Favourite Five Series: LUCIO FULCI

The road to good intentions was paved with one too many social events this October. I really would have liked to have done more Favourite Five lists in honor of Halloween. Since I could not accommodate as many lists as I would have liked I will at least close the month out with a mighty duo. Two of the horror genres heaviest hitters (in my world anyway) and two of my personal faves. Lucio Fulci directed a few comedies and westerns but it is the horror entries that made me a fan for life. I adore both his beautiful, sexy, surreal and intriguing Giallos as well as his spectacularly gory gag-fests! As seems to be the case with the Favourite Five series thus far, there is always 3 or 4 that are easy choices with one or two that tear me up inside choosing. The more I love the director the more challenging this is. It was particularly difficult to leave Massacre Time, New York Ripper and Perversion Story off the list. Not to mention City of the Living Dead, House by the Cemetery and even the much maligned but near and dear to my heart Cat in the Brain starring Fulci as himself! I have seen all of the below films multiple times and four of the five are on my top 100 favourite horror films of all time. Fulci is a God and should be worshipped accordingly.

DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING (1972)

The original Italian title translated as “Don’t Torture Donald Duck”. For legal reasons Fulci was unable to use the name Internationally. The reference is to a Donald Duck doll; one of the main clues in the film. If South Park has taught me anything (and it has taught me plenty) you do not fuck with Disney.

A killer is murdering young boys in a remote Italian village. A young woman laying low after a recent drug scandal is recognized by a reporter and the two work together to attempt to solve the crime. Don’t Torture A Duckling lacks the gore of Fulci’s later work but it is definitely gritty, bleak and nasty. When young boys are killed in a small village the ugliness, cruelty and hatred of small town, small-minded folks is left behind. There is plenty of Anti-Catholic sentiment here which may have been the reason the film was blacklisted when it was released in 1972. There are several suspects among the group of eccentric locals. Their distrust of outsiders and their superstitious beliefs presents many challenges. The atmosphere is unsettling and the remote village is eerie and cloying. There are several twists, turns and a few shocks. The most shocking of which is an unforgettable mob scene that leaves me aghast no matter how many times I watch it. The performances are brilliant particularly from Barbara Bouchet who plays the smart and feisty Patrizia, Tomas Milian who plays the determined and handsome Andrea Martelli and Florinda Bolkan whose fierce and fearless turn as Maciara is truly memorable. Fulci uses some particularly wild and woolly zooms; the man does love his closeups. Compelling, smart, beautiful, well acted; Don’t Torture a Duclking is one of the best Giallo’s ever made.

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THE BEYOND (1981)

The Beyond is the second in a trio of Hell on Earth premised flicks directed by Fulci in the 80s; all three starring Catriona MacColl. Besides the Hell on Earth premise and Ms. MacColl’s appearance the films have little connection to one another and were never officially released as a trilogy. The Beyond’s predecessor City of the Living Dead is about psychic Mary Woodhouse who sees the death of a priest in a vision. The priest’s death causes the gates of Hell to open. In The Beyond MacColl plays Liza Merril who inherits a hotel built on top of one of the seven gates of Hell.

An artist accused of being a warlock is murdered by a lynch mob and his death opens one of the seven doors of Hell below a Louisiana hotel. Decades later Liza Merrill inherits the doomed hotel and unknowingly re-opens a door to hell while renovating. Liza and her acquaintance Dr. John McCabe are soon fending off the living dead, ghosts, and the possessed in a tour de force of supernatural mayhem! Fulci throws a little bit of everything into this unholy masterpiece! People are nailed to walls, eaten by tarantulas, melted by acid, and of course there is classic Fulci eye trauma! And lest we not forget the undead! Beautiful, rotted wonderfully vial zombies! The zombies come in various states of grossness. In fact, a few look like old men who just need a nap. Don’t expect an explanation for everything; some of the action is bordering on illogical. Don’t look at that as a bad thing. The Beyond has such a creepy, moody, electric atmosphere and is oh so fan-fucking-tastic to look at it that it is easy as one-two-three to just get lost in the ultimate nightmare! The Beyond is beautiful, classic Fulci at his gory best!

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ZOMBIE (1979)

Another Fulci film title meets controversy. Fulci’s film shared a moniker with the Italian release of George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. Zombie became known as Zombie Flesh Eaters, Zombi 2 and Island of the Living Dead. I give both men’s films a 5/5 but one area that Fulci surpasses Romero is the vileness and pure rottenness of his zombies. No one has topped these zombies in my opinion not to this day. They are the most disgusting zombies to grace a genre film. Rotten flesh covered in maggots and worms. REAL maggots and worms too. I am sure the extras were not paid nearly enough for their roles in Fulci’s film. What a delightfully dreck treat it is to see someone fight for their life and end up with a chunk of rotten flesh in their hands! Freaking beautiful!

Anne Bowles sets out to find her father after his ship turns up abandoned in New York’s harbor. Anne hooks up with journalist Peter West and together they travel to the Antilles with couple Brian and Susan. Once on the Island they meet the curious Dr. Menard, who tells them about the infection spreading that brings the dead back to life. Zombie is one of the few genre films to feature the undead under water. Why the hell not? They don’t breath…they are dead! Fulci throws in the pièce de résistance with a zombie attacking a shark. Zombie’s awesome opening sequence sees one man shoot another and then say to someone off-screen “The boat can leave now. Tell the crew”. The next shot is a seemingly abandoned boat floating in the New York harbour. Two coast guards board the ship and one of them gets an ugly surprise when a large nasty looking zombie rips his throat out with its teeth. One must appreciate getting both a zombie and a kill in the first few minutes of a genre film! There is entrail eating, throat ripping, eye gouging and unnecessary nudity. From its quiet and haunting opening to the final frame there is more gorgeous graphic goodness than one zombie film deserves to have. Fulci delivers the gory goods! The breathtaking scenery of the Island is the perfect backdrop to the zombie mayhem to come and the brilliant score by Fabio Frizzi is the perfect accompaniment to the dread. Zombie is absolutely one of the finest zombie films ever made. Period.

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A LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN (1971)

A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin is Fulci’s most surreal and esthetically pleasing of his resume; it is also the film with the most significant controversy. The film contains a graphic scene of sliced open dogs whose hearts are still beating. The dogs looked so realistic that Fulci was allegedly charged and threatened with a two-year prison sentence. Special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi was called into court to prove his dogs were fake. Can a special effects person get any better compliment than that?

Carol Hammond; the daughter of wealthy politician Edmund Brighton has been seeing a psychoanalyst about some disturbing dreams. The dreams features her neighbor Julia who often throws noisy parties which both irritate and titillate Carol. Carol’s dreams continue and escalate in severity. After Carol has a dream she has killed Julia she awakes to learn that Julia has been found dead. Has fantasy become reality? Inspector Corvin intends to find out. A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin is a well crafted and engaging mystery. The film contains little graphic violence and is more of a surreal, psychedelic trip laced with sex and drugs. The visuals are fabulous especially Carol’s numerous dream sequences. Sexy, beautiful, dreamy and warped; just the way I like my dream sequences. The film kept me guessing and has an outstanding reveal and finale. A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin is loaded with great performances from some of my favourite actor and actresses from the period like Jean Sorel who plays Julia’s husband Frank, Stanley Baker who plays the Scotland Yard Inspector, Anita Strindberg who plays Julia and Edy Gall who plays Frank’s teenage daughter Joan. But first and foremost there is Florinda Bolkan who plays central character Carol Hammond. This role is one of the main reasons I have an immense respect and adoration for this extraordinarily talented actress. She is also a striking woman visually. A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin is a hypnotic, fascinating and sexy Giallo that thrills and rewards.

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THE PSYCHIC (1977)

I had little use for The Psychic when I seen it the first time around. I was all about the gore in my teens and early twenties and if it didn’t have gore I was not very interested. When I re-watched The Psychic for my 1977 top ten list I was suitably impressed with the film and gave it the number seven spot in the top ten for a very strong year in the decade. However it was when I re-watched The Psychic to compile pictures for a slideshow featuring music from the film that I realized what a particularly solid horror thriller it really was.

When psychic Virginia Ducci sees a murder in one of her visions it results in the arrest of her husband. Virginia sets out to clear her husband of the crime. Obviously that is the extremely truncated plot summary; there is much more going on in The Psychic than that. Virginia has several visions through the film that include the death of her mother among other traumas. Virginia intends to renovate a mansion her rich husband bought and recognizes it from one of her visions. She tears open a wall and finds some skeletal remains and immediately calls the police. This is how hubby gets arrested. The Psychic’s intriguing story is full of suspense and mystery. While the reveal isn’t a terrible shock it is well-executed and the finale is a memorable treat. Jennifer O’Neill is well cast as Virginia Ducci and is a strong and likable lead. The performances by all the cast are quite decent. A nice unsettling mood and atmosphere is established and the setting is perfect and suitably eerie. It is all complimented beautifully by the fabulous soundtrack from Franco Bixio, Fabio Frizzi and Vince Tempera. The Psychic is an ever so sweet horror thriller that I think is rather under-appreciated in Fulci’s library.

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Favourite Five Series: DARIO ARGENTO

My Favourite Five Series continues with director Dario Argento. Argento has 23 director credits on IMDB. I have seen all of Argento’s directorial efforts with the exception of the 2012 film Dracula 3D. It has been getting more and more difficult to be enthusiastic about Argento’s films as the years go by. The 70s and 80s were his high years, but he did produce a few intriguing efforts in the 90s also. Just the same, Argento’s name is still one of the first that comes to mind when I think of genre favourites. The following five films have endured multiple viewings and still shine with the lustre of a million jewel-filled treasure chests. Argento’s stylish visuals are what makes his unique, surreal, violent, sexy, dreamy-nightmarish and horrifying world so bloody special.

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DEEP RED (1975)

Deep Red has long been not only a favourite Argento film but an all time favourite horror film period. It has had a place on my top 100 favourites of all time for as long as that list has existed. As a matter of fact the same can be said for the next two Argento films listed here. Deep Red boasts Argento’s unique and stylish visuals; prolonged shots of inanimate objects like windows, shots around corners and weird angles. The man can make the most mundane of objects eerie. It is packed with interesting and unique set pieces; especially appealing is a collection of odd toys. Love the faceless yarn Wicker Man-esque doll with pins in its chest and of course this guy…

The score for Deep Red is fantastic. The performances are great. David Hemmings plays a pianist who lives below the film’s first murder victim and witnesses her death. He is a pianist not a detective and he trips and bumbles his way to the end with a likable and natural turn. Daria Nicolodi does a solid job as an aggressive liberated journalist/reporter who works with Hemmings to solve the mystery. The twist and finale are one of Argento’s finest. Argento offers plenty of variety with the death, from hatchet, to scalding, to decapitation. Argento’s flawless Gialli is a Classic!

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TENEBRE (1982)

While all of Argento’s films feature creative death sequences Tenebre is one of his most graphic entries containing more violence and nudity than his previous offerings. Author Peter Neal has travelled to Italy to promote his latest book Tenebre. When he arrives at his temporary lodgings he is greeted by two police detectives. A local woman has been found slashed to death by a straight razor with several pages of his new book shoved into her mouth. This is only the beginning in a string of Tenebre inspired murders. As the bodies continue to pile up around him, Neal unwillingly becomes involved in the case and even does a little detective work of his own. Tenebre boasts plenty of twists and turns in what may be Argento’s most plot-driven offering. The Giallo features are firmly intact with red-herrings, black leather gloves and death most beautiful. There are several well-executed death sequences including a particularly impressive crane shot of the outside of a house that follows a busty woman in various states of undress whose life inevitably comes to a brutal end. There is also a dog attack, strangulation, stabbing, axing and razor slashing. There is also an outstanding reoccurring dream/flashback sequence of a woman in a white dress wearing red pumps. The viewer doesn’t know which character is having the vision, but the woman in the white dress clearly torments them and is central to the plot.

Anthony Franciosa is excellent as Peter Neal and Daria Nicolodi gives an amiable performances as his assistant. The two have great chemistry. The supporting cast give sweet support; John Saxon who plays Neal’s sleazy agent, Lara Wendel who plays Maria, the landlord’s jailbait daughter and Christian Borromeo who plays errand boy Gianni. Tenebre is a well-filmed, suspenseful and gory horror-thriller complimented by a brilliant score composed by ex-Goblin members Morante, Pignatelli and Simonetti. Tenebre is top drawer horror entertainment.

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SUSPIRIA (1977)

Suspiria is Dario Argento’s best known film and for good reason. It is without a doubt his most impressive film visually; particularly his epic use of color. Suspiria is the first installment in Dario Argento’s “Three Mothers” trilogy. The plot revolves around Suzy a new student at a prestigious dance academy run by a coven of witches. Inventive camera work, beautiful colors, impressively staged death scenes, an excellent cast and epic soundtrack are the icing on the cake.

Suspiria Without a doubt is one of the most beautiful horror films ever made; a truly stunning nightmare! There is pitch-perfect mood and a feeling of unease established from the moment Suzy Bannion arrives at the Ballet school that doesn’t let up until the final Credits. Its beauty is quite remarkable but is only one of its impressive qualities. Suspiria is claustrophobic, intense, suspenseful and thrilling. Suspiria is a bona fide horror masterpiece.

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INFERNO (1980)

Inferno, Dario Argento’s second installment in the “Three Mothers” trilogy is one of his best and most under-appreciated flicks. The story moves from a prestigious dance school in Germany to an apartment building in the USA. An architect named Varelli built separate dwellings for the three mothers in Rome, Freiberg and New York. Writer Rose Elliot acquires a tome entitled The “Three Mothers”; a trio of sisters who ruled the world with darkness and sorrow. Rose believes her current dwelling to be the former home of one of the sisters. An investigation of the building reveals horrors that appear to inspire a chain of violent events. Easily one of Argento’s most gorgeous films it does not let down in the horror category either. Anyone who appreciates Argento’s style should rank Inferno high among their favorites. The colors, shadows, hidden passages, black gloved-killers, amazing sets and especially the superb underwater sequence are just a few of its notable assets.

Inferno is a visual extravaganza; the cinematography, lighting, fantastic surreal sets and beautifully bizarre and nasty images linger in the mind for days on end. Inferno is truly a feast for the eyes; sit back and let it wash over you with its dream logic.

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The above four films have long been favourite Argento flicks but choosing a fifth was rather a bitch. I re-watched The Stendhal Syndrome, Opera, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Phenomena before making this list as I gave all four of these Argento entries a 4/5 rating. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage was the nicest looking film visually, The Stendhal Syndrome had the most intriguing story and Phenomena had the best effects but in the end it was Opera and its gore that won my heart and a spot on this list.

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OPERA (1987)

Performing Macbeth is believed to bring bad luck. The urban legend appears to be true after the lead of a modern operatic version of the play is hit by a car. The dead diva’s reluctant understudy Betty is brought in to replace her. The bad luck continues into opening night when a huge lighting fixtures falls from a balcony and a stagehand is killed. Alas the show must go on but at what price? Betty soon finds out after being assaulted. Betty is tied to a column, her mouth is taped shut and her eyes are forced open with needles. She has no choice but to watch the brutal killing of her boyfriend and is then freed. This sets the stage for a gory whodunnit featuring a masked killer, ravens, weird dream sequences, pulsing brains and memorable death scenes. The film’s ravens are used to great effect throughout and are pivotal to exposing the identity of the killer.

The death scenes are all creative, bloody and grandly staged affairs. Specially notable and memorable is the perfectly executed bullet to the eye and a beautifully excessive stabbing death. The stunning opera house where most of the film takes place really is spectacular as are Argento’s countless trademark extended shots down hallways, up staircases not to mention a monumental dizzying birds-eye view. Opera has style in spades, but it does flounder just a touch in the substance category. Cristina Marsillach does a pretty good job with the wishy-washy character of Betty. Betty is downright useless for most of the film and really doesn’t do much of anything to help herself. I would have liked her character to have had a little more strength and depth. With the exception of Betty’s boyfriend who is as wishy-washy as she is, most of the supporting characters are actually far more interesting than Betty. Admittedly the killer’s identity isn’t much of a surprise although his motivation certainly was, and it left me sated nonetheless. The dream sequences are crazy cool and relevant to the plot so pay attention. I found the mix of opera and rock music interesting although the rock pieces do date the film; there is no mistaking this is a film from the late 1980s. Opera is perfectly paced and felt much shorter than its runtime and its visuals alone are easily worth the price of admission. A beautifully filmed, entertaining and energetic entry worthy of accolades.

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Goregirl’s Dungeon on YouTube: Claudio Simonetti – Craws

The Canadian reviews continue with Brain Candy (1996), Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2008) and The Saddest Music in the World (2003) but in the meantime a diversion in the form of Claudio Simonetti. Music and images from Dario Argento’s 1987 film Opera with music by Claudio Simonetti – Craws.

Goregirl’s Dungeon on YouTube: Piero Umiliani – Luna d’agosto

A long past due slideshow of the lovely Edwige Fenech with music from Mario Bava’s 1970 film 5 Dolls for an August Moon – Piero Umiliani – Luna d’agosto. How could I not have posted a slideshow of Edwige Fenech images before now? Introducing the Giallo-licious Ms. Edwige Fenech…

Fun with GIFs: City of the Living Dead

A trio of GIFs for Lucio Fulci’s 1980 film CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD. My first GORE GIF! I am going to get it bronzed! To read my review for City of the Living Dead click here.

Giovanni Lombardo Radice plays a character named Bob. We first meet Bob entering an abandoned house where he retrieves a blowup doll he has hidden. This GIF is rather a spoiler I suppose, but frankly you can see Bob’s death coming from a mile away.

Father William Thomas hangs himself and opens the gates of Hell. He returns as a malevolent spirit whose stare causes his victims to bleed from the eyes and vomit up and their innards! Below are the eyes of Carlo De Mejo who plays Father Thomas versus the eyes of Catriona MacColl who plays Mary Woodhouse.

The final shot from City of the Living Dead…