Fulci: Hack Or Genius?

[Mr. DS]

Fulci I'd say is good but immensely overrated.  Zombi is as good as an undead film gets but I find a lot of other work mediocre at best.  For example, The Sweet House Of Horrors is a travesty of a film.  It barely has a point plot wise and I swear I wanted to see those kids in the movie get off'd.  The New Gladiators is another one...granted a bit better than Sweet House Of Horror but still just a "meh" kind of effort. 

[Skull]

What Italian zombie film is a rip off to Fulci's Zombi 2?

The only one I could think that is close is: "Dr. Butcher MD" but the story is a zombie version of "The Island of Doctor Moreau" and it had ton of jungle exploitation scenes; which was a big thing in many exploitation films from the 1970's.


Most of the Italian zombie films are closer to Shock Waves (1977)... zombies and nazi are fun... :)

Or they "copied" Fulci's idea and tried their zombie story into Dawn of the Dead. (I dont think Fulci would like to be remembered for that)




Fulci's Zombi 2 was written before Dawn of the Dead and the New York scenes were added to cash in on Dawn of the Dead success. Actually to tie Fulci's movie to the European edit of Dawn of the Dead (Zombi). This is why his movie is called Zombi 2.

The inspiration of Fulci's zombi 2 is a mixture of I Walk with a Zombie, Night of the Living Dead and the success of Jaws. (Since the shark scene was written in the early script version)

[Jim H]

Burial Ground is the most obvious ripoff.  It feels a lot like Zombie.

[Skull]

Burial Ground is the most obvious ripoff.  It feels a lot like Zombie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtYsbT7gLbY



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3thbT3wq7JE

Really???

[Rev. Powell]

Since no one else will, I'm gonna come down squarely on the side of "genius." I'm a diehard Fulciphile, and not just because of the gore (although I will freely admit that does play a factor, though not necessarily because I'm simply bloodthirsty, though I am that as well, but also because I think his obsession with graphic, inventive, gonzo violence & viscera is so harsh and almost surrealistic in nature). One of the reasons (the biggest reason, in fact) is because of the very "nonsensical" quality Voltron described. I simply like movies that have that feel. For the same reason, I'm a rabid Phantasm fanatic. The thing about Fulci movies that I get, and maybe there's just a certain kind of people who take it this way and enjoy it as opposed to just interpreting it as "incoherent crap" or something, a picture of caustic illogical, nightmarishness out of his movies. I liken them more to experiencing a non-lucid dream, or listening to droning mood music, rather than watching a conventional point A-to-point B narrative. With normal movies, the dots all have to connect for it to make sense, whereas, I think Fulci films deliberately deny making connections at all. It's like pointillism. His movies are a series of dots. They don't connect, but instead form kind of a picture themselves. I don't mean to sound pretentious or anything. I'm not saying the man who was this great genius whose work is beyond our understanding. Not at all. I just don't think he cared about how "things are supposed to be done," and was more interested in just assaulting his audiences with nasty, brutal, confrontational imagery, while forming an overall vibe full of heady & apocalyptic atmospherics, and also indulging in his own personal stylistic fixations in excess. I enjoy them immensely. I think doing it that way created this host of movies that I, personally, adore and am extremely entertained by.

I've never seen any Fulci movies---well, it's highly possible I saw at least one and forgot it---but descriptions like WW's are exactly why Fulci now occupies several spots in my Netflix queue.

[Skull]

Since no one else will, I'm gonna come down squarely on the side of "genius." I'm a diehard Fulciphile, and not just because of the gore (although I will freely admit that does play a factor, though not necessarily because I'm simply bloodthirsty, though I am that as well, but also because I think his obsession with graphic, inventive, gonzo violence & viscera is so harsh and almost surrealistic in nature). One of the reasons (the biggest reason, in fact) is because of the very "nonsensical" quality Voltron described. I simply like movies that have that feel. For the same reason, I'm a rabid Phantasm fanatic. The thing about Fulci movies that I get, and maybe there's just a certain kind of people who take it this way and enjoy it as opposed to just interpreting it as "incoherent crap" or something, a picture of caustic illogical, nightmarishness out of his movies. I liken them more to experiencing a non-lucid dream, or listening to droning mood music, rather than watching a conventional point A-to-point B narrative. With normal movies, the dots all have to connect for it to make sense, whereas, I think Fulci films deliberately deny making connections at all. It's like pointillism. His movies are a series of dots. They don't connect, but instead form kind of a picture themselves. I don't mean to sound pretentious or anything. I'm not saying the man who was this great genius whose work is beyond our understanding. Not at all. I just don't think he cared about how "things are supposed to be done," and was more interested in just assaulting his audiences with nasty, brutal, confrontational imagery, while forming an overall vibe full of heady & apocalyptic atmospherics, and also indulging in his own personal stylistic fixations in excess. I enjoy them immensely. I think doing it that way created this host of movies that I, personally, adore and am extremely entertained by.

I've never seen any Fulci movies---well, it's highly possible I saw at least one and forgot it---but descriptions like WW's are exactly why Fulci now occupies several spots in my Netflix queue.

hehe... I would like to suggest The Eroticist (1972) on top of your queue... :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tpopYHbVaI

Its a story about a Political Candidate that is addictived to grab womans butts. The scene above gives you the idea of the Suspense of the character fighting his addiction and the need to grab a butt... he then claws out his hand like a murder weapon...

I do think Fulci is a Comic Genius... :)

[Paquita]

I love Fulci!  I kind of imagine him being like my eccentric old uncle who thinks everything is great.  He's so cute.. everytime something silly happens in one of his movies I just think "oh Fulci!! you!".  I don't know if he's a hack or a genius, but he's my hero.

[Cthulhu]

I love Fulici's movies. Well, what I saw, anyway. I wouldn't go as far to call him a genius, I need more perspecitve. (You know, watch more of his movies.)
All in one, his movies have great atmospheres. (Is that sentence grammatically correct?)

I love Fulci!  I kind of imagine him being like my eccentric old uncle who thinks everything is great.  He's so cute.. everytime something silly happens in one of his movies I just think "oh Fulci!! you!".  I don't know if he's a hack or a genius, but he's my hero.

[Trevor]

I don't know about genius ~ very likely ~ but Signor Fulci certainly did do a lot of hack[ing] in his films.