Eastman & D'Amato

  There are a ton of George Eastman and Joe D'amato films in the Deep Red catalog, two work horses of filth and depravity. These two men are always connected in some way or another, they sling guts and tedious sex scenes like an all night fry cook does at a greasy spoon. Many of the films in the catalog and Mary Whitehouse's notorious video nasty list had either the dreaded Joey D or George Eastman name attached.These two were always on the conservative hit list of dangerous men to watch out for. They were the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis of entrails and bad sex scenes. According to IMDB D'amato or Aristide Massaccesi is the evil Ed Wood, which doesn't make much sense when you consider Ed Wood could never have taken the all porn route. Sure he directed a couple of "Adult "clunkers awkwardly(with Rene Bond) but could never match the style of any of the Emmanuelle films.
    D'amato sort of hitched his pizza wagon onto the Fulci/Romero pasta yacht by using Tisa Farrow and soundtrack mavens: Goblin, he generated a tiny bit of exposure that way with light star power. Like many of these Italian grifters whatever gory box office success enabled them to branch out and make a name for themselves worked wonders. If it hadn't been for Romero the Italians would have to rip off some other Zombie genre. Fulci sort of riffed on "I Walked With A Zombie". These directors mostly work like frustrated capitalists, shaking their fists in the air and thinking who can I steal from next! They out rightly own the Cannibal genre however!
   According to D'Amato: "I change my name many, many times, mainly for the European market because it makes the movies seem like they're American or British. It's better for European distribution that they seem that way ".

   Eastman and D'Amato really had the eurotrash market by the balls back in the days of Yor (Hunter of the Future). Later on the real cash cow came along for Eastman and D'Amato with the arrival of Indonesian temptress Laura Gemser. She has the magical ability to travel, exploit others with her body, investigate snuff films and even blow away cannibals. Silvia Krystal could never have carried the series as far and only D'Amato could take it to all the weird places (bestiality) it went. The only Emmanuelle Films in the catalog are Emmanuelle and the Last Cannibals and Emmanuelle's Revenge (which doesn't feature Gemser).Revenge is more in the style of a giallo (yawn). Cannibal is an inept classic with a great theme song by Nico Fidenco. He really brings each sequel to a new level of cheesy goodness.The Cannibals theme sounds like a fake Zsa Zsa Gabor impersonator with a casio, bongos, and a craptacular disco beat (complete with nonsensical lyrics)! Fidenco is another strong point for D'Amato and they would continue to work together for all the Emmanuelle films, until he was replaced by Marcello Giombini (AKA Pluto Kennedy).
   Titles featured in the catalog associated with Eastman are Anthropophagus 1 and 2 (two nice alternate titles for this one are Absurd and Horrible), Sexy Nights of the Living Dead, The infamous Porno Holocaust, (also the second film to involve Italian Magnum P.I. impersonator Mark Shannon). Mario Bava's excellent crime shocker Rabid Dogs is mysteriously missing from the catalog and not even under it's many alternate titles. Eastman's performance undubbed is extraordinary and you really get to see him bring the slaughter to the table. check out this goofy tribute video (w/ some film links and interviews http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkfviNZLNiI)
 Stage Fright was directed by Cemetery Man's Michele Soavi,  but written by Eastman (Who this time replaced the fetus scarfing from Anthropophagus with a giant maniacal owl).
     The Sexy Nights of the Living Dead takes forever to get moving and has some of the grossest sex scenes (c/o of Mark "Warty Balls" Shannon). D'Amato's style of dull sex scene, tedious build up and then eventual gore spectacle is often excruciating and not very rewarding. I fell asleep a few times during Anthropophagus. That film has some attractive women though (Zora Kerova, with her tiny breasts unscathed by meat hooks, thankfully), Serena Grandi (from Delerium: photo's of Gia) and homely Tisa Farrow.
The Eastman/ D'Amato team were unstoppable back then, but gore hounds alone Luigi Montefiori is no slouch either!

I don't smell nothing!

Starting out in The Django series of Spaghetti Westerns and moving onto writing all types of genre films (Prison films, subway terror,ecological horrors and at least 45 titles under his belt). Eastman has worked for all types of Italian cinematic maestros including Sergio "monkey on a javelin" Martino, Deodato (unleash the cannibals onto the Barbarian brothers), Fellini (Satyricon), Castellari, Lamberto Bava (he appeared in his watchable films!)and last but not least, Umberto Lenzi's barbarian barf-a-rama The Iron Master.
In my mind he will always be known as Big Ape from Sergio Martino's brilliant rip off of Escape from NY; 2019 After the Fall of NY, I can still smell the gorilla hair burning in my nostril's right now as I look back fondly on that Michael Sopkiw turd. Check these out while you still can on Youtube and Netflix! Also, don't forget to check out the insanely entertaining interviews (where any chance he gets, George he will never fail to mention his opus " Anthropophagus") Why is he so proud? Could it be the negative attention he achieved? I like that he proudly boasts about it regardless.
 








Why not watch Anthropophagus right now