Lucio Fulci

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Lucio Fulci

#76 Post by Mr Sausage » Fri Oct 21, 2011 3:57 pm

colinr0380 wrote:By the way Mr Sausage, now that you have seen the film what do you think of my theory from the Grindhouse thread that the Planet Terror film owes perhaps as much to the crazy, incoherent zombie mayhem in this film (and Italian horror in general) as to John Carpenter? Or have I just been seeing the connection between Nightmare City and Planet Terror simply because of the runway settings for the climaxes of both films?
I haven't seen Planet Terror since it came out, but your theory is pretty plausible. The sheer outrageousness of the violence in Planet Terror is not in keeping with Carpenter's typically low-key, moody approach, although it's definitely reminiscent of Italian splatter films. Actually, for me the film that Planet Terror brings to mind is not Nightmare City so much as Zombie Creeping Flesh, mostly for the way that an accident releases an experimental compound that turns everyone into zombies.

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domino harvey
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Re: Lucio Fulci

#77 Post by domino harvey » Fri Oct 21, 2011 4:05 pm

colinr0380 wrote:
Mr Sausage wrote:Oh my god, what a movie. The above scene was mind-boggling. I've now joined the ranks of those who can say that, yes, they have seen a zombie with a head like a charred meatball give a screaming woman in blue leotards an improvised mastectomy.
Yes, I don't think we should let domino know about this film as that particular scene would certainly seem to fit the 'anti-woman' theory of horror films!
I've actually been watching a lot of the "questionable" horror movies from the seventies/eighties in preparation for the forthcoming list (at the rate I'm going I'll probably have like a hundred thumbnail responses to horror films by December haha), and I've found that so far that an overarching misogynistic argument is as inadequate as any sexually progressive one-- I don't think the lot of the genre can be so easily reduced. I see where each side's coming from, but I'm still unconvinced

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Lucio Fulci

#78 Post by Mr Sausage » Fri Oct 21, 2011 4:19 pm

domino harvey wrote:
colinr0380 wrote:
Mr Sausage wrote:Oh my god, what a movie. The above scene was mind-boggling. I've now joined the ranks of those who can say that, yes, they have seen a zombie with a head like a charred meatball give a screaming woman in blue leotards an improvised mastectomy.
Yes, I don't think we should let domino know about this film as that particular scene would certainly seem to fit the 'anti-woman' theory of horror films!
I've actually been watching a lot of the "questionable" horror movies from the seventies/eighties in preparation for the forthcoming list (at the rate I'm going I'll probably have like a hundred thumbnail responses to horror films by December haha), and I've found that so far that an overarching misogynistic argument is as inadequate as any sexually progressive one-- I don't think the lot of the genre can be so easily reduced. I see where each side's coming from, but I'm still unconvinced
I'd actually be very interested, whenever that thread comes around, in hearing your response to the end of Massimo Dallamano's giallo What have You Done to Solange?. It didn't sit right with me on my initial viewing--seemed to border on a fairly deep sexism, actually--but I find I can argue it both ways, so I'm not sure what I think about it. The film is one of the better examples of the sub-genre, so I can't easily dismiss it.

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knives
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Re: Lucio Fulci

#79 Post by knives » Sun Oct 23, 2011 2:59 pm

So caught Zombi at a midnight screening last night and I'd say it was worth it until the skunk sprayed me. I think me immediate impression of the film is similar to Sausage's though I thought it was fun enough that the experience wasn't a waste. In all honesty there were only two things dragging it down, the script and the editing. That stuff was actually bad to such a degree that I suspect it's Sergio Salvati who should be getting all of the positive credit for the film. The movie is so utterly gorgeous and the mis-en-scene handled so well that even the absolute dumbest part of the movie had a strange beauty to it only upended by the terrible editing and naked scuba diver (seriously that's how you plan on getting your nudity in there).

In truth I think there were only two really good moments in the film and yet they show the strengths and weaknesses perfectly. I'll start with the simplest in the return of that one girl as a zombie. The editing is kept to a shot reverse shot pattern and we just get to take in the vacationer's face. It's the only moment in the entire movie where I cared at all for any of the characters and makes for a strong compelling moment that greatly improves the film overall. Kudos on simplicity which is where the film works best. The other big moment for me was the eye moment which again works at first because of it's simplicity. It starts off really frightening as it's basically just shots with again the cinematography doing all of the work. Even some of the more bizarre editing choices like looking at that stupid wall works because of the environment that music and cinematography made. Of course that goes out of the window when you spend ten seconds on a really bad eye effect. Had he ended it even just four seconds earlier the scene absolutely would have worked perfectly, but as is it's just silly.

Though not as silly as that shark scene which seem to be present exclusively to remind us that the movie we're watching has zombies and the potential for boobs. Speaking about reminding us of zombies this movie ruins what should be a really great and effective ending by not just pointing to it's Chekhov's gun, but highlighting it and singing us a ballad about it. Actually it hurts the rest of the film too because one can't help and wonder whether leaving that plot thread open was an other act of incompetence or for the very reveal we eventually get. Either way it shows the point I'm trying to make that the film can and does work when it goes the most basic route it can, but Fulci can't help but blare the music at eleven. Most of the problems I have with the script (your ankle gets that broken in such a small car crash, hot chick falls in love with balding fat guy, ect) could be forgiven with the right style applied to the film, but Fulci wants it his way.

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Cold Bishop
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Re: Lucio Fulci

#80 Post by Cold Bishop » Mon Oct 31, 2011 5:38 am

I'm going to be the person to stick up for Lenzi's Nightmare City. It's unquestionably schlock: dodgy dubbing, bad make-up, awful dialogue (whenever Laura Trotter starts waxing philosophical), some unbelievable characterizations (who cares about a state of emergency, I want a picnic!), and plenty of ridiculous moments (yes, that aerobic show needs to be seen to be believed).

But it's effective. It captures, albeit in rough patches, that quality most important in a zombie film: the idea of chaos and death overtaking everything it's path. In that regards, it's relentless. To me, this film's running, hyperactive, coordinated zombies are much more frightening than Danny Boyle's! And I always loved that absolutely nothing is sacred in these Italian horror films, which only adds to the film's suffocating nature.

The real howler, however, is the featurette/interview with Lenzi, which features, among other things, Lenzi sincerely and unironically comparing the film to Demme's Philadelphia.

"There is an element of fantasy in my film, in that the monsters can only be killed by a bullet in the head or by fire... But the rest I think is pretty much realistic."

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Re: Lucio Fulci

#81 Post by MichaelB » Mon Oct 31, 2011 5:57 am

knives wrote:Of course that goes out of the window when you spend ten seconds on a really bad eye effect. Had he ended it even just four seconds earlier the scene absolutely would have worked perfectly, but as is it's just silly.
I first saw the film in a packed Scala Cinema in the mid-1980s, and because it was the old BBFC-scissored print the scene in question cut immediately before the special effects started. I suspect you might have found it worked better, but the thing I most remember was the audience shouting "Bastards!" in full-throated unison - and they didn't mean the zombies.

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knives
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Re: Lucio Fulci

#82 Post by knives » Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:54 am

I guess you can't please everyone.

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Lucio Fulci

#83 Post by Mr Sausage » Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:55 am

Cold Bishop wrote:I'm going to be the person to stick up for Lenzi's Nightmare City. It's unquestionably schlock: dodgy dubbing, bad make-up, awful dialogue (whenever Laura Trotter starts waxing philosophical), some unbelievable characterizations (who cares about a state of emergency, I want a picnic!), and plenty of ridiculous moments (yes, that aerobic show needs to be seen to be believed).

But it's effective. It captures, albeit in rough patches, that quality most important in a zombie film: the idea of chaos and death overtaking everything it's path. In that regards, it's relentless. To me, this film's running, hyperactive, coordinated zombies are much more frightening than Danny Boyle's! And I always loved that absolutely nothing is sacred in these Italian horror films, which only adds to the film's suffocating nature.

The real howler, however, is the featurette/interview with Lenzi, which features, among other things, Lenzi sincerely and unironically comparing the film to Demme's Philadelphia.

"There is an element of fantasy in my film, in that the monsters can only be killed by a bullet in the head or by fire... But the rest I think is pretty much realistic."
I'll grant it this: it sustains a pretty energetic pace (no doubt aided by its refusal to stop and set-up proper logic), a rare quality in an Italian schlock film.

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Cold Bishop
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Re: Lucio Fulci

#84 Post by Cold Bishop » Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:14 pm

Well, if you can't dig later Fulci, there's no way you're gonna dig Lenzi. But if you can put up with the schlockier elements, then it's easy to see what separates a Nightmare City from a, let's say, Hell of the Living Dead. Maybe it's just a nostalgia for trash of yore, but Lenzi's film is unarguably a bad movie. But if you come to accept that, you may also find that it's a good one.

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Lucio Fulci

#85 Post by Mr Sausage » Mon Oct 31, 2011 5:36 pm

Cold Bishop wrote:Well, if you can't dig later Fulci, there's no way you're gonna dig Lenzi. But if you can put up with the schlockier elements, then it's easy to see what separates a Nightmare City from a, let's say, Hell of the Living Dead. Maybe it's just a nostalgia for trash of yore, but Lenzi's film is unarguably a bad movie. But if you come to accept that, you may also find that it's a good one.
A good bad movie is actually a pretty apt description of it. Just so you don't think I find no merit in Lenzi's film, I thought the hospital sequence--which may very well have inspired the similar sequence in Planet Terror, as Colin argues--captured rather well that mood of a total breakdown of all human order you cited earlier. There were some effective images of figures in the background suddenly massing and picking up makeshift weapons while the hero stares obliviously into the foreground.

While the movie is terrible, I will admit it's that special kind of terrible that inspires affection, like the gnarled, limping, nacre-eyed goat at the petting zoo that the other kids avoid but who takes a special shine to you for some reason.

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Re: Lucio Fulci

#86 Post by Thomas Dukenfield » Wed Nov 02, 2011 1:18 am

Cold Bishop wrote:The real howler, however, is the featurette/interview with Lenzi, which features, among other things, Lenzi sincerely and unironically comparing the film to Demme's Philadelphia.

"There is an element of fantasy in my film, in that the monsters can only be killed by a bullet in the head or by fire... But the rest I think is pretty much realistic."
If memory serves, doesn't he insinuate that Philadelphia shouldn't get as much credit as it does for being a brave story about AIDS since he predated it by 10 years with his zombie AIDS parable?

Anyways, if you want a good laugh, just watch any modern Umberto Lenzi interview. They are full of these out-of-left-field comments and artistic delusions (although, in fairness, he was easily one of the better Euro-crime directors).

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knives
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Re: Lucio Fulci

#87 Post by knives » Wed Nov 02, 2011 1:37 am

That sounds sad more than anything else.

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Re: Lucio Fulci

#88 Post by Thomas Dukenfield » Wed Nov 02, 2011 1:07 pm

knives wrote:That sounds sad more than anything else.
Well, if humor is tragedy plus time, I think enough time has passed since the release of Nightmare City. :P


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Re: Lucio Fulci

#90 Post by carmilla mircalla » Wed May 24, 2017 8:57 pm

this campaign went live just today and it's already met nearly 500% of it's goal with a month left. Anyone else contribute? I just did the first tier as I only want the book and the Eibon box, no care for any other perks.

nolanoe
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Re: Lucio Fulci

#91 Post by nolanoe » Thu Apr 19, 2018 5:20 am

Desperate question: will we ever see a "proper" BD of The Beyond? The releases so far have been... "spotty" and not very good. :(

Raymond Marble
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Re: Lucio Fulci

#92 Post by Raymond Marble » Wed Mar 31, 2021 4:19 pm

Sorry to self-promote, as these are events I've been working on, but at the Webster University Film Series we're doing a free virtual speakers series called "April Fulcis," wherein the idea is you watch the movie first on your own and then join us for a discussion with a featured speaker. They take place every Thursday evening in April at 7pm Central Standard Time, which makes the first one tomorrow night, wherein Kea Wilson will discuss Zombie. Ms. Wilson is the author of the acclaimed 2016 novel We Eat Our Own, which is loosely based on the making of Cannibal Holocaust. (Which yes, I know, is not a Fulci movie, but she's good with him, too!) Future speakers include genre film journalist Dr. AC and the incredibly prolific provider of commentaries, Troy Howarth, who also wrote a book on Fulci (Splintered Visions).

There events are open to the public and are not geoblocked, and we have puzzles from Messed Up Puzzles and a copy of We Eat Our Own to give away besides. You can register for Kea Wilson's here, and find the full lineup with registration links here.

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Maltic
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Re: Lucio Fulci

#93 Post by Maltic » Wed Mar 31, 2021 4:27 pm

Thanks for this, I'm in. :)

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Re: Lucio Fulci

#94 Post by L.A. » Mon Aug 09, 2021 11:50 am


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Re: Lucio Fulci

#95 Post by dwk » Fri Nov 19, 2021 1:22 pm


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Re: Lucio Fulci

#96 Post by Glowingwabbit » Fri Nov 19, 2021 1:26 pm

Ordering direct from Cauldron also has bundle options.

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Lucio Fulci

#97 Post by Mr Sausage » Sun Dec 12, 2021 11:25 pm

Bit of a Fulci binge. Why? Who knows.


Zombie (1979)

I don't think I've seen this since I was like 18. It's exactly as I remembered: stodgy, poorly paced, with the occasional good bit of makeup. It's the kind of horror movie where 'tension' is generated by the camera lurking behind trees and people standing stock still whenever something scary comes at them. Such is Fulci's bag of tricks: the lame and shopworn. How is this movie so beloved? All the famous scenes, like the shark or the eye gouging, are mostly bungled in the execution. And the atmosphere, such as it is, amounts to a wind machine and Caribbean drums beating away.

Zombie 3 (1988)

Why Zombie 3? Because it's an unofficial sequel to Zombie, whose Italian title is Zombi 2 and which is itself an unofficial sequel to Dawn of the Dead, whose Italian title is, yes, Zombi. And yet despite that lineage, what it's ripping off is the plot of Return of the Living Dead: the body of a terrorist infected with a government-made zombie drug is cremated in an industrial crematorium, sending the zombie drug into the atmosphere to descend on a city. Fulci abandoned the production after a month and a half, either because of illness or disagreements with the producers. Bruno Mattei, an even worse director than Fulci, took over and finished the thing. I'm not entirely sure which scenes were shot by Fulci and which by Mattei. Wikipedia says the bulk of the film was shot by Fulci, with Mattei shooting scenes to fill out the run time, but the film as a whole doesn't resemble Fulci's usual style. If you were to tell me Mattei (or screenwriter and claimed co-director Claudio Fragasso) had directed the whole thing, I'd believe you. Fulci is often a poor director, but far from the nadir of Italian schlock (that'd be guys like Franco and D'amato...or Mattei and Fragasso, for that matter). This movie's brand of badness is not what I associate with Fulci.

Aenigma (1988)

Storytelling isn't Fuci's strong suit. Tho' the plot is simple--comatose bully victim sends her soul into another body to exact revenge--you still find yourself in helpless confusion much of the time, with crucial plot information either improperly telegraphed or delivered after it's needed. Not helping is the script's own fundamental confusion: the comatose girl sends her soul into another body, but all of her revenges are psychic in origin. So what's the point of the physical body possession, especially since it's only partial or something (the girl has half her own personality, half the other girl's...I think)? And why is the comatose girl's mom always skulking around the murder scenes, and why do her eyes glow red? You never find out, because the revenge story just gets lost half way through for a long romance subplot between the possessed girl and comatose girl's doctor that transforms into a love triangle with them and possessed girl's roomate. By the end you have no idea who's getting revenge and for what exactly, because at this point possessed girl's original personality has way more motivation than comatose girl's, who logically shouldn't give a shit who her doctor dates. There are something like four separate movies here all crammed together without connective tissue. It's a mess. It might be tempting to attribute the flaws to Fuci's late decline, but these exact flaws are present in the same form in, for instance, The House by the Cemetery, one of his major horrors and a movie of similar ineptitude. To be fair, there is here and there the occasional interesting visual idea, like a painting that leaks blood (tho', true to form, that one is ruined by an actress just standing straight in the stream of blood, wailing away, instead of stepping back a pace or two). But mainly this is a boring, poorly assembled horror fully representative of Fulci's, er, talents.

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Re: Lucio Fulci

#98 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Dec 13, 2021 3:42 am

Mr Sausage wrote:
Sun Dec 12, 2021 11:25 pm
Zombie (1979)

I don't think I've seen this since I was like 18. It's exactly as I remembered: stodgy, poorly paced, with the occasional good bit of makeup. It's the kind of horror movie where 'tension' is generated by the camera lurking behind trees and people standing stock still whenever something scary comes at them. Such is Fulci's bag of tricks: the lame and shopworn. How is this movie so beloved? All the famous scenes, like the shark or the eye gouging, are mostly bungled in the execution. And the atmosphere, such as it is, amounts to a wind machine and Caribbean drums beating away.
Oddly enough I also saw this tonight for the first time in a while (though not since 18!) after finally getting my Blue Underground disc in the mail, and while I can't dispute the valid criticisms, I had a good time. I too am surprised by the effusive hype but the movie has campy charm and played for me like a dulled-down version of Planet Terror if it didn't realize it was a hammy parody (and was a lot slower, banal- okay, very dulled-down). Small bits like the dynamic between the doctor and his wife in the characters' introduction is executed with sincerity and without the reflexive awareness that it's absurd, but regardless of intent anything that reminds me of why Rodriguez' film is so amazing also helps facilitate the comfort food coma of silly grindhouse shlock in the process. It's not Art, but give me a couple bags of junk food and I'll gladly watch this again soon.

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Lucio Fulci

#99 Post by Mr Sausage » Mon Dec 13, 2021 7:41 am

therewillbeblus wrote:anything that reminds me of why Rodriguez' film is so amazing also helps facilitate the comfort food coma of silly grindhouse shlock in the process.
You need Nightmare City in your life. Buy your favourite junk food and pop and have yourself a night of good fun.

Zombie Creeping Flesh/Hell of the Living Dead and, funnily, Zombie 3 will give you the same reminders while also being so bad you'll have trouble believing it.

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Lucio Fulci

#100 Post by Mr Sausage » Mon Dec 13, 2021 12:27 pm

Manhattan Baby (1982)

So fuck this movie immediately for killing a live snake on camera. This is a crude and stupid mashup of The Mummy and The Exorcist. Apparently the movie's budget was cut in half during production, leading Fulci to all but disown the final product. But I'd say the final product is no worse than average for him. If you want to know what pleasures await you, I'll give you an example: that indescribably annoying kid from House by the Cemetery? He calls his 13-year-old sister a "lousy lesbian" during some casual baseball in the park and says of their babysitter, "screw her, too". Can we bring back Dr. Freudstein to finish the job? The rest of the movie involves people walking into and out of portals to Egypt, or something, and cobras teleporting into Manhattan apartments. I don't know. Ever get the feeling during a movie that you briefly fell asleep a couple times without realizing it?

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