Joe D'Amato  



A dull Italian director of exploitation movies who mostly makes porn and erotica but occasionally likes to include various perversions, violence, and buckets of blood & gore. Every once in a while he goes all-out and directs some extremely twisted Euro-trash but somehow makes even the most extreme scenes boring. Died in 1999.

Of Some Interest

Antropophagus 2 (AKA Absurd / Grim Reaper 2)  
A nasty supernatural slasher about a large man who underwent some ritual and became immortal, regenerating flesh when necessary. Chased by a priest, he makes his way to the US where he terrorizes a town and one of the families. Features lengthy, gory, graphic deaths such as death by electric saw to the head and an oven grilled face. Has a few mediocre but creepy moments.

Beyond the Darkness  
Nasty but relatively effective shocker from D'Amato about a disturbed young man with a rich inheritance who has an unhealthy relationship with his maid (who wants the rich boy to herself) and who recently lost his girlfriend. Since taxidermy is his hobby, he embalms his dead girl (in graphic detail) then stupidly gets in trouble when people discover his doll and have to be eliminated in nasty ways. So ladies are burnt, chopped up, dissolved in acid, embalmed, and eye-gouged. Features an atmospheric soundtrack and somewhat creepy performances.

Death Smiled at Murder  
An early, surprisingly stylish supernatural mystery by D'Amato with a handful of fascinating scenes and strange mysteries. A mysterious girl is pulled out of a carriage accident by a couple who soon fall in lust with her. A creepy doctor discovers she is not all she appears to be, violent murders start taking place and people have bizarre hallucinations of people that may or may not be dead. Not gory at all but confusingly bizarre.

Worthless

Antropophagus (AKA Anthropophagous: The Beast / Grim Reaper)  
A boring, hilariously bad, horribly acted, plotted and directed slasher movie about a group of people stranded on a mysterious island where almost everyone is dead or missing and a monstrous being is terrifying and eating the rest. Even the gore is lacking but this movie is infamous for two scenes only. One where the beast rips out a fetus from a woman and eats it, and the other where he eats his own guts after being pickaxed. ZZZZZ.

Caligula II: The Untold Story  
Another quick sleazy cash-in by D'Amato tells the tale of the cruel Roman Emperor and a woman (Gemser) who is torn between her feelings for him and her need for revenge while Caligula slaughters and tortures everyone. The hardcore porn is mediocre, the gore is almost non-existent and the drama is horribly weak, but D'Amato threw in male sodomizing impalement, some horse sex and a couple of other nasties.

Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (AKA Trap Them and Kill Them)  
Yet another soft-porn Emanuelle sequel directed by D'Amato featuring the physically sizzling but boring actress Gemser. This time she is a journalist trying to get a scoop on the last rumored cannibals for which she travels to the ends of the earth, has sex with an anthropologist she just met, and risks her life. The sleaze and plot are entirely predictable and dull, and D'Amato delivers most of the nasty gore towards the end.

Emanuelle in America  
This notorious entry in the Emanuelle series has it all. Gemser will do anything for a good scoop and while in search of the great controversial story and photographing nudes, she participates in soft porn with her usual lack of acting skills, and encounters hardcore porn, horse bestiality, all manners of fantasies and perversions, including the infamously brutal and realistic torture and snuff sex ring. It's not as exciting as it sounds though...

Erotic Nights of the Living Dead  
The only disturbing thing about this pornographic zombie movie is how it can be so boring despite having both porn and gore. A man planning to build a hotel on an island hires a boatman and hooker to take him there where they encounter a mysterious old man, some dead people, and Laura Gemser. The gore is scarce, and the sex and nudity are everywhere but as exciting as a dead fish.

Pieces  
Written by D'Amato. A giallo/slasher with a little more twist and gore than usual. A mother catches her kid putting together a puzzle of a naked lady, she takes it away and gets an axe in the head in return. Years later he is doing it again only this time the puzzle is made of sexy co-ed body parts acquired with a chainsaw. Features horrible acting and dubbing, and very silly and weird scenes like a karate instructor who eats bad food and his stomach ache makes him attack a lady.

Porno Holocaust  
A boring porn movie with a violent radioactive rapist thrown in as entertainment. Some head bashing, a fatally radioactive penis, and plenty of lameness.




© 1999- by The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre Table of Contents