Help me understand Lucio Fulci, please....

[Trevor]

I'm busy writing a review for Andrew of Lucio Fulci's City Of The Living Dead, aka The Gates of Hell, La Paura nella citta dei morti viventi and in my case WTF did I buy this sh*t for? and I was enthralled, disgusted, entertained and revolted by it.

I have to ask (and no disrespect to LF fans): Was Fulci a wannabe sadist, a hater of women ~ I said this because it is the ladies in this film that seem to have the hardest time ~ or just a talented filmmaker seeing how far he could push the envelope of gore?

Also, the search for logic and sense in this, my first Fulci film, is a thankless one, rather like a search for a clean spot on my underpants. 

[claws]

Fulci is of adequate taste. It's like he made his movies in an alternate universe 
He was known to give female actors a hard time on set, but he sort of restrained himself when working with Catriona MacColl (even though her characters still had to suffer quite a bit in his movies).
Fulci was a hack AND genius, and those attributes are best on display in his unsung masterpiece The Beyond (1981), which also got the approval and happens to be a Quentin Tarantino favorite. Not that it matters but I always like to point that little known fact out 

[Jim H]

From what I've seen, logic and sense are not to be found in a Fulci film.  Watch the eye impalement scene in zombie and ask yourself why she didn't, oh, turn her head slightly, or move the splinter to the side, or any of a number of other things.  His films play out like nightmares, with a logic that can't be trusted and a lot of stuff that makes no sense.  I find some of his imagery and sequences of violence hypnotic and mesmerizing, but a lot of the other sequences and the films as a whole often disjointed and a little dull. 

I hear his earlier giallos are a lot more conventional though.

[Mr. DS]

Fulci is a big hit or miss for me.  Sadly, his stuff is more of a "miss" the more I view of it.  I think Zombi really put him on the map and it is a great film.  However, I'm just kind of "meh" on his other items.  I think more or less its hard thing to say to a horror fan that Fulci may have been overrated. 

[The Burgomaster]

I don't understand the love for Lucio Fulci.  Most of his movies are pretty bad ("dull" bad, not "amusing" bad).  I bought a few Fulci DVDs just for the gore.  Beyond that, I don't understand the attraction.

[Paquita]

I Love Fulci!  I would never try to argue with anyone that he’s a genius or his movies are masterpieces, I completely understand why someone would hate him.  I know many of his movies don’t have much going for them as far as sticking to a story or making sense, but that’s why I like them!  They make you wonder!  I guess he does give women a hard time, but I don’t think he hates them, I just think he’s a dirty old man.  I find the gore in his movies endearing, it’s so unrealistic, like a 12 year old boy made it up “Yeah yeah! And then yellow pus comes out of his eyes and green stuff shoots out of his head and then his face explodes! agaghaBlagaaapakapow!”

[Menard]

Fulci directed films such as City of the Living Dead, Zombie (Zombi 2), The Beyond, in essence his most notorious films, were scripted by the writing team, and couple, of Dardano Sacchetti and Elisa Briganti; although Fulci was the director, the style for which Fulci is best known on a global scale is only from his collaborations with Sacchetti and Briganti.

Fulci trained as a doctor, but eventually took an interest in writing and film. This is important in understanding that he was quite an intelligent man not given to accepting things as that's just the way they are.

As a doctor, writer, and director Fulci was someone in control, someone who had answers, yet life life would throw something at him which he could not answer.

In 1969, his wife committed suicide. Several years later, his daughter was killed in a car wreck.

Some say that his films entered into a dark period following these tragedies; especially following his daughter's death.

Linearity, completeness, answers; these are things life didn't give him, and there is a conflict within the man who lives and is raised a society so ensconced in its religious heritage where god will provide the answers and is not something, when that man's very nature desires answer, and asks questions.

Within his films such as City of the Living Dead and The Beyond, there are elements of chaos in its storytelling.

Some may describe them as generally having a beginning and an end, but finding a straight line from one to the other is, depending on the film, to a degree up to the viewer, essentially the film as a whole would be relative and congenial to the viewer; not necessarily unlike his life where horrors come at you in spades, but they don't include explanations.

Although Fulci did deny a hatred toward women, saying that he actually loved women, well...there are a few conflicting viewpoints on this.

One possible viewpoint is that Fulci saw other women as having something which was denied his wife and daughter: life.

Another possible viewpoint is that Fulci saw women as taking barbs and pains in a male dominated society which were not inflicted upon men and he represented this is his films.

Certainly the deaths of his wife and daughter affected his view of life and women, but we can just pretty much only guess as to how that was manifested in his films.

As to my opinion toward some of his films:

The Beyond (Seven Doors of Death) has atmosphere, scenes which work on their own, and more which don't; but it lacks anything cohesive and fails not only as a film but as a testament to anything. Perhaps it is the idea that The Beyond is his masterpiece (which makes me want to vomit just saying that) makes me like it that much less, and I can only imagine those who praise it as the same people who think Day of the Dead is a great movie; those who like gore in a movie and damned the story.

Zombie (Zombi 2, among a dozen or so titles) is my favorite. It has Fulci's trademark atmosphere and apocalyptic feel, but unlike several of his films it has an actual linear storyline; not to mention that I'm kind of fond of the doctor named Menard. 


For City of the Living Dead, I'll just post a short review I did on it.


City of the Living Dead


I thought of giving this movie three stars of of five, but I can only give it two. I have watched it several times and enjoyed most of it; however it seriously falls apart within the last twenty minutes.

'City of the Living Dead' begins with a suicide scene which takes place simultaneously with a seance. There is a connection between both events; one sets off a malefic chain of events; the other, a premonition of these events through a state of consciousness known as death. The latter leads the way for the premature burial scene which is so well done (who knew a pickaxe was standard equipment for rescuing someone from a coffin).

The mood and atmosphere are pumped into scene after scene. You know things are going to get nasty when John Morghen makes an appearance on screen (and I must personally protest naming the town freak Bob).

Christopher George is Christopher George which is what makes his character so likable. Catriona MacColl is as always beautiful. MacColl and George are a good pairing for this movie. This is part of what tears me up about this movie that there are so many good aspects of it, yet, in the last 20 minutes it falls apart (some may argue it fell apart before that).

One thing that appears to have happened, although I have never read any articles that verify this, is that this movie appears to have had two directors (this would not be the first time Fulci had to leave a project early for other commitments or feuding). In the last 20 minutes of the film the pacing changes and so does the quality of the make-up (apparently Giannetto de Rossi left too). This is not to say that the first 70 minutes of this film are perfect (the priest's appearances do get annoying), but there is a consistency to the first 70 minutes that is lacking in the latter part of the film.

Fulci does set a stage of atmosphere and mood. One which reeks of gloom and impending doom. In the eyes of the people of Dunwich you can see depression (make-up helped). But, Christopher George is on his way; can he cut through the depression with his smile; he carries it with him everywhere he goes (I am sorry; I was having a little fun at Christopher's expense).

I do wish that someone would do a re-edit of this film, and even add to it if necessary. There are too many good parts to this film to let the last 20 minutes tear it apart, yet, as it exists, I cannot recommend it to other than hardcore fans of Fulci and horror movies.



If anything I have written in this post makes any sense to anybody, it completely a figment of your imagination.

[Paquita]

I knew Fulci was a medical student, so that proves it’s a fact that your face really does start to melt off seconds after death.

It’s really sad about his wife and daughter..  I saw The Psychic and I don’t know that it had any inspiration from their deaths but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.  I like that movie, but it’s heartbreaking to watch knowing what he went through.

[BTM]

Well, I like some of his stuff for the sheer "Holy s**t, that was cool!" excess and craziness of it, but when people try to excuse some of the ineptness of certain films by saying, "Oh, no, it was 'surreal'!  It was dreamlike!" Or "It was supposed to be that way, and you just 'don't get it'!"  That kind of p**ses me off.

I mean, for instance, City of the Living Dead (that's one with zombie that makes a girl pukes her guts out, right?)  Is just so damn disjointed at times it feels more like a series of gore effects slapped together than an actual film.  Now, if you want to say, "Well, the budget was real low."  Or, "Lots of things happened behind the scenes and they had to make a film with they had they had."  Fine, I'll buy that, just don't try to tell me there's something intentionally remarkable here.  

I mean, to me, you want surreal?  Get a David Lynch film, or watch Aeon Flux (the TV series, not the movie).  There's a lot of bizarre, crazy and seemingly nonsensical s**t happening, but the difference is, they DO mean something (even if what is highly debatable).  In Fulci's case, it's more a "Okay, let's have this happen!  And then this!  Oh, yeah, that'll be cool!  And... ahh.. f**k, we're outta money, let's just end the film now."

Good example... The Beyond, there's a guys on a ladder in the library looking for something, a peal of thunder suddenly occurs and he falls on the ground, apparently paralyzed.  Okay, fine, the Bad Things or whatever, made the thunder occur to scare him and make him fall off the ladder, and now he's paralyzed.  But then, a GIANT SPIDER comes out of nowhere, crawls on top of the hapless guy, and eat his face off.  

I mean, it's cheesy, unexpected, maybe even scary to some, but don't tell me it makes any damn sense, cause it doesn't.  

And I can accept that.

BTW speaking of Fulci, does anyone know off-hand the name of that one film he directed about a woman who's boyfriend gets into a motorcycle accident, and, after dying on the operating table, she kidnaps the surgeon and does all kinds of terrible things to him?  

[Paquita]

BTW speaking of Fulci, does anyone know off-hand the name of that one film he directed about a woman who's boyfriend gets into a motorcycle accident, and, after dying on the operating table, she kidnaps the surgeon and does all kinds of terrible things to him? 

I haven't seen it yet, but I think you're looking for "Il Miele del Diavolo".

[macabre]

hi
I love fulci, my all time fav of his movies is a little known movie call don,t torture a duckling, i just love the camera angles and the way he draws you into the movie, also i love the black cat and one of fulci first movies was in fact a western.Like argento and bava fulci is a director that you either like or dislike.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

Fulci seemed to revel in chaos and violence,  and ultimately, violence was favored over story, and that's the way most of his films will be remembered.

Perhaps his chaotic and violent visions were partly because of the things in his
own life, or maybe because he just grew to love the gore factor over storyline and character development because he appreciated the fans' love of the visual power he was playing with.

I've noticed one thing: Some of his characters weren't the brightest bulbs in the package. And it was usually those characters that were subject to the most violent deaths. It was like they were being punished for their stupidity.

Example: House By the Cemetery-the housekeeper is mopping blood up off the floor, and the head of the house just asks her what she's doing, and walks off  and it just makes you want to scream "uhh..DUHHH!!!"

Later the same guy (the father) almost kills his son as he puts an axe thru the cellar door andit misses his son's head by an inch....later this guy was killed as Freudstein ripped out his throat in a very violent scene.

In a Fulci film, stupidity=death. Or so it would seem...

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

hi
I love fulci, my all time fav of his movies is a little known movie call don't torture a duckling, i just love the camera angles and the way he draws you into the movie, also i love the black cat and one of fulci first movies was in fact a western. Like argento and bava fulci is a director that you either like or dislike.

He also directed [/b] Contraband[/b] with Fabio Testi. That was about as violent as Italian mob epics ever got. So many shotgun blasts and headshots!


To support the earlier post stating that Fulci was directing 2 movies at once, I once watched a subtitled interview with Andrea Bianchi (director of Burial Ground and
in it, he said that Fulci was the original director of that movie.  Something caused him to change horses in the middle of the stream ( I forget what it was) and that's when Bianchi stepped in. This was on the Shriek Show Burial Ground DVD that I own.

It would make sense because in that movie, the gore (and the overall intelligence of the characters) definitely screams Fulci..

[Skull]

I'm busy writing a review for Andrew of Lucio Fulci's City Of The Living Dead, aka The Gates of Hell, La Paura nella citta dei morti viventi and in my case WTF did I buy this sh*t for? and I was enthralled, disgusted, entertained and revolted by it.

Lucio Fulci for dummies (hehe)

Fulci is one of those ‘low budget’ directors that can make the most or a bigger bang for the buck. He does consider himself as an artist and he called “The Beyond” an 'Absolute Film' where image and sound are the most important part of a film.

The problem with Fulci is his story is often heavy edited, parts of the script was omitted due to filling constrains and lousy distribution. 

I have to ask (and no disrespect to LF fans): Was Fulci a wannabe sadist, a hater of women ~ I said this because it is the ladies in this film that seem to have the hardest time ~ or just a talented filmmaker seeing how far he could push the envelope of gore?

Oh that’s the magic. He actually finds people willing to barf animal inners, have spiders crawl on their face and have somebody dressed as a zombie and fight a shark. And he does it within the low budget.

Also, the search for logic and sense in this, my first Fulci film, is a thankless one, rather like a search for a clean spot on my underpants. 

Logic for Gates of Hell?

Simple story a Priest opens the entry point from Earth to Hell and a Psychic sees it and assumes dead (or she actually died) and wakes up screaming in the graveyard and saved by a reporter who happens to be intrigue by the case then helps her to find and close the entry point.

Most commonly many Italian Directors has seen the success of Dawn of the Dead (1978) (and exploited the idea that the movie has no really reasoning why the zombies are walking the Earth) so they come up with their own “prequel ideas.”

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

Logic for Gates of Hell?

Simple story a Priest opens the entry point from Earth to Hell and a Psychic sees it and assumes dead (or she actually died) and wakes up screaming in the graveyard and saved by a reporter who happens to be intrigue by the case then helps her to find and close the entry point.

Most commonly many Italian Directors has seen the success of Dawn of the Dead (1978) (and exploited the idea that the movie has no really reasoning why the zombies are walking the Earth) so they come up with their own “prequel ideas.”

With reference to The Gates Of Hell and The Beyond, it was rumored that TGOH was the beginning of the events in The Beyond, w\reference to the opening of hellgates, of which there were supposed to have been 7 according The Beyond.

Not sure of this, but perhaps somewhere in there, there's some logic.