Lucio Fulci (1927–1996)

Dark and stormy sepiatoned bayou prologue hits H.P. Lovecraft's g-spot. Joe the piratical pornographical plumber unclogging the ectoplasmic ducts. "I'm a doctor. And I don't want to accept irrational explanations!" Let's get this straight, Warbeck. It's not about what you want. This is dream horror, woven from the self-reflexive antilogic of dreams. Emily is a strange person to be friends with, but Liza bonds with her instantly. We hook up autopsy subjects to brain-wave monitors as a matter of course. Warbeck blasts the window and all the glass flies inward impaling the unfortunate Dr Harris. Warbeck blasts zoms ineffectually in the torso even after figuring out the one simple headshot trick. Dream. Freeze-frame. Crash zoom. Deserted hospital. Where is everybody? Let's try the laboratory! Where the fuck did those tarantulas come from? Mouth-defiling orifice-entering crawlers marching to that brain-scraping creaking sound. Nails on blackboard. Nails on eyeballs, bathtub hairballs. Dicky the attack slash guide dog chomping down on unfresh zom. Blood is Fulci's base ingredient, the perpetual broth of his maggot-mulched, grue-glutted ramen. And finally the gates of hell stand open.… (meer)

"Una sull'altra" (One on Top of the Other) is a wildly uneven but hypnotically compelling mystery thriller. The lethargic but compelling plot sees the death of the asthmatic wife of Dr George Dumurrier (Jean Sorel). Shortly afterwards Dumurrier is directed to stripper Monica Weston (Marisa Mell) who may know something about or have some form of involvement in the death. Co-written and directed by gore-meister Lucio Fulci, who takes a sub-Vertigo plot and piles on Giallo style at the expense of narrative coherence - although in Giallo terms this is a fairly straight forward yarn. The film opens with a slow-moving, dreamy style where everything appears imbued with meaning before segueing into psychedelic eroticism before arriving at a exposition heavy conclusion and a couple of final surprise twists. Along the way there are plenty of compromised characters, mixed loyalties, betrayals and weird side characters who may or may not have importance. Spicing all this up is plenty of nude dancing; groovy psychedelic happenings; modish art and design; no shortage of straight and lesbian sex and a great Riz Ortolani soundtrack. Jean Sorel is quiet and enigmatic in the lead role, but the film belongs to the stunning six-footer Marissa Mell who demands attention every time she's on screen. This may not be the greatest Giallo ever but it is a top notch mystery yarn that is full of tension, eroticism and directorial style - there was much more to Fulci than his classic zombie gut-munchers.… (meer)

In the small Southern Italian village of Accendura, three young boys have been murdered and the village simpleton Barra (Vito Passeri) has been arrested for the crimes. In the nearby mountains, La Magiara (Florinda Bolkan) a mad witch is conducting strange black magic and voodoo rituals. In the village itself the superstitious locals are becoming restless and suspicious of Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet) a beautiful young ingénue who is in exile from Milan following a drug scandal. With the murders making national news a media circus rolls into town, including the sharp Roman journalist Andrea Martelli (Tomas Milian). Martelli befriends the sultry Patrizia and the pair make the acquaintance of the young village priest, Don Avallone (Marc Porel), who runs a school for young boys and his strange mother Aurelia (Irene Papas). With the murders continuing and the police relatively clueless, Martelli and Patrizia determine to track down the killer themselves and when they find the head of a Donald Duck doll near a murder site they're convinced they've found a critical clue.
"Non si Sevizia un Paperino" by acclaimed (and reviled) director Lucio Fulci is in many ways a typical early '70s giallo (convoluted plot, multiple suspects, bizarre psychopath, elaborately staged murders, red herrings galore, etc) but one that Fulci fills with less obvious elements, in particular the killing of young boys rather than beautiful women, the remote backward village locale and the sense of anti-religious, moral outrage that he and his co-scriptwriters (Gianfranco Clerici and Roberto Gianviti) bring to the film. The film takes as its over-riding theme the twisting of religious faith into sadistic and perverse obsession, manifesting itself in a murderous "horror of sexuality". Given the revelations of paedophilia and sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, Fulci's film is incredibly prescient. Fulci's approach is directorially sharper and more restrained than in some of his latter splatter epics, but he still manages to bring a degree of bloody mayhem to the proceeding, particularly the beating and murder of La Magiara, which is incredibly staged and played out against both a heavy rock track and a gentle ballad. The acting performances throughout are excellent – the great Tomas Milian is perfect in the lead role (despite sporting an incredible '70's porno 'stache); Barbara Bouchet delivers both the sex interest and a coolly mannered performance; Irene Papas provides an angry internalised performance as the priest’s tortured mother and Florinda Bolkan is brilliant as the shunned "witch". The score by Riz Ortolani adds a grinding intensity and a sadness to the proceeding. "Non si Sevizia un Paperino" is a suspenseful and uncompromising giallo, with a well developed atmosphere of backwoods suspense and a fierce, angry approach from director Lucio Fulci.… (meer)