle series.

Eventually we’ll get round to Emanuelle, and the living legend of Laura Gemser, but we will save for a later day, as today I’m looking at D’Amato’s entries into the horror realm.

Being so strongly connected to the sexploitation genre, there are certain ingredients one would presume to find in a D’Amato film, sure he did experiment and blend Sexploitation with Horror in several films, ones like Erotic Nights of the Living Dead 1980, Porno Holocaust 1981 to name a few, give you a gist of what the movies are about - the titles say it all. But when he focused on pure horror he gave it all he had, the films Beyond Darkness 1979, Anthropophagus: The Beast 1980 and Absurd 1981 are all cherished entries into the dark underbelly of Italian Horror. No holds are barred as D’Amato brings on the sinister antagonists, buckets of blood and gore and stunning special effects – if you’ve seen the movies you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Beyond The Darkness is a trippy movie to say the least, Kieran Canter plays Frank Wyker a young man who after his parents died inherited their huge mansion where he now lives and conducts his taxidermy on a professional level that would have Norman Bates envious. Frank’s girlfriend Anna Völkl [Cinzia Monreale – who is painstakingly skinny in this movie, and looks so much hotter these days. Monreale who you may remember from Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond 1981, where she plays the blind Emily and House of Clocks 1989 and later in Dario Argento’s The Stendhal Syndrome 1996] is in the hospital on some sort of life support machine, still Frank and Anna have a love like any other between them. Frank lives in his huge house with the maid Iris [Franca Stoppi – who went on to star in several of Bruno Mattei’s Nunsplotitation and Women in Prison flicks] with whom he has a very strange relationship. She probably took care of him after his parents died and was more than likely his nanny as a child, because the first scene she and Frank share, she comforts him after Anna passes away by breast feeding him!

The sinister Iris is in many way’s the main antagonist of the film, as she is the one who has with the aid of witch put a voodoo curse on Anna to start with as she want’s to claim Frank, or is it his wealth and mansion for herself.

After Anna’s death, Frank starts going insane. With the assistance of Iris he steals her corpse the night after the funeral, and D’Amato neatly plants Anna’s twin sister Elena, also played by Monreale into the plot. He embalms Anna, removes her internal organs, and takes a healthy bite out of one, let’s say her uterus to make it even kinkier dresses her and lays her in his bed. Anna’s now a mummy that he now can love for all eternity.

Now things could be all hunky dory from here on, but no, this is a horror flick and shit has to break down any time now. Which it does, on his way back from the morgue with the body of Anna, before the above mentioned autopsy, mummification scenes, he get’s a flat tire, allowing a dumb hitchhiker, Jan [Lucia D’Elia], to get in his van, needless to say after the suspenseful threat of exposure during the ride home, the nosey, doped up hitcher stumbles upon Frank as he lays the final touches to Anna’s corpse. Needless to say the hitcher meets a violent death, as Frank will let nothing come between him and Anna. He beats her, pulls out her fingernails, and finally strangling her.

What makes this such a splendid little sequence is that it’s all intercut by Ornella Micheli’s, the preparations of Anna's body and the hippie hitcher sneaking around build suspense that is exhilarating, because you know that the hitcher is going go catch Frank at work and the shit is going to hit the fan, which it does. Once again Iris proves her dedication to Frank, or is it her underlying agenda to take over the mansion, and helps him dispose of Jan the hippie hitcher’s corpse in a gruelling fashion. She coldly chops the body up into disposable pieces and chucks them in a bath filled with acid. It’s one of the most fiendish scenes of the film and will stay with you for a long time. The special effects are astonishing and really freaky, it’s amazing what you can do with a few pounds of pig, a plastic skull and bubble bath. But it works and is a great sequence.

D’Amato also gives us a small, but effective release after the grim scenes when Iris serves Frank dinner, a beef casserole, and as he moves his camera close to the mouth of Iris sloppily chewing on the food intercut with the hideous remains of Jan, Frank runs to the sink and throws his guts up. Excellent timing for a laugh as the plot thickens and the Mr Kale, who works for the mortician and funeral parlour that buried Anna, and who also saw Frank inject that initial dose of formaldehyde into the corpse, starts to look into Franks activities. A young jogger [Anna Cardini] becomes Frank’s outlet for all that dammed up sexual frustration, but obviously he can’t restrain himself and pulling back the covers revealing the embalmed Anna next to them in the bed, he quickly murders the screaming young woman by tearing out her throat with his teeth. That’s when Iris makes her move, if she is to help the now multiple murderer Frank, she wants’ something in return, she wants Frank to marry her!

The movie gets into it’s last half hour and grows even more surreal as the detectives try to search the house while the joggers body burns in the taxidermy studio’s furnace, then again an opportunity for laughter as Iris family of freaks gather to celebrate the couple soon to be joined in holy matrimony. Mr. Kale takes yet another sneak around the house again and this time to his shock, finds Anna, who for reasons untold is hidden in a closet. The end is nigh, as an external partner now knows Frank’s dark secret.

As Beyond The Darkness revs up to it’s climax, Frank once again picks up a strange girl, this time at a disco, only to be interrupted by a sudden surprise visit from Anna’s twin sister Elena! Frank desperately begs Iris to keep Elena in the house, (as he only sees her as Anna alive and kicking), while he gets rid of disco girl – who actually takes the time to drive home... But Iris has finally had enough of Franks abuse and non-response to her love and life long affection and decides that Frank will have none of the Völkl girls. The grand finale is splendid, gory and vigorous as several subplots come into their culmination, and then when you think it’s all over there’s an excellent little twist concerning Mr Kale and Elena.

Beyond The Darkness is a great movie; gory, kinky and surreal in a way that only D’Amato could deliver it. His cinematography leaves nothing to complain about, he knows what he wants from his compositions and that’s what we get. Ornella Micheli’s editing is perfect once again, and then there’s that excellent soundtrack by Goblin, that constantly keeps the movie moving along with their progressive rhythms. Also it’s where you’ll find the track Quiet Drops that Prog Super group Morte Macabre covered on their magnificent soundtrack alum Symphonic Holocaust. As said, Beyond The Darkness, although not as violent and aggressive as Anthropophagus: The Beast or Absurd is possibly Joe D’Amato’s finest hour as a horror director. It comes with my warmest recommendation!

Image:

1.85:1 Aspect Ratio remastered for 16x9

Audio:

Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, English Dub Dialogue

Extras:

Trailers for Massimo Dallamano’s What Have They Done To Solange? 1972, Ruggero Deodato’s House on the Edge of the Park 1980, Umberto Lenzi’s Seven Bloodstained Orchids 1972, and the original Beyond the Darkness trailer. A booklet with articles on D’Amato, Goblin and Beyond The Darkness, Interview/commentary with Art Director Donatella Donati, and a neat little session with Cinzia Monreale who looks better than ever as Mike Baronas and Kit Garvin interview her.