Joe D'Amato
Encyclopedia
Joe D'Amato, (December 15, 1936 in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 - January 23, 1999 in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

) was a prolific Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

 filmmaker who directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 roughly 200 films, usually at the same time acting as producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...

 and cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...

, and sometimes providing the script
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

 as well. While D'Amato contributed to many different genres (such as the spaghetti western
Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...

, the war movie, the swashbuckler
Swashbuckler
Swashbuckler or swasher is a term that emerged in the 16th century and has been used for rough, noisy and boastful swordsmen ever since. A possible explanation for this term is that it derives from a fighting style using a side-sword with a buckler in the off-hand, which was applied with much...

, the peplum
Sword and sandal
The Peplum , also known as Sword-and-Sandal, is a genre of largely Italian-made Historical or Biblical Epics that dominated the Italian film industry from 1957 to 1965, eventually being replaced in 1965 by the "Spaghetti Western"...

, and the fantasy film
Fantasy film
Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...

), the majority of his films are exploitation-themed
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...

 pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...

, both soft- and hardcore
Hardcore pornography
Hardcore pornography is a form of pornography that features explicit sexual acts. The term was coined in the second half of the 20th century to distinguish it from softcore pornography. It usually takes the form of photographs, often displayed in magazines or on the Internet, or films. It can also...

. He is perhaps most well known for his horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 efforts, many of which went on to become cult movies (such as Anthropophagous and Beyond the Darkness
Buio Omega
Buio Omega is an Italian horror/exploitation film directed by Joe D'Amato, and released in 1979.- Plot :...

), and for his hastily-produced remakes of popular American films (such as the Ator series, based upon the Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...

films), some of which were featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....

. The poor production value of many of his films, combined with his expressed lack of concern for the production quality of his films as long as they proved profitable, have led him to be labeled as "The Evil Ed Wood," despite D'Amato's apparently amiable nature.

Biography

D'Amato was familiar to the environment of cinema through his father who worked as an electrician at Cinecittà
Cinecittà
Cinecittà is a large film studio in Rome that is considered the hub of Italian cinema.-History:The studios were founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini and his head of cinema Luigi Freddi for propaganda purposes, under the slogan "Il cinema è l'arma più forte"...

. He began his career in 1961 as camera operator
Camera operator
A camera operator or cameraman is a professional operator of a film or video camera. In filmmaking, the leading cameraman is usually called a cinematographer, while a cameraman in a video production may be known as a television camera operator, video camera operator, or videographer, depending on...

 (often working under cinematographer Franco Villa). Then, starting with Pelle di Bandito in 1969, he regularly worked as director of photography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...

 for directors such as Demofilo Fidani
Demofilo Fidani
Demofilo Fidani was a prolific Italian film director who specialized in spaghetti westerns and used many different pseudonyms....

 (Dead Men Don't Make Shadows
Dead Men Don't Make Shadows
Dead Men Don't Make Shadows, aka Stranger That Kneels Beside the Shadow of a Corpse Dead Men Don't Make Shadows, aka Stranger That Kneels Beside the Shadow of a Corpse Dead Men Don't Make Shadows, aka Stranger That Kneels Beside the Shadow of a Corpse (in original Italian: Inginocchiati straniero.....

, One Damned Day at Dawn...Django Meets Sartana!
One Damned Day at Dawn...Django Meets Sartana!
One Damned Day at Dawn...Django Meets Sartana!, aka Django Meets Sartana, One Damned Day at Dawn...Django Meets Sartana!, aka Django Meets Sartana, One Damned Day at Dawn...Django Meets Sartana!, aka Django Meets Sartana, (in original Italian: Quel maledetto giorno d'inverno.....

, A Barrel Full of Dollars
A Barrel Full of Dollars
A Barrel Full of Dollars is a 1971 Italian Western film directed by Demofilo Fidani and starring Jack Betts.-Cast:* Jack Betts - Tamayo * Gordon Mitchell - John* Ray Saunders - Sam* Simonetta Vitelli - Monica Benson...

), Alberto De Martino
Alberto De Martino
Alberto De Martino is an Italian film director and screenwriter. He directed 28 films between 1962 and 1985. He also wrote for 23 films between 1959 and 1985.He was born in Rome, Italy.-Selected filmography:...

, Massimo Dallamano (What Have You Done to Solange?
What Have You Done to Solange?
What Have You Done to Solange? is a 1972 giallo film directed by Massimo Dallamano. The film was based on the Edgar Wallace mystery novel The Clue of the New Pin. It was shot on location in London, England over the course of six weeks in the fall of 1971...

), Silvio Amadio
Silvio Amadio
Silvio Amadio was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He directed 24 films between 1957 and 1981. His film Wolves of the Deep was entered into the 9th Berlin International Film Festival.-Selected filmography:...

, Mino Guerrini, and Michele Lupo
Michele Lupo
Michele Lupo , was an Italian film director. He directed 23 films between 1962 and 1982.He was born in Corleone, Italy and died in Rome, Italy.-Selected filmography:* Sette contro tutti...

 (Ben and Charlie
Ben and Charlie
Ben and Charlie is a 1972 spaghetti western comedy movie starring George Eastman and Giuliano Gemma.-Releases:...

).

In 1972, D'Amato started directing his own movies whilst still continuing to work as cinematographer for other directors. His first directorial efforts include the spaghetti westerns Scansati... a Trinità arriva Eldorado and A Bounty Killer in Trinity, the decamerotic movies Novelle licenziose di vergini vogliose and More Sexy Canterbury Tales (The Last Decameron), the swashbuckler
Swashbuckler
Swashbuckler or swasher is a term that emerged in the 16th century and has been used for rough, noisy and boastful swordsmen ever since. A possible explanation for this term is that it derives from a fighting style using a side-sword with a buckler in the off-hand, which was applied with much...

 burlesque Pugni, Pirati e Karatè (starring Richard Harrison
Richard Harrison (actor)
Richard Harrison is an American B-movie actor and occasionally a writer/director/producer.Harrison was very prolific and worked with most of the better-known names in European B-movies during the 1960s and 1970s, branching out to exploitation films shot all over the world in the early 1970s...

, the war movie Heroes in Hell
Heroes in Hell (film)
Heroes in Hell is a 1973 Italian war film directed by Joe D'Amato and starring Klaus Kinski. -Cast:* Lars Bloch* Rosemarie Lindt* Luciano Rossi * Luis Joyce* Franco Garofalo * Stan Simon* Dick Foster...

 (with Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski , was a German actor. He appeared in more than 130 films, and is perhaps best-remembered as a leading role actor in Werner Herzog films: Aguirre, the Wrath of God , Nosferatu the Vampyre , Woyzeck , Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde .-Early...

), the sword and sandal
Sword and sandal
The Peplum , also known as Sword-and-Sandal, is a genre of largely Italian-made Historical or Biblical Epics that dominated the Italian film industry from 1957 to 1965, eventually being replaced in 1965 by the "Spaghetti Western"...

 movies The Arena
The Arena (1974 film)
The Arena is a 1974 gladiator exploitation film, starring Margaret Markov and Pam Grier, and directed by Steve Carver and an uncredited Joe D'Amato. Grier and Markov portray female gladiators in ancient Rome, who have been enslaved and must fight for their freedom...

(co-directing with Steve Carver
Steve Carver
Steve Carver is an American film director and producer from Brooklyn, New York.-Biography:Carver first held a camera when he was eight. He attended high school in Manhattan, New York and received his B.A. from Cornell University and his MFA from Washington University in St...

) and Livia, una vergine per l'impero romano, the gothic giallo
Giallo
Giallo is an Italian 20th century genre of literature and film, which in Italian indicates crime fiction and mystery. In the English language it refers to a genre similar to the French fantastique genre and includes elements of horror fiction and eroticism...

 Death Smiles at a Murderer
Death Smiles at a Murderer
Death Smiles at a Murderer is a 1973 Italian horror film directed by Joe D'Amato, starring Klaus Kinski and Ewa Aulin.-Plot:A rich couple take in a young girl who was in an accident and has amnesia, and both have an affair with her. Meanwhile, Dr...

(starring Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski , was a German actor. He appeared in more than 130 films, and is perhaps best-remembered as a leading role actor in Werner Herzog films: Aguirre, the Wrath of God , Nosferatu the Vampyre , Woyzeck , Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde .-Early...

 and Ewa Aulin
Ewa Aulin
Ewa Brigitta Aulin is a Swedish actress who appeared in a number of Italian and some American films in the 1960s and 1970s...

), and the western Cormack of the Mounties (with Fabio Testi
Fabio Testi
Fabio Testi is an Italian film actor, notable as the star of, among many other films, First Action Hero.Born in Peschiera del Garda, Italy, the 1.84m tall actor started his film career as a stuntman in his college years...

 and Lionel Stander
Lionel Stander
Lionel Jay Stander was an American actor in films, radio, theater and television.-Early life and career:Lionel Stander was born in The Bronx, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants, the first of three children...

, shot in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 alongside Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his directorial work on gore films, including Zombie and The Beyond , although he made films in genres as diverse as giallo, western, and comedy...

's The Return of White Fang on which D'Amato worked as second unit director).

In the second half of the 1970s, D'Amato tried to capitalize on the worldwide commercial success of the French softcore movie series Emmanuelle
Emmanuelle
Emmanuelle is the lead character in a series of French softcore erotic movies based on a character created by Emmanuelle Arsan in the novel Emmanuelle...

. His first attempt, Emanuelle's Revenge
Emanuelle's Revenge
Emanuelle's Revenge , also known as Blood Vengeance, Demon Rage and Blood Rage, is a 1975 horror film directed by Joe D'Amato....

, a collaboration with Bruno Mattei
Bruno Mattei
Bruno Mattei was an Italian film director, screenwriter and editor who gained a cult following for a wide variety of exploitation films that covered many genres, ranging from women in prison to zombie films...

, only referred to the French heroine by name. The next movie, Black Cobra Woman (aka Eva nera, starring Jack Palance
Jack Palance
Jack Palance , was an American actor. During half a century of film and television appearances, Palance was nominated for three Academy Awards, all as Best Actor in a Supporting Role, winning in 1991 for his role in City Slickers.-Early life:Palance, one of five children, was born Volodymyr...

 and Laura Gemser
Laura Gemser
Laurette Marcia "Laura" Gemser is a Dutch-based actress of Indo descent, now Italian citizen. She is known for her work with director Joe D'Amato and Bruno Mattei, in particular, for doing a set of exploitation-style and Black Emanuelle films.Gemser has also been credited as Moira Chen, most...

) already incorporated several plot elements from the French series. Laura Gemser
Laura Gemser
Laurette Marcia "Laura" Gemser is a Dutch-based actress of Indo descent, now Italian citizen. She is known for her work with director Joe D'Amato and Bruno Mattei, in particular, for doing a set of exploitation-style and Black Emanuelle films.Gemser has also been credited as Moira Chen, most...

 had previously impersonated the character of Black Emanuelle
Black Emanuelle
Black Emanuelle is an Italian softcore sexploitation film from 1975, the first in a series made to cash in on the success of the French film Emmanuelle, which was released the year before...

 in a film by Bitto Albertini
Bitto Albertini
Bitto Albertini was an Italian film director. He began his film career as a cameraman, and in 1969 he directed War Devils. In 1974 Albertini directed Black Emanuelle, a film adaptation of the novel by Emmanuelle Arsan, starring the then unknown Laura Gemser...

. Under the direction of D'Amato (who had first cast her as maid for his erotic comedy Vow of Chastity (1976)), Gemser continued the series with a total of five sequels (Emanuelle in Bangkok (1976), Emanuelle in America
Emanuelle in America
Emanuelle in America is an Italian sexploitation film from 1977, the fourth in a series starring Laura Gemser, made to cash in on the success of the French film Emmanuelle and its sequels...

(1977), Emanuelle Around the World
Emanuelle around the world
Emanuelle Around the World , also known as The Degradation of Emanuelle and Emanuelle Versus Violence to Women, is a 1977 sexploitation film by Italian director Joe D'Amato, starring Laura Gemser and George Eastman. The film was one of the most expensive films ever made in Italy at that time, not...

(1977), Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals
Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals
Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals is a 1977 Italian sexploitation film by Joe D'Amato....

(1977), and Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade (1978)) which grew increasingly violent and included scenes of gang rape, zoophilia
Zoophilia
Zoophilia, from the Greek ζῷον and φιλία is the practice of sex between humans and non-human animals , or a preference or fixation on such practice...

, cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...

, and fake snuff film
Snuff film
A snuff film is a motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation. For-profit snuff films are generally regarded as an urban legend, whose...

 footage. (Some versions for the foreign market - especially in France - also contained hardcore sex scenes, which D'Amato claimed not to have directed himself.) Besides the Emanuelle movies, D'Amato also directed Ladies' Doctor (1977), a sexy satire on the Italian health care system starring Renzo Montagnani
Renzo Montagnani
Renzo Montagnani was an Italian film and theatre actor and dubber.Montagnani was born in Alessandria, Piedmont, and debuted as theatre actor thanks to the help of Erminio Macario...

, the mercenary movie Tough to Kill (1978), made two erotic mondo movies
Mondo film
A mondo film is an exploitation documentary film, sometimes resembling a pseudo-documentary, usually depicting sensational topics, scenes, and situations...

 (Emanuelle and the Erotic Nights and Sexy Night Report) again in collaboration with Bruno Mattei
Bruno Mattei
Bruno Mattei was an Italian film director, screenwriter and editor who gained a cult following for a wide variety of exploitation films that covered many genres, ranging from women in prison to zombie films...

, and the sequel Sexy Night Report N.2 on his own. At the end of the decade, D'Amato directed The Pleasure Shop on 7th Avenue (which follows the Last House on the Left
The Last House on the Left (1972 film)
The Last House on the Left is a 1972 horror film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Sean S. Cunningham.The story is inspired by the 1960 Swedish film The Virgin Spring, directed by Ingmar Bergman, which in turn is based on the 13th century Swedish ballad "Töres döttrar i Wänge"...

-formula and contains in its uncut version, though essentially a softcore movie, a brief scene of fellatio
Fellatio
Fellatio is an act of oral stimulation of a male's penis by a sexual partner. It involves the stimulation of the penis by the use of the mouth, tongue, or throat. The person who performs fellatio can be referred to as the giving partner, and the other person is the receiving partner...

) and Images in a Convent
Images in a Convent
Images in a Convent is a 1979 sexploitation film by Italian cult filmmaker Joe D'Amato.This film marks D'Amato's second entry into the 'nunsploitation' subgenre of trash films, after The Nun and the Devil in 1972 and it was followed by Convent of Sinners in 1986.The film contains strong scenes of...

(a nunsploitation
Nunsploitation
Nunsploitation is a subgenre of exploitation film which had its peak in Europe in the 1970s. These films typically involve Christian nuns living in convents during the Middle Ages. The main conflict of the story is usually of a religious or sexual nature, such as religious oppression or sexual...

 movie containing a hardcore
Hardcore pornography
Hardcore pornography is a form of pornography that features explicit sexual acts. The term was coined in the second half of the 20th century to distinguish it from softcore pornography. It usually takes the form of photographs, often displayed in magazines or on the Internet, or films. It can also...

 gang rape scene).

In the early 1980s D'Amato made some of his best known gore films such as Antropophagus, Absurd
Absurd (film)
Absurd is a 1981 Italian horror film, an unofficial sequel to Antropophagus...

 (Horrible), and Buio Omega
Buio Omega
Buio Omega is an Italian horror/exploitation film directed by Joe D'Amato, and released in 1979.- Plot :...

 (Beyond the Darkness), for which he later gained cult status among horror film fans.

He then went into an early hardcore phase, starting out with a series of hard and soft porn movies shot around Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...

 in the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

. Some mix eroticism with horror movie themes like cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...

 (Papaya, Love Goddess of the Cannibals
Papaya, Love Goddess of the Cannibals
Papaya, Love Goddess of the Cannibals is a 1978 Italian exploitation film directed by Joe D'Amato. It was written by Roberto Gandus and stars Melissa Chimenti in the titular role...

, softcore, with Sirpa Lane), zombies (Erotic Nights of the Living Dead
Erotic Nights of the Living Dead
Erotic Nights of the Living Dead is an Italian erotic-horror film directed by Joe D'Amato and released in 1980.-Plot:...

, hard, with Laura Gemser
Laura Gemser
Laurette Marcia "Laura" Gemser is a Dutch-based actress of Indo descent, now Italian citizen. She is known for her work with director Joe D'Amato and Bruno Mattei, in particular, for doing a set of exploitation-style and Black Emanuelle films.Gemser has also been credited as Moira Chen, most...

), voodoo (Sex and Black Magic, a softcore movie starring Richard Harrison
Richard Harrison (actor)
Richard Harrison is an American B-movie actor and occasionally a writer/director/producer.Harrison was very prolific and worked with most of the better-known names in European B-movies during the 1960s and 1970s, branching out to exploitation films shot all over the world in the early 1970s...

), and homicidal radioactive mutant
Mutant
In biology and especially genetics, a mutant is an individual, organism, or new genetic character, arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is a base-pair sequence change within the DNA of a gene or chromosome of an organism resulting in the creation of a new character or trait not...

s (Porno Holocaust, hardcore). Less horrific are Black Sex (the first genuine Italian hardcore movie and at the same time a weird melange of ghost story and cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

 drama), Hard Sensation (another variation on the Last House on the Left
The Last House on the Left (1972 film)
The Last House on the Left is a 1972 horror film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Sean S. Cunningham.The story is inspired by the 1960 Swedish film The Virgin Spring, directed by Ingmar Bergman, which in turn is based on the 13th century Swedish ballad "Töres döttrar i Wänge"...

-model, also hardcore) and Paradiso Blu (a softcore Robinsonade
Robinsonade
Robinsonade is a literary genre that takes its name from the 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. The success of this novel spawned enough imitations that its name was used to define a genre, which is sometimes described simply as a "desert island story"...

 starring Anna Bergman
Anna Bergman
Anna Bergman is a former Swedish actress. She is the daughter of film and theatre director Ingmar Bergman and choreographer-director Ellen Bergman, sister to Eva, Jan and Mats Bergman ; and half-sister to Daniel Bergman and Linn Ullmann.Bergman mostly appeared as a performer in several European...

). Recurring stars of these movies were Mark Shannon
Mark Shannon
Mark Shannon was a long-time conservative radio personality who lived in Edmond, Oklahoma....

, Lucia Ramirez, Dirce Funari, and Annj Goren.

Back in Italy, D'Amato mostly worked together with Claudio Bernabei on a number of obscure low-budget hardcore productions with titles like Super Hard Core, La voglia, Blue Erotic Climax, Le porno investigatrici, Stretta e Bagnata, Bocca Golosa, and Love in Hong Kong, for most of which they used the directorial pseudonym Alexandre Borsky. On his own, D'Amato directed the so-called Imperial Trilogy, starting with Caligula: The Untold Story (the sequel to Tinto Brass
Tinto Brass
Giovanni Brass , better known as Tinto Brass, is an Italian filmmaker. He is noted especially for his work in the erotic genre, with films such as Così fan tutte , Paprika, Monella and Trasgredire...

' Caligula
Caligula (film)
Caligula is a 1979 American-produced Italian biographical film directed by Tinto Brass, with additional scenes filmed by Giancarlo Lui and Penthouse founder Bob Guccione. The film concerns the rise and fall of Roman Emperor Gaius Caesar Germanicus, better known as Caligula...

) and concluding with the obscure low-budget follow-ups Messalina orgasmo imperiale and Una vergine per l'impero romano. Recurring stars of this period were Pauline Teutscher, Laura Levi, Mark Shannon
Mark Shannon
Mark Shannon was a long-time conservative radio personality who lived in Edmond, Oklahoma....

 (again), and Paolo Gramignano.

Around this time, D'Amato also started working as a producer, which eventually led to the founding of his own film company. From 1982 to 1994, Filmirage - as it was called - financed a total of 42 escapist non-hardcore genre entries: slashers
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...

, horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

, and post-apocalyptic movies directed by Umberto Lenzi
Umberto Lenzi
Umberto Lenzi , is an Italian film director who was very active in low budget crime films, peplums, spaghetti westerns, war movies, cannibal films and giallo murder mysteries ....

 (La Casa 3 - Ghosthouse, Hitcher in the Dark), Claudio Fragasso
Claudio Fragasso
Claudio Fragasso is an Italian screenwriter and film director of mostly low-budget exploitation films.- Filmmaking history :...

 (La Casa 5
La Casa 5
La Casa 5 is the second sequel to La Casa 3 .-Plot:...

, Troll 2
Troll 2
Troll 2 is a 1990 horror film directed by Claudio Fragasso and starring Michael Stephenson, George Hardy, Margo Prey, Connie Young , Deborah Reed, and Jason Wright...

), Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his directorial work on gore films, including Zombie and The Beyond , although he made films in genres as diverse as giallo, western, and comedy...

 (his last movie: Door into Silence), Michele Soavi
Michele Soavi
Michele Soavi, sometimes known as Michael Soavi is an Italian filmmaker.-Career:Michele Soavi was born in Milan. As a teenager, Soavi enrolled in creative arts classes and developed into a talented actor. He took acting lessons at Milan's Fersen Studios, but his greatest talent was working behind...

 (directorial debut: Stage Fright), and Luigi Montefiori (2020 Texas Gladiators), as well as a number of horror, fantasy, and softcore erotic movies directed by D'Amato himself, most notably three of the four Ator
Ator
Ator is a film series of four European movies made in the 1980s created by Italian director Joe D'Amato, under the pseudonym David Hills. D'Amato wrote and directed the first, second, and fourth films in the series, himself disregarding the existence of the third...

 movies, the postapocalyptic film Endgame, the Dirty Dancing
Dirty Dancing
Dirty Dancing is a 1987 American romantic film. Written by Eleanor Bergstein and directed by Emile Ardolino, the film features Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in the lead roles, as well as Cynthia Rhodes and Jerry Orbach...

 rip-off Dancing Is My Life (starring Valentine Demy), and the trilogy revolving around the fictional author Sarah Asproon (Eleven Days, Eleven Nights, Top Model, and Web of Desire, starring Jessica Moore and Kristine Rose).

In 1994, when Italian cinema was at a low point commercially, D'Amato returned to hardcore filmmaking
Hardcore pornography
Hardcore pornography is a form of pornography that features explicit sexual acts. The term was coined in the second half of the 20th century to distinguish it from softcore pornography. It usually takes the form of photographs, often displayed in magazines or on the Internet, or films. It can also...

. For his first handful of low-budget productions (mostly starring Luana Borgia), he again used the pseudonym Alexandre Borsky - before teaming up with Luca Damiano
Luca Damiano
Luca Damiano is an Italian film director who began his career as an assistant to Vittorio de Sica...

 to co-direct, mostly uncredited, a number of higher-budgeted costume porn movies such as Aladdin X, Marco Polo, and Hamlet X.

Then, from 1995 until his death in early 1999, he mostly directed and produced movies on his own again, founding the production companies Butterfly Motion Pictures and Capital Film (with seat in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

). He transformed into hardcore pornography
Hardcore pornography
Hardcore pornography is a form of pornography that features explicit sexual acts. The term was coined in the second half of the 20th century to distinguish it from softcore pornography. It usually takes the form of photographs, often displayed in magazines or on the Internet, or films. It can also...

 such divers subject matter as the tragedies of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 (Juliet & Romeo, Othello 2000, Anthony and Cleopatra), Greco-Roman mythology (Ulysses, Samson and Hercules in the Land of the Amazons, Olympus - Refuge of the Gods), Roman emperors (Caligula - The Devious Emperor, Nero, Messalina), the 1920s and 1930s in the U.S. (Gangland Bangers, Some Like It Hard, Rudy - The Valentino Story), the W.I.P. genre (Operation Sex, The Joy Club, Midnight Obsession), the western (Outlaws, Calamity Jane), and Swashbucklers (Selen the Girl from Treasure Island, Raiders, Lady in the Iron Mask). He also devised porn versions of successful movies, such as Anal Instinct (Basic Instinct
Basic Instinct
Basic Instinct is a 1992 erotic thriller directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas, and starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone....

), Dangerous (Damage), Eternal Desire (Highlander
Highlander (film)
Highlander is a 1986 fantasy action film directed by Russell Mulcahy and based on a story by Gregory Widen. It stars Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, Clancy Brown, and Roxanne Hart. The film depicts the climax of an ages-old battle between immortal warriors, depicted through interwoven past and...

), Anal Paprika (Paprika
Paprika (1991 film)
Paprika is a 1991 Italian film directed by Tinto Brass. The story follows the title character, a young girl who works as a prostitute in various brothels, losing any sense of self confidence and self-respect. But eventually she finds redemption, wealth and her one true love. The film is loosely...

), Robin Hood: Thief of Wives (Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Robin Hood: Men in Tights is a 1993 French-American adventure comedy film and a parody of the Robin Hood story. Produced and directed by Mel Brooks, the film stars Cary Elwes, Richard Lewis, and Dave Chappelle in his film debut...

), and Anal Perversions of Lolita (Lolita
Lolita (1997 film)
Lolita is a 1997 French-American drama film directed by Adrian Lyne. It is the second screen adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel of the same name and stars Jeremy Irons as Humbert Humbert and Dominique Swain as Dolores "Lolita" Haze, with supporting roles by Melanie Griffith as Charlotte Haze,...

).

D'Amato was one of the few porn directors who in the late 1990s continued to shoot on 35mm film (and not on video). In the last five years of his life, he directed almost 100 hardcore movies for the European video market. During this time, he also sought ways to finance non-hardcore movies with money earned from directing hardcore pornography, of which he grew tired at times. They were to be four: the erotic movies Provocation (1995) and Top Girl
Top Girl
Top Girl is an EP by South Korean singer G.NA. It features the title track of the same name, "Top Girl". The EP was released on August 23, 2011.-History:...

 (1996), the erotic thriller The Hyena (1997), and the pirate adventure movie Predators of the Antilles (1998) starring Anita Rinaldi
Anita Rinaldi
Anita Rinaldi is a former pornographic actress and film director. She is a producer and casting agent, and runs her own production agency "Touch Me Agency"....

.

Shortly after completing the hardcore feature Showgirl, Joe D'Amato died of heart failure at his villa in Rome in early 1999.

He had one son, Daniele Massaccesi
Daniele Massaccesi
Daniele Massaccesi is an Italian camera operator.Massaccesi is the son of Italian grindhouse director Joe D'Amato. Having first worked with his father, Massaccesi came to the United States to go into the film business for himself...

, who started out by helping his father in the camera department and later moved to the United States where he entered into a lucrative career as a cameraman, working on such films as Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain (film)
Cold Mountain is a 2003 war drama film written and directed by Anthony Minghella. The film is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Charles Frazier...

, Hannibal
Hannibal (film)
Hannibal is a 2001 psychological thriller film directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from the Thomas Harris novel of the same name. It is a sequel to the 1991 Academy Award-winning film The Silence of the Lambs that returns Anthony Hopkins to his iconic role as serial killer Hannibal Lecter...

, and Kingdom of Heaven
Kingdom of Heaven (film)
Kingdom of Heaven is a 2005 epic action film directed by Ridley Scott and written by William Monahan. It stars Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Jeremy Irons, David Thewlis, Marton Csokas, Brendan Gleeson, Kevin McKidd, Alexander Siddig, Ghassan Massoud, Edward Norton, Jon Finch, Michael Sheen and Liam...

.

Themes

D'Amato built many of his movies around strong female characters with a promiscuous tendency.

A recurring theme in his movies is onscreen voyeurism
Voyeurism
In clinical psychology, voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other activity usually considered to be of a private nature....

 - scenarios in which either a man or a woman watches a sexual act from a hiding place, often leading to sexual arousal and self masturbation.

Until 1994, D'Amato's horror movies also contained graphic gore scenes, many of a cannibalistic
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...

 nature. Most notorious in this respect are D'Amato's movies Anthropophagus, in which the monstrous protagonist devours a human fetus ripped from the womb of one of his victims and at the end of the movie gnaws on his own entrails, and Buio Omega, in which the protagonist bites into a human heart, but the theme already occurs in one of D'Amato's earlier films, Emanuelle e Françoise le sorelline
Emanuelle's Revenge
Emanuelle's Revenge , also known as Blood Vengeance, Demon Rage and Blood Rage, is a 1975 horror film directed by Joe D'Amato....

(1975), which was an erotic thriller
Erotic thriller
The erotic thriller is a film and literary sub-genre which consists of a mixture between erotica and thriller. The genre increased in North American popularity from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s, before declining in marketability.-1980s:...

 fantastique with a cannibalistic dinner scene. Besides that, cannibalism is only marginally present in Ator II: Cave Dwellers and Endgame.

Emanuelle in America
Emanuelle in America
Emanuelle in America is an Italian sexploitation film from 1977, the fourth in a series starring Laura Gemser, made to cash in on the success of the French film Emmanuelle and its sequels...

unexpectedly contains fake, but gritty snuff film
Snuff film
A snuff film is a motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation. For-profit snuff films are generally regarded as an urban legend, whose...

 footage.

Attitude towards filmmaking

Those who knew D'Amato have repeatedly stated in interviews that he was a very kind man, on and off set.

D'Amato himself repeatedly said that he really enjoyed filmmaking, but that he was sometimes more concerned with making money than any kind of artistic merit his films might have had. His attitude could perhaps best be characterized with a line from his film Emanuelle's Revenge
Emanuelle's Revenge
Emanuelle's Revenge , also known as Blood Vengeance, Demon Rage and Blood Rage, is a 1975 horror film directed by Joe D'Amato....

, spoken by a film producer playing a facsimile of D'Amato: "We're not making artsy-farty crap for intellectual faggots. We're out to make money!"

Technique and methods

D'Amato is renowned for having produced and directed many "knockoff" films - a common practice in the Italian film industry at the time which D'Amato took to extremes, e.g. in the following cases:
  • The idea of shooting a Black Emanuelle
    Black Emanuelle
    Black Emanuelle is an Italian softcore sexploitation film from 1975, the first in a series made to cash in on the success of the French film Emmanuelle, which was released the year before...

     film as director featuring cannibalism
    Cannibal film
    Cannibal films are a sub genre of exploitation film made mostly by Italian filmmakers through the 1970s and 1980s. This sub genre is a collection of graphically gory movies that usually depict cannibalism by primitive, Stone-age natives deep inside the Asian or South American rain forests...

     came with the success of Ultimo mondo cannibale
    Ultimo mondo cannibale
    Ultimo mondo cannibale is a cannibal exploitation film directed by Ruggero Deodato, which stars Massimo Foschi, Me Me Lai and Ivan Rassimov...

    (aka Jungle Holocaust or Last Cannibal World) by Ruggero Deodato
    Ruggero Deodato
    Ruggero Deodato is an Italian film director and screen writer, best known for directing violent and gory horror films. Deodato is infamous for his 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust.- Biography :...

    . Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals
    Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals
    Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals is a 1977 Italian sexploitation film by Joe D'Amato....

    (Emanuelle e gli ultimi cannibali) was released in 1977, the same year as Deodato's film, which was set in the Philippines
    Philippines
    The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

    , while D'Amato's plot unfolded in the Amazon Rainforest
    Amazon Rainforest
    The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...

     (the movie was actually shot in the Pontine Marshes
    Pontine Marshes
    thumb|250px|Lake Fogliano, a coastal lagoon in the Pontine Plain.The Pontine Marshes, termed in Latin Pomptinus Ager by Titus Livius, Pomptina Palus and Pomptinae Paludes by Pliny the Elder, today the Agro Pontino in Italian, is an approximately quadrangular area of former marshland in the Lazio...

    ). Deodato's 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust
    Cannibal Holocaust
    Cannibal Holocaust is a 1980 Italian horror film directed by Ruggero Deodato from a screenplay by Gianfranco Clerici. Filmed in the Amazon Rainforest and dealing with indigenous tribes, it was cast mostly with United States actors and filmed in English to achieve wider distribution...

    , then, is the Amazon Rainforest as well, implying a certain reciprocity of "inspiration".

  • Images in a Convent
    Images in a Convent
    Images in a Convent is a 1979 sexploitation film by Italian cult filmmaker Joe D'Amato.This film marks D'Amato's second entry into the 'nunsploitation' subgenre of trash films, after The Nun and the Devil in 1972 and it was followed by Convent of Sinners in 1986.The film contains strong scenes of...

    (Immagini di un convento) (1979) followed Walerian Borowczyk
    Walerian Borowczyk
    Walerian Borowczyk was a Polish film director. He directed 40 films between 1946 and 1988. His career as a film director was mainly in France.-Biography:...

    's Interno di un convento (Behind Convent Walls) (1977).

  • In 1981, D'Amato released Caligula 2, which he marketed as the sequel to 1979's Caligula
    Caligula (film)
    Caligula is a 1979 American-produced Italian biographical film directed by Tinto Brass, with additional scenes filmed by Giancarlo Lui and Penthouse founder Bob Guccione. The film concerns the rise and fall of Roman Emperor Gaius Caesar Germanicus, better known as Caligula...

    , even using similar poster art.

  • Only months after the release of Conan the Barbarian in 1982, D'Amato wrote, directed, and released Ator the Invincible about a Scandinavian barbarian who goes on an epic quest against fantasy monsters to save his beloved. Two years later, when Conan the Destroyer
    Conan the Destroyer
    Conan the Destroyer is a 1984 American action fantasy film directed by Richard Fleischer, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mako returning to resume their roles as Conan and Akiro the wizard, respectively. The cast also includes Grace Jones, Wilt Chamberlain, Tracey Walter and Olivia d'Abo. It is...

    was released, D'Amato quickly filmed and released Ator the Blademaster, which, while closely resembling Conan, also contained several clips of other movies which D'Amato had stolen and inserted, among them Where Eagles Dare
    Where Eagles Dare
    Where Eagles Dare is a 1968 World War II action-adventure spy film starring Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood and Mary Ure. It was directed by Brian G. Hutton and shot on location in Upper Austria and Bavaria....

    . When it was announced shortly thereafter that there would be no more Conan films, D'Amato announced there would be no more Ator films.

Joe D'Amato wrote and directed three of the four Ator
Ator
Ator is a film series of four European movies made in the 1980s created by Italian director Joe D'Amato, under the pseudonym David Hills. D'Amato wrote and directed the first, second, and fourth films in the series, himself disregarding the existence of the third...

movies. One of the movies, Blademaster, was featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....

retitled "Cave Dwellers". The third film in the series "IRON WARRIOR" was written & directed by Alfonso Brescia, not Joe D'Amato.
  • Undici giorni, undici notti (Eleven Days, Eleven Nights) was released in 1986, just a few months after Adrian Lyne
    Adrian Lyne
    Adrian Lyne is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for directing films that focus on sexually charged characters and often uses natural light, a fog machine and other effects to create eroticized atmospheres...

    's 9½ Weeks
    9½ Weeks
    ‎9½ Weeks is a 1986 erotic drama film directed by Adrian Lyne and starring Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger. It is based on the novel of the same name by Elizabeth McNeill....

    .

  • Following the success of Sex and Zen
    Sex and Zen
    Sex and Zen is a 1991 Hong Kong erotic comedy film directed by Michael Mak and starring Lawrence Ng and Amy Yip....

    , D'Amato directed a series of films in the Philippines
    Philippines
    The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

    , disguised as Hong Kong
    Hong Kong
    Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

     productions in the period of 1993-1994. The film named China and Sex, D'Amato credited as "Robert Yip" is particularly significant. He later displayed the expertise he gained in shooting "Chinese films" with Marco Polo: La storia mai raccontata (1995), a pornographic film starring Rocco Siffredi
    Rocco Siffredi
    Rocco Siffredi is the stage name of an Italian pornographic actor, director and producer of pornographic movies, famous for his rough sex scenes...

     and Tabatha Cash
    Tabatha Cash
    Tabatha Cash is a French former pornographic actress, who starred in over 50 adult movies during the 1990s.In May 1993 Tabatha Cash won a Hot D'Or after which her career saw tremendous growth....

    .

  • He produced and directed several porn films that were rip offs of major Hollywood films.


D'Amato also often bought stock shots, sometimes taken from other films, to insert them into his own as part of the narrative.

Selected filmography

  • Heroes in Hell
    Heroes in Hell (film)
    Heroes in Hell is a 1973 Italian war film directed by Joe D'Amato and starring Klaus Kinski. -Cast:* Lars Bloch* Rosemarie Lindt* Luciano Rossi * Luis Joyce* Franco Garofalo * Stan Simon* Dick Foster...

    (1973) starring Klaus Kinski
    Klaus Kinski
    Klaus Kinski, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski , was a German actor. He appeared in more than 130 films, and is perhaps best-remembered as a leading role actor in Werner Herzog films: Aguirre, the Wrath of God , Nosferatu the Vampyre , Woyzeck , Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde .-Early...

  • Death Smiles at a Murderer
    Death Smiles at a Murderer
    Death Smiles at a Murderer is a 1973 Italian horror film directed by Joe D'Amato, starring Klaus Kinski and Ewa Aulin.-Plot:A rich couple take in a young girl who was in an accident and has amnesia, and both have an affair with her. Meanwhile, Dr...

    (1973) starring Klaus Kinski
  • Emanuelle's Revenge
    Emanuelle's Revenge
    Emanuelle's Revenge , also known as Blood Vengeance, Demon Rage and Blood Rage, is a 1975 horror film directed by Joe D'Amato....

    (Emanuelle e Françoise le Sorelline) (1975)
  • Emanuelle in Bangkok (1976)
  • Emanuelle in America
    Emanuelle in America
    Emanuelle in America is an Italian sexploitation film from 1977, the fourth in a series starring Laura Gemser, made to cash in on the success of the French film Emmanuelle and its sequels...

    (1977)
  • Emanuelle Around the World
    Emanuelle around the world
    Emanuelle Around the World , also known as The Degradation of Emanuelle and Emanuelle Versus Violence to Women, is a 1977 sexploitation film by Italian director Joe D'Amato, starring Laura Gemser and George Eastman. The film was one of the most expensive films ever made in Italy at that time, not...

    (1977)
  • Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals
    Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals
    Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals is a 1977 Italian sexploitation film by Joe D'Amato....

    (Emanuelle e gli ultimi cannibali) (1977) aka "Trap Them And Kill Them"
  • Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade (1978)
  • Papaya, Love Goddess of the Cannibals
    Papaya, Love Goddess of the Cannibals
    Papaya, Love Goddess of the Cannibals is a 1978 Italian exploitation film directed by Joe D'Amato. It was written by Roberto Gandus and stars Melissa Chimenti in the titular role...

    (1978)
  • Images in a Convent
    Images in a Convent
    Images in a Convent is a 1979 sexploitation film by Italian cult filmmaker Joe D'Amato.This film marks D'Amato's second entry into the 'nunsploitation' subgenre of trash films, after The Nun and the Devil in 1972 and it was followed by Convent of Sinners in 1986.The film contains strong scenes of...

    (Immagini di un Convento) (1979)
  • Porno Holocaust (1979)
  • Beyond the Darkness (Buio Omega) (1979) aka "Buried Alive"
  • Erotic Nights of the Living Dead
    Erotic Nights of the Living Dead
    Erotic Nights of the Living Dead is an Italian erotic-horror film directed by Joe D'Amato and released in 1980.-Plot:...

    (1980)
  • Orgasmo Nero (Black Orgasm) (1980)
  • Antropophagus (1980) aka "The Grim Reaper", aka "The Man Beast", aka "Savage Island"
  • Absurd
    Absurd (film)
    Absurd is a 1981 Italian horror film, an unofficial sequel to Antropophagus...

    (1981) aka "Monster Hunter", aka "Anthropophagous 2", aka "Grim Reaper 2", aka "Zombie 6"
  • Caligula: The Untold Story (1981) (as David Hills)
  • 2020 Texas Gladiators (1982) aka Anno 2020 - I gladiatori del futuro
  • Ator the Fighting Eagle (1983) aka "Ator The Invincible", aka "Ator 1"
  • Endgame (1983)
  • Blade Master (1985) aka Ator 2: Blademaster, aka "Ator 2: Cave Dwellers", aka "Ator l'invincibile 2"
  • Convent of Sinners (La Monaca del Peccato) (1986)
  • Killing Birds
    Killing Birds
    Killing Birds is a 1988 Italian horror movie released in the United States under the title Zombie 5: Killing Birds. Despite this title, zombies only feature in the last few minutes of the movie, and only one character is attacked by birds....

    (1987) aka "Raptors" (co-directed with Claudio Lattanzi)
  • Quest for the Mighty Sword
    Quest for the Mighty Sword
    Quest for the Mighty Sword is the fourth and final film in the Ator film series, although it is regarded as the third film to the series creator, Joe D'Amato, who disowns Iron Warrior which was the only film in the series not to be directed by D'Amato...

    (1989) aka "Ator 4: Quest for the Mighty Sword"
  • Deep Blood
    Deep Blood
    Deep Blood is a 1989 shark attack film directed by Joe D'Amato and written by George Nelson Ott. It was edited by Kathleen Stratton, and contained original music by Carlo Maria Cordio. The film was made in Italy by Filmirage S.r.l...

    (1989) aka "Blood in the Abyss" (a Jaws rip-off)
  • Return From Death (1992) aka "Frankenstein 2000"

Selected films as producer only

  • Stage Fright (1987) aka Bloody Bird, directed by Michele Soavi
    Michele Soavi
    Michele Soavi, sometimes known as Michael Soavi is an Italian filmmaker.-Career:Michele Soavi was born in Milan. As a teenager, Soavi enrolled in creative arts classes and developed into a talented actor. He took acting lessons at Milan's Fersen Studios, but his greatest talent was working behind...

  • Ghosthouse (1988) aka La Casa 3
    La Casa 3
    La Casa 3 is the unofficial Italian sequel to Evil Dead II released in 1988. In Italy, The Evil Dead was released under the title La Casa and Evil Dead II became La Casa II...

    , directed by Umberto Lenzi
    Umberto Lenzi
    Umberto Lenzi , is an Italian film director who was very active in low budget crime films, peplums, spaghetti westerns, war movies, cannibal films and giallo murder mysteries ....

  • Witchery (1988) aka La Casa 4
    La Casa 4
    La Casa 4 is a 1988 horror film. It is the first sequel to La Casa 3 , starring stars David Hasselhoff, Catherine Hickland, Hildegard Knef, Linda Blair, & Annie Ross.-Plot:Gary and his gal pal Linda visit an island off...

  • Hitcher in the dark (1989) aka Fear in the Dark, directed by Umberto Lenzi
  • La Casa 5: Beyond Darkness (1990) aka La Casa 5
    La Casa 5
    La Casa 5 is the second sequel to La Casa 3 .-Plot:...

  • Troll 2
    Troll 2
    Troll 2 is a 1990 horror film directed by Claudio Fragasso and starring Michael Stephenson, George Hardy, Margo Prey, Connie Young , Deborah Reed, and Jason Wright...

    (1990) directed by Claudio Fragasso
    Claudio Fragasso
    Claudio Fragasso is an Italian screenwriter and film director of mostly low-budget exploitation films.- Filmmaking history :...

  • The Door to Silence (1991) directed by Lucio Fulci
    Lucio Fulci
    Lucio Fulci was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his directorial work on gore films, including Zombie and The Beyond , although he made films in genres as diverse as giallo, western, and comedy...


The aliases of Aristide Massaccesi

D'Amato always took credit for his camerawork with his birth name Aristide Massaccesi until his late hardcore phase, when he started to use the pseudonym Frederiko Slonisko.

When first starting to work as a director, he chose to credit the producer or co-director instead because he wanted to avoid interference between his directorial work, of which he did not think much due to budget constraints, and his professional reputation as cinematographer. Around 1973, he started using directorial pseudonyms, the first being Michael Wotruba. The only movie which D'Amato as a director ever took credit for with his birth name was to be Death Smiles at a Murderer
Death Smiles at a Murderer
Death Smiles at a Murderer is a 1973 Italian horror film directed by Joe D'Amato, starring Klaus Kinski and Ewa Aulin.-Plot:A rich couple take in a young girl who was in an accident and has amnesia, and both have an affair with her. Meanwhile, Dr...

(1973); in an interview, D'Amato said he had felt comfortable with the reasonably high budget and the actors he had at his disposal.

In 1974, he first used the name Joe D'Amato as director on the Canadian spaghetti western Cormack of the Mounties, a name proposed by producer Ermanno Donati to resemble Italian American
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...

 the Italian names of directors such as Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...

 and Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...

 and which became his better-known pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

.

During his lifetime, D'Amato worked under innumerable aliases. Because of this, it is on the one hand possible that there are still Joe D'Amato films which are in circulation, which he wrote or directed, but for which he used an as yet unattributed pseudonym. This seems especially likely for the years devoted to the production of hardcore pornography in the early 1980s and the second half of the 1990s. On the other hand, titles are easily wrongly attributed to D'Amato as long as they are directed by a lesser known director with only one or a few titles in his oeuvre who happened to work in the same genre as D'Amato and whose name is then misinterpreted as a pseudonym of Joe D'Amato. This is largely due to the lack of easily accessible documentation on most of these movies.

The following is a list of pseudonyms D'Amato is known to have used. The names which recur on a regular basis are highlighted in bold.
  • Donna Aubert
  • Stephen Benson
  • Steve Benson
  • John Bird
  • Alexandre Borski
  • Alexandre Borsky
  • James Burke
  • Lee Castle
  • Lynn Clark
  • O.J. Clarke
  • Hugo Clevers
  • Joe D'Amato
  • Joe De Mato
  • Raf de Palma
  • Michael Di Caprio
  • Dario Donati

  • Robert Hall
  • Richard Haller
  • David Hills
  • Igor Horwess
  • George Hudson
  • Kevin Mancuso
  • Arizona Massachuset
  • Andrea Massai
  • J. Metheus
  • Peter Newton

  • Zak Roberts
  • Tom Salima
  • John Shadow
  • Dan Slonisko
  • Federico Slonisco
  • Frederick Slonisco
  • Fédérico Slonisco
  • Frederick Slonisko
  • Frederico Slonisko
  • Frederic Slonisko
  • Frederiko Slonisko
  • Fred Slonisko
  • Chana Lee Sun
  • Chang Lee Sun
  • Michael Wotruba
  • Robert Yip

Anna Bergman
Anna Bergman
Anna Bergman is a former Swedish actress. She is the daughter of film and theatre director Ingmar Bergman and choreographer-director Ellen Bergman, sister to Eva, Jan and Mats Bergman ; and half-sister to Daniel Bergman and Linn Ullmann.Bergman mostly appeared as a performer in several European...

, Raf Donato, Gerry Lively
Gerry Lively
Gerry Lively is a cinematographer and film director, known for directing Darkness Falls , Dungeons & Dragons 2: Wrath of the Dragon God and Body Armour .-External links:...

, and Romano Gastaldi are sometimes listed under pseudonyms as well. However, these were not mere names, but actual people involved in the production of the respective movies who for various reasons took the credit in D'Amato's stead, and thus should not be listed as pseudonyms, but allonyms. The same goes for D'Amato's use of the fictitious character-name Sarah Asproon.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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