Joe D'Amato

Joe D’Amato was the filmmaking name of Aristide Massaccesi, a director and producer associated with Italian genre cinema. His work ranged across horror, exploitation and adult films, and included Beyond the Darkness, Anthropophagous and Caligula: The Untold Story.

He also worked on films in the Black Emanuelle cycle with Laura Gemser. The documentary Inferno Rosso: Joe D’Amato on the Road of Excess examines that varied career through archive material and interviews with collaborators. His filmography belongs to a commercial production culture in which directors and performers frequently crossed genres, budgets and international markets.