SUFFER FOR YOUR ART!

From the producers of Barricade and Red Midnight comes an all-new nightmare...

Poor Roberta.  Once a celebrated artist specializing in macabre erotic imagery, she's now a bored socialite focused on secret sex games and decadent thievery.  But tonight, a deranged admirer wants to re-awaken Roberta's unique talents with a horrifying offer that she simply cannot refuse.  The ill-fated woman soon finds herself trapped in the phantom's lair, witness to blood-thirsty acts that threaten some of Italy's most sophisticated ladies... all in the name of art!

Directed by Giovanni Pianigiani (Red Midnight, Night's Vampires) and featuring Barricade's Raine Brown, Joseph Zaso, and Timo Rose, this journey into the macabre also features British scream queen Eileen Daly (Razor Blade Smile, Machines of Love and Hate) and stars Italian beauty Yassmin Pucci as the troubled Roberta.

Filmed on location in Florence and in the spirit of classic 1970s "giallo" murder mysteries, Darkness Surrounds Roberta is an unveiling of savagery and lust unlike anything you've ever seen.

PRODUCTION

Darkness Surrounds Roberta was written by Bruno di Marcello and Giovanni Pianigiani, with the intention of recreating the look and feel of a classic Italian giallo film. After a re-write by American screenwriter Ted Geoghegan, principal photography began under the direction of Pianigiani on March 19, 2007 in Caserta, Italy. Filming continued for fifteen days, eventually migrating to nearby Naples for the remainder of the shoot.

With its international cast coming from Italy, America, England, and Germany, the production did its fair share of juggling to make sure the shoot was handled as easily as possible. Although the occasional rainstorm slowed production, the shoot was completed on-time and well within budget. The last day of principal photography in Naples was on April 2, 2007.

Several pick-up shots were filmed in Florence, Italy, in May of 2007. By this time, the film was deep in post-production. Editing, under the direction of Bruno di Marcello, was underway, and the film's symphonic score was being recorded by acclaimed Italian composer Marco Werba.

Deep Inside Roberta, a behind-the-scenes featurette, was released online in August of 2007. The first cut of Darkness Surrounds Roberta was completed later that month.

Darkness Surrounds Roberta will be released on DVD by Cinema Image Productions on November 20, 2007.

JOE ZASO

Producer and actor Joe Zaso was born in New York in 1970. He has always been drawn to filmmaking and, at age 16, formed Cinema Image Productions - his own production company. Throughout the 90s, he collaborated with such directors as Joseph Parda on several feature film projects starting with Five Dead on the Crimson Canvas. In 2001, appeared in his first international film, the Italian thriller Demonium.

Zaso has since appeared in various horror features in America, Italy, and Germany including: Barricade, Red Midnight, Nikos the Impaler, The Adventures of Young Van Helsing, Angel's Blade and Rage of the Werewolf.

As to why he chose this new film project, Zaso states "With Darkness Surrounds Roberta, I wanted to work once again with the giallo film – my favorite film sub-genre – while introducing it to a modern horror audience…  And where better to make a giallo film than in the country where they were born?"

GIOVANNI PIANIGIANI

Giovanni Pianigiani was born in the northern Italian city of Trieste in 1962. He graduated with a thesis about George A. Romero's Dead trilogy and has been a lifelong lover of horror and suspense films. In the 1980s, he made several Super 8 films in the city of Bologna, which he describes as "John Waters, washed down with Italian wine".

After making his mark on the indie film scene with the feature Nella Notte, Giovanni worked on countless documentary features for Italian television and a wide variety of films about heavy metal, body modification, Muslims, Croatia and Slovenia, and the rock bands of Trieste. He has penned several screenplays for adult films and worked as a dialogue editor on various Italian soap operas. Having directed the "Pilgrimage" episode of Red Midnight, he then focused on writing and directing Darkness Surrounds Roberta.

His passions include horror films, heavy metal and grindcore music.

YASSMIN PUCCI

Yassmin Pucci Amirsoleymani Pahlavi was born in Rome, Italy, in February of 1977 to Italian-Iranian parents. After studying at The New York University and The Lee Strassberg Institute, Yassmin appeared in various American stage productions, independent films, and nationwide advertisements. She then returned to her native Italy, where she studied dancing and singing while appearing in various television programs and the 2005 film Replay.

In 2006, Yassmin was approached to star in Darkness Surrounds Roberta. In her own words, "The first time I read the script, I couldn't believe how different Roberta was from me. I had to do it." Working in unseasonably cold temperatures took its toll on the cast and crew, but Yassmin remained optimistic. "It was freezing and I was naked almost all the time, but the crew always managed to make me feel comfortable."

In addition to her acting, Yassmin enjoys horse riding, volleyball, swimming, and screenwriting. When asked about her latest experience, she replied, "I'm so happy with Darkness Surrounds Roberta. We made a movie in twenty days on a limited budget, but we did it… and we did it great!"

RAINE BROWN

Raine Brown is a New Jersey-based actress who made her first major media appearance in a 2000 episode of the HBO series Sex in the City entitled "Where There's Smoke..." and then, in 2002, appeared in Dante Tomaselli's surreal terror film Horror.

Since then, she has appeared in various independent and horror features and co-hosted New York City's 2005 Village Halloween Parade. She previously appeared on-screen with Roberta co-star Joseph Zaso in the horror features Angel's Blade and Barricade.

Raine's other genre projects include 100 Tears, Satan's Playground, Plasterhead, Woods of Evil, Pink Eye, and Psycho Holocaust. She can be seen next in Maverick Entertainment's gritty crime thriller Street Revenge.

TIMO ROSE

Germany's Timo Rose has made a name for himself as one of the horror industry's most promising up-and-coming directors. Having directed over a dozen films in the past nine years, Rose has also achieved amazing acclaim as a special effects technician, editor, and musician. As his musical persona "King Hannibal", Rose has released several best-selling hip-hop albums in his native Germany. He created the stunning effects work on Darkness Surrounds Roberta, as well as appearing in a short cameo.

As Rose states, "It was really fun to work on Roberta. I really enjoyed the time in I spent in Italy and I created some really cool – and bloody – special effects! The team there was awesome. I loved it!"

EILEEN DALY

Born in Surrey, England, Eileen Daly has become an icon in the horror and cult film industry. Since starting her career in the genre in 1995 with Demonsoul, she has portrayed all manner of characters – from the seductive head of a coven in Witchcraft X to a vampire assassin in Razor Blade Smile. In 2005, she appeared in the controversial, award-winning adult Dutch feature All About Anna, which was produced by Lars Von Trier's Zentropa Productions.

She currently is performing in and around the UK with her rock band, The Courtesans.

Eileen has previously worked with actor/producer Joseph Zaso on Machines of Love and Hate in 2003. On working with him again, "It was wonderful working with Joe once more. He's such a great actor! …Meeting Timo Rose was grand – he made me laugh all week. It was great to work with such a talented crew. Roberta was one of the best films I've ever been a part of."

LEANDRO GUERRINI

Leandro Guerrini has made a name for himself in his native Italy, having appeared in various film and television roles, as well as commercials for IBM and Vodaphone Italia. After starring Darkness Surrounds Roberta, he starred as the titular character in Salvatore Allocca's Marc Random and appeared in the Norwegian short horror movie Thy Kingdom Come, directed by Kjersti Steinsbo.

In Leandro's own words, "Roberta was one of the most important films of my life! My experience with an international cast improved me as actor and man. It gave me the chance to face a genre and character I never expected to explore... and it was simply amazing!"

ALEX BIRRELL

Cinematographer Alex Birrell has been working constantly in Italy after graduating from college and has been regularly travelling to England since recently founding Studio Mare Nostrum Ltd. there. Their aim is to find necessary funding for projects in Italy, Britain and throughout the European Union. He has also written various screenplays and short feature subjects.

In regards to working on Darkness Surrounds Roberta, Alex calls it, "two great weeks of non-stop work and fun. You forgot how tiring the schedule was because every day was a constant re-invention."

TED GEOGHEGAN

Producer Ted Geoghegan began his career in the film industry as a screenwriter, penning Andreas Schnaas' Demonium in 2001. It was on that Italian-German co-production that he met actor Jospeh Zaso, with whom he would work on three later features. Most recently, the duo teamed up with German horror auteur Timo Rose for the film Barricade, which also starred Roberta's Raine Brown. Keeping consistently busy, Darkness Surrounds Roberta marked his fourth film as producer in the year 2007.

Reminiscing on Roberta, Geoghegan notes, "It was great to work with Joe, Raine, and Timo again. We're like one big family – and when we get together, the results are always fantastic."

MARCO WERBA

Marco Werba was born in Madrid, Spain in 1963 and has been a lifelong fan of cinema. In 1976, he was inspired to begin writing music for the movies after experiencing Jerry Goldsmith's score to the futuristic action film Logan's Run. Working mainly in Italy, Werba began his compositions and met with great success.

His score for 1988's Zoo (starring a young Asia Argento) won him the Colonna Sonora Award; which he soon followed with powerful, haunting works for such acclaimed directors as Marcel Hanoun, Filippo Altadonna, and Maurizio Imbriali. He has most recently composed the main theme to Timo Rose's supernatural shocker, Fearmakers, and will be composing the score to Le Quattro giornate di Napoli, a remake of the Nanni Loy 1962 World War II classic.