In my opinion italian eurohorror from the golden 1970's and early 1980's doesn't get any better than this.
Buio Omega, the undisputed masterpiece of legendary wild man ... or schlock master ... of Italian cinema, Aristide Massaccesi.
The man with the many aliases, just like fellow spanish genre loose cannon filmmaker Jess Franco, and with this film he used
his most known alias Joe D'Amato. This to make an international audience believe that these genre films were made in the US.
Well, this film for sure is no Hollywood film as Buio Omega goes beyond any rules of filmmaking in violence depicted, and
later Massaccesi combined horror with porn. Why? Because he could i guess. The Master tells us in the long documentary
interview included in the extras of this blu-ray, looking back at his body of work:
He's happy that he has been able to make films in every genre that there is, and his main motivation was to shock people,
and, probably with this film, to disgust them.

But, Aristide Massaccesi was also a great cinematographer with his trademark crisp and clear photo, and in the interview
he says that he consider himself to be firstly a cinematographer and secondly a director.
My favourite Massaccesi/D'Amato films are No. 1 - Buio Omega, No. 2 - Emanuelle e gli Ultimi Cannibali, 1977, with the lovely
cult icon Laura Gemser, and No. 3 - Immagino di un Convento, 1979, with the world's best actor ever ... Donald O'Brien.

So, A WARNING to regular film viewers, this film certainly is NOT for you, but every lover of wild 1970's italian horror will
like it. Highly recommended. The gore effects are very well made by Giannetto De Rossi and depicted in brutal detail.
Franca Stoppi steals the show as the weird Iris and i do think that Kieran Canter in the main role as Francesco, the young
heir to a castle and a fortune and a taxidermist is pretty good in the role. He may have only one facial expression, but it works
well as he's supposed to be almost catatonic from grief over his beloved girlfriends death, and we as the viewers are drawn
into the hypnotic and bizarre world of the Francesco and Iris household.

The old US Shriek Show DVD edition (from 2002 maybe?)

The Story: In a castle situated in the italian alps lives Francesco (Kieran Canter) with his ... yes, i'm not sure what she is really,
with his maid, or his relative, an aunt maybe, or his governess, Iris (Franca Stoppi). At the start of the film sweet Iris seeks the
help from a black magic woman to put a deadly juju on Frank's girlfriend Anna (Cinzia Monreale) - and soon Anna dies.
Stricken with grief taxidermist Frank decides to keep Anna with him forever and he digs up her body from her grave, disembowels
her and embalms her. Deranged Francesco also kills 2 girls that he meets by chance and Iris helps him with the disposal of the
bodies. And the way she does it, with a happy gusto makes her performance so bizarre it's unforgettable.
Franca Stoppi as Iris the maid from hell. I've only seen her in one other film, the pretty bad sleaze horror The Other Hell.

The film was shot in Bressanone up in the italian alps, The South Tyrol and the castle is a real one - the castle Ratzötz. In the
engagement party scene they probably used locals as the women are dressed in Tyrol type of clothes.
Unfortunately there's no interview with Giannetto De Rossi about how they made the astonishing effects. They look so real and
effective as i.a. the bite out of the neck of the unfortunate jogger.

Widescreen (aspect ratio not stated by Severin on the sleeve), english dub DTS-HD MA stereo or italian dub dolby digital stereo
with english subtitles (i preferred the italian dub, sounded better to me). CD with the soundtrack by Goblin included with this
blu-ray edition from Severin.
Extras: Joe D'Amato: The Horror experience (a 68 minutes long interview with Aristide Massaccesi in italian with english subs
where he talks about his films - and it's great), The Omega Woman: Interview with Franca Stoppi (15 minutes in italian with subs),
Goblin Reborn perform Buio Omega Live 2016 (4 minutes, Great stuff!), Locations revisited (20 minutes), Sick Love: Interview
with Cinzia Monreale (in italian with subs, 9 minutes) and finally a trailer