Demonia (1990)

Without stepping on too many toes I would like to say that many horror fans out there is a bit lazy. They are too afraid of actually liking a movie if it's widely considered a bad movie. Argento, Romero, Carpehter, Craven and Fulci - all of them have had this curse on them and still has in most of the cases. Maybe it's because the horror community is such a small and narrow part of movie society that people are afraid to get pushed out from the fellowship. Remember that Romero's Day of the Dead, Argento's Phenomena (and a couple of more) and Fulci's Murder Rock once was considered bad movies but is now hailed as good, excellent or pure masterpieces. With open eyes and mind it's therefore very interesting watching the lesser loved movies directed by, for example, maestro Lucio Fulci: Demonia.

A Canadian (I read that on IMDB) team of archaeologists lead by Professor Paul Evans (Brett Halsey) is on Sicily to excavate some ancient roman sites, but nearby is an old monastery - rumoured to be haunted by the local villagers. One of the archaeologists, the young Liza Harris (Meg Register) soon sees visions of five nuns being tortured to death and she's getting more frail the more she sees this. Her interest is in the occult, but this time it's way more serious than earlier. Soon people around her, team-mates and folks from the village, is getting brutally killed! Can it be that the nuns has come back for revenge?

Demonia is a very interesting movie. I'm sure that if it had a higher budget and more time for special effects and longer shooting schedule this would have been one of Fulci's best from the eighties, because the script isn't bad at all. Written by Lucio Fulci and Piero Regnoli (who actually wrote both Nightmare City AND Burial Ground) this is a low-key story (believe it or not!) with an intelligent dream-like quality. Fulci seem to know what he's doing and the story flows very good - especially with a very good performance by both Halsey and Register. The mystery and atmosphere works better than usual and the movie is also packed with very gory and violent killings!

And there we have one problem with Demonia. The budget for effects wasn't really high, it seems, and most of the effects - the spectacular one's like the body ripped in part and the poked-out eye - looks very amateurish. Usually I don't care about it and I can live with these effects, but the rest of the movie is so serious that the low quality on the effects takes you out from the movie every now and then. I don't know, but it feels like A Cat in the Brain could have gotten some inspiration from this production - just remember the scene where Fulci voices his dissatisfaction with the effects?

Demonia also looks very cheap, like a low-class TV-movie. Could be the transfer to DVD, but I never seen this movie looking good. With Sergio Salvati behind the camera and Giannetto De Rossi this could have been a fantastic movie, but instead with get the less skilled Luigi Ciccarese on photo (one of Mattei's closest cinematographer's) and Franco Giannini doing the effects.

But if you disliked it before, give it a chance again. It's not bad at all actually. Just very cheap. 

Manhattan Baby (1982)

A long time ago, during the ancient nineties, people actually hated Manhattan Baby. Said it was the beginning of all the bad movies Fulci made after his gore-soaked horror-career (that only included 4-5 movies, the “fans” had no idea about the movies before that). But now it’s a different time, and even some of his even later movies have got the blessing from the nasty nerds out there in the void. I saw Manhattan Baby on a VHS-bootleg the first time and was even then impressed by its visuals, but the sound was bad and it was hard to concentrate. Some years ago I bought the DVD and since then I’ve learned to fully appreciate the amazing little movie that Manhattan Baby is.

Christopher Connelly is Professor George Hacker, an archaeologist who brought his daughter and wife to Egypt for some work and vacation. During a mysterious event, his daughter gets a gift – an amulet with enormous powers. At the same time Hacker and his colleague is involved in a terrible accident inside an old pyramid and Hacker is left blind…
Back in New York the treatment for his eyes starts, and it’s looking good. But his daughter has shown the amulet to her little brother and together they start use it, for “journeys”… Soon people start to die around the family, is it possible to stop the curse?

Manhattan Baby isn’t as confusing as some people will say, the story is quite clear but they just left out a lot of details, a lot of explanations. I’m happy for that, I want to fill in the blanks myself. I guess the thought is something supernatural, something occult, but for me it always has been connected to ancient technology. The stories about the Egyptians and their unknown, lost, technology is famous and some even claim they was aliens (no, I don’t think so – I didn’t even believe in Santa or God as a kid). The amulet, according to me, is not so much a supernatural thing, but a technological thing. Maybe connected with radioactive power. A time machine, or a dimension portal, highly dangerous in the wrong hands. The occultist, Adrian Marcato (the always awesome Cosimo Cinieri), reacts like he’s been exposed to strong radioactivity (blood from nose and ears, spasms) after touching the amulet for example.

Manhattan Baby is also, as usual with Fulci, a beautiful movie with so much atmosphere that even James Whale deserves to be a bit jealous. The opening in Egypt, is among the best sequences in a horror movie Fulci ever directed! Everything is perfection, a flawless use of camera and lightning. Compared to his other horror flicks it’s quite low on gore, but the the little that is looks great, from the nice impalement in the beginning to the nasty and ultra-gory bird-scene in the end. In-between Fulci gives us a lot of nice set-pieces with cool effects and that special Italian movie-poetry that we learned to love from him.

Manhattan Baby is another proof that Lucio Fulci was a master storyteller, who could show stuff with only his camera that other directors only could dream of. Now when I come to think of it, he should have done a silent movie! That would have been very, very cool.

Conquest (1983)

Forget Conan. Set Ator aside for a moment. Mace is the man! Jorge Rivero plays the hero, a muscular long-haired swordsman ready for adventure and cave-sex. Yes, this is Lucio Fulci’s Conquest, a movie I’ve read so much shit about I could build me a shit-castle and rent it to Glenn Beck. Of course every negative word about Conquest is just lies, lies and more lies – because this is probably one of the more unique, gory and fun fantasy-flicks from Italy.

I already forgot the story, but the IMDB plot is probably more or less correct: “A young man, armed with a magical bow and arrows, embarks on a mystical journey through a mystical land to rid it of all evil and joins forces with an outlaw to take down an evil witch bent on claiming the magic bow for evil.” – or? I have no idea, but the young man is there (pretty boy Andrea Occhipinti, nowadays a respected arthouse-producer) and Jorge is of course Mace, as stated above. And there’s something I guess is an evil witch and her henchman, a guy with a metal mask covering his face.

First of all, Conquest is always getting a lot of crap because of its visual style. I can agree to a certain point, maybe the cinematographer did overdo the filters, because the footage is often very soft. But on a good TV, for example a HD TV, this looks a lot better than an ordinary machine and the movie feels more beautiful than ever. Because the visuals is filled with either smoke, filters or just plain darkness, it’s a movie that will scare of the normal mainstream crowd, but I would say it’s a great looking flick with wonderful direction by Fulci. Some shots here and there feels a bit sloppy, but most importantly – the movie has one distinct style all the way thru. It never becomes Ator or Thor, where everything seems like it was thrown together in the last moment with the stuff they found in the studio’s prop storage. The monsters, the clothes, gore, music – everything fits together.

Yeah, the gore. It’s also one of the things that sets this movie in it’s own league compared to many of the more PG-friendly offerings from the same period. I can’t say it is a splatter-orgy, but it’s bloody, graphic and everything in between. Lovely.

One of the highlights in the movie is the excellent electronic score by Claudio Simonetti. It was probably tossed together in an afternoon, but it fits the movie perfectly. One of the best tracks is not released on the CD, which is a pity – but maybe it was some stock music and not owned my Simonetti? I have no idea, but I want it!

Conquest is a cool, awesome and gory fantasy-romp with monsters and mayhem and is recommended to all of you who wants to look further than Zombie Flesh Eaters and The Beyond.

White Fang (1973)

I've said it over and over again, Lucio Fulci was so much more than gore-movies from the eighties. Nothing wrong with them, I love them and respect them to 100 %. But people tend to forget that the Maestro was an excellent director even without zombies and duck-talking serial killers. My first experience with White Fang was in Sigtuna where I went to school. The driver of the bus, Bertil, obviously understood that I even at such a tender age just was in love with the movie picture. So one day he brought a Swedish x-rental of White Fang and gave it to me. It was quite different than the other similar adventure-movies I've seen at the time, but it stayed with me and over the years I really wanted to watch it again - but with great quality and in widescreen. And I finally did.

Missaele plays Mitsah (which sounds like Pizza everyone someone yells it on the movie), an indian boy who together with his father discovers a wild dog. The boy and the dog becomes friend, and even the father - after a lot of thinking - decides to trust the dog. After an accident, Mitsah needs medcial attention and they go together to Dodge City where a nun has open a hospital. Also in the city is the journalist Jason Scott (Franco Nero, more handsome than ever) and his friend Kurt Jansen (Raimund Harmstorf) - both of course extremely good guys. The only problem is that the village is run by the sleazy and evil Charles 'Beauty' Smith (John Steiner) and his henchmen, and he really wants White Fang to be his own fighting-dog... Scott and Jansen takes it upon themselves to clean up the trash and bring some order in town!

It takes a Fulci to bring life to Jack London's White Fang. This is a much darker and crueler story, and though it's a movie directed towards families and "young adults", it's both violent and cynical. Fulci is not afraid to show the darkness of mankind and do so with a graphic punch. I think kids can, even in the seventies, stand much more than parents or censorship claims, and if I ever get a kid - this is the movie I would show. It's really nothing bad with it. It's such a slick and beautiful production (the only scene that stands out as corny is in the beginning, where we see a lot of studio-sets dressed to look like outdoors) with a magnificent cast. Everyone is wonderful, but Fernando Rey as the alcoholic Father Oatley is character with many layers and Rey makes him come a alive so well. There's a fantastic scene in the end where Oatley discovers something, a tragedy both for him personally, and the city and he goes on a ranting-rampage and breaks down out in the street. Powerful.

My biggest worry was that the story about the boy would be to dominating and cute, but it never happens and every relationship in this movie feels real. One interesting thing, that's been pointed out by other critics, is that the story is much about how evil privatization is (and I agree to a certain point). John Steiner's character is obviously a symbol of capitalism and Scott and Jansen are defenders of communism. I can see why Fulci was attracted by the script.

But White Fang is most of all a dark, intelligent and dramatic adventure-movie. Another proof of Fulci's genius and talent as a director and storyteller.

And yes Jason, I have this one and the sequel to you :)

City of the Living Dead (1980)

There's something bugging me after watching the amazing blu-ray of City of the Living Dead (Arrow has done a marvelous job, no matter what all the conspiracy theorists out there says - this is the best way to see the movie!). Make no mistake about, but there is a logic behind what's happening in the movie, but I just can't pinpoint exactly what it is. I'm not gonna go in to the story, because this is one of the few movies - together with The Beyond - that can be attributed to the title "dreamlike". It's like nothing is real, but still so visible there in front of us and the characters.

You see, all of the heroes in this movies - from Mary Woodhouse (Catriona MacColl), Peter Bell (Christopher George) and Gerry (Carlo De Mejo) is dead. They are already in their own personal hell. With Mary it begins with her dying, there's nothing more else to it. She's saved by another spirit, the journalist Peter Bell and without any hazzle they are with our other psychic - but I think she just called on them. Together they goes to Dunwich, this almost mythological place which is impossible to find on the map. Dunwich is already hell, and maybe has been forever or from the moment the priest took suicide. It's always stormy, cloudy or dark in Dunwich, like it has it's own natural laws. You can never escape from there, the only one realizing this is Bob (Giovanni Lombardo Radice), who's going mad because he knows what's happening around them - thats why he sees a good opportunity to die when it's served to him. No fighting back, just accept that he's gonna leave this place. COTLD has a town-perv and not a town-like other small town-movies, Dagon, Dead & Buried, Messiah Of Evil etc etc.

There is never a clear plan what to do about stopping the hell to come back to earth, and when they're very fast are killing the priest in the end and all the zombies goes ups in flames, it's just way to easy. Like a trap. When they come up from the underground againt he weather hasn't changed. It's foggy like... hell. When the little boy, the child - the symbol of innocence) comes running towards them, happy and by the looks of it, unaffected by that everyone around him has died - they realise it's just gonna go in circles, that they are still in this nightmare and it will never end.

Or it might just be a confusing, gory Italian shock-flick. But still, there's something behind the lack of logic, something behind the emotionless characters accepting the death and grue around them. It's not bad exploitation-acting, it's strong direction from Maestro Lucio Fulci. But enough analyzing. I actually can say that this movie just climbed up one notch on my list of favorite Fulci's. I never felt connected to it when I watched it on tape (both the uncut Vipco-version that was released once, and the cut Video Invest) or the Vipco DVD (uncut, widescreen, but terrible quality), but finally I somehow "got it".

I felt I finally could get into the rythm, appreciate the madness and the (as usual) brilliant direction my Lucio Fulci. The coffin-scene could be one of the best ever shot for an Italian horror movie, with some fucking amazing visual ideas (the wind blowing on the rose leave, her breath creating moist on the mirror, the axe coming down right through the coffin-lid, so close to her head...), gorgeous cinematography by Salvati (no one could have shot the scenes in the apartment of the psychic so moody and filled with atmosphere like him!) and tense music by Fabio Frizzi. It's still not the best movie Fulci made, and it feels rushed and a bit sloppy, but the good stuff is a lot more than the bad stuff.

Jocke also reminded me that COTLD has some very weird stuff on the soundtrack, and it's true: monkeys! Yes, during at least two exterior shots you'll hear monkey screams in the background, quite loud to. It could be some very strange bird, but it really sounds like monkeys!

The gore? Yeah, it's not that much. The two main gore scenes are classics in their own right, but except that it's quite dry on the blood and gore. Sure, there's some slime and maggots, but compared to other Italian horror movies it's quite sparse. But like all Fulci-movies the gore isn't that important really. We all love it, but if he hadn't filmed it no one would have missed it either. He's such a good storyteller and creator of atmospheric filth.

But the work of Fulci, yes, the genius of storyteller Fulci reminds me of one of Kurt Vonnegut's advices when it comes to writing a good story: "Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them - in order that the reader may see what they are made of". That was something Fulci could handle more than well, to a degree that some people thought he was a misogynist and a cynic, when all that he did was to show us how humanity really is.

Murder Rock (1984)

It is time to put down down all the facts and once and for all get people to understand that Murder Rock is one of Fulci's strongest and best-looking films from the eighties. In an era when American slasher and Italian giallo became more mainstream, Fulci used every new visual idea and put it all together into an incredibly stylish and complex thriller. And bloodless. Which will scare away fanboys. 

In a New York-based dance school (imagine Fame and similar ideas) a bunch of young girls tries to get a professional dancer-career in the tough world of the shallow showbiz. And yes, they're trying... but not for long...

One night a girl is murdered by a killer in black gloves! Slowly and bloodless, a long needle through the heart. After a very brief period of sorrow the girls are back in competition mode again, ready to be number one!

Inspector Borges (an excellent Cosimo Cinieri) begins to unravel the case and dig up more and more strange circumstances under the seemingly nice and handsome facade. But the killer continues to kill off competition and the question is who it is: the dirty old principal, the bitter dance coach, the lame sound technician, the jealous boyfriend, another student or just the one you least expect it to be?

Of course, Murder Rock is a giallo by the numbers. But the story is, after all, unusually complex, in all cases for be such a late contribution to the genre. It presents more than one suspected murderer, many clues and a camera following every strange thing the characters to. Everything is a red herring! Fulci always knew how to tell the story with the camera, then with dialogue. With smart tracking shots and talented actors, he creates a couple of interesting layers of intrigue and human perversion.

For some reason, the Murder Rock has the reputation of being an orgy of eighties kitch. Which of course is not true. Not more than other films from that time anyway. I guess most of this rumour comes from the clumsy pre-credits with some breakdance-guys showing their skills on a disco floor. Bad editing in this sequence and even worser music by Keith Emerson probably made people think that the rest of the movie was the same, and turned it off. But otherwise it is an unusually restrained thriller with incredibly stylish murder scenes (largely bloodless) and good tension. There are a lot of material shot in New York, and the winter-wet look works great of the movie. 

Olga Karlatos make the role of her life. Ray Lovelock is excellent as the possible killer. Al Cliver and Lucio Fulci himself shows up in cameos. Claudio Cassinelli makes one of his last roles before the helicopter crash that took his life during the shooting of Sergio Martino's Hands Of Steel, and is very good in a role that feels different to what he usually plays.

A great little movie that is worth revisiting - especially on the DVD where the movie looks nothing short of incredibly good. Silly disco and bloodless murders, but it's still a clear evidence that Fulci really was a master when it came to tell a story in a visual and intelligent way.

The Psychic (1977)

The Psychic has been a film that I've heard about for many years, but I was patient and waited until there was a good release out. Severin finally released it, and I wasn't disappointed.

Jennifer O'Neill plays Virginia Ducci, a British woman who recently married an Italian, Emilio Rospini (Gabriele Ferzetti). She moves to Italy and decides to renovate her new family's house, a house that stood abandoned for many years. On the way there, she suddenly gets a vision - something she has been plagued by throughout her life. When she arrives at the house she realizes that the visions belongs to that place, and that it might also be a clue to murder - and murderer!

The police are skeptical of her visions, but everything points toward that her husband is the killer. He had had an affair with the victim and was also the one who had access to the house. Virginia is forced to take on the mystery, along with friends and family - including her husband's sister Gloria (Ida Galli) and a nice police, Luca Fattori (Marc Porel), and figuring out what the visions means, and who the killer is...

Perhaps the most complex Fulci film I've seen, and incredibly beautiful. The cinematography is by master Sergio Salvati and the music is composed by Fabio Frizzi. This, combined with a very sophisticated and thoughtful script, echoes the classic giallo - but also travels far away from the typical giallo clichés. This is more a psychological thriller, a pusselbox of clues and interpretations.

What struck me was that Fulci got some great acting from his actor this time, something like a more recognized director Argento never succeed in (and he probably is not even interested in it either). Although the classic Italian style of acting sometimes shines through, it feels as if everyone has become infected by Jennifer O'Neill's low-key approach to her character. 

As usual Fulci focus on eyes, faces, small body movements ... and of course blood and shocks! Not that the film is particularly bloody, but there is no room for such a thing in this story. Not very much anyway, even if the blood flows in at least two sequences. It is also worth mentioning that the English dubbing is a lot better than usual. For example, the Italian characters has an Italian accent and Jennifer dubs her own voice. It feels realistic and never breaks the illusion - even if bad dubbing hardly is disturbing for someone who is familiar with it. 

The Psychic is a original, beautiful and unique thriller. The original title, directly translated is "Seven Notes in Black is also a logic in itself that you do not understand if you do not think after a while. Subtle and good. 

See it.

Aenigma (1987)

There's one stunning shot in Aenigma. The spirit/astralbody of the braindead girl is leaving her body, moves up through all the floors, out on the roofs, floats over a very cool miniature landscape and lands at the St Marys Boaring School. This is a vintage Fulci in the works, very atmospheric, orginal and with stunning visuals. It's a pity that the rest of the movie don't have that magic we love much. 

Where the movie lacks in story and characters, it has a distinct style and professional look. The story is a mix between Patrick and Carrie, with a few sprinkles of Suspiria. That's okey for me, the biggest part of my movie collection is movies that's trying to imitate other movies - sometimes it's better, sometimes not. This could have worked if the characters wasn't so god damn flat. It's just talking faces, a few tits and uninspired dialogue. I like Jared Martin a lot, but he hasn't much to do here except delivering silly lines and kissing overaged teenaged girls.

Here and there we have some great shots and some that could have been a lot better (for example where the girl is getting attacked by the art) and some that dosen't work at all, among them the infamous snail-scene. The problem with that one is that snails is unimpressive to watch at in movie. They just slime around, doing nothing - and no disgusting sound effects in the world can save that. The gore is quite minimal to, which is sad - because this could have been a so much funnier movie with some nasty gore-effects.

I'm negative now, but I would recommend it for the cinematography and that Fulci injects some inspiration where he feels for it. He's doing a cameo to, as usual, and looks very sick and weak. Far away from the streetwise editor in Zombi 2 or the machine gun-maniac in Contraband. After a while I was sitting counting the famous people showing up on posters in the schoolgirls rooms. Stallone (with a snail on!) and Cruise is to, and I can swear I saw Christopher Lambert to. But I could be wrong. Even if I like him, and would never never never have a poster of him on the wall. 

Maybe not the best Fulci has done, but still better than a lot of the other shit out there. So give it a try when you're in the mood for some slow-moving italian horror from the tacky eighties.

Voices from Beyond (1991)

It took me few years to watch Voices from Beyond, not because I didn't want to see it, just because it didn't work on my shitty dvd-player. But nowdays a bluray-player shines in my livingroom, and I'm happy to say it played this dvd without any problem. Voices could almost have been the swan song of Lucio Fulci, but destiny made him do another movie, the okey Door to Silence. But if this movie had been his last, it would have sealed a great career in a very nice way.

A greedy man dies in pain in his hospital bed. He's coughing blood and won't survive the night. His family is waiting for him to die, so they can get rich. But the man dosen't day, not inside. His mind is still alive, and struggling to force someone to discover how he died. That one is his daughter, which slowly realises how everyone want's her father money. At the same time the spirit of the dead man is haunting the dreams of the family...

Voices from Beyond is a poetic revenge movie. It's beautifully shot, one of the most good looking Fulci-movies since Murder Rock. It's also seems like Fulci maybe had a little bit money, a little bit more time, to make this movie. The direction is very good and the camera compositions is up there among his best. Just look at the details, the shadow at the train or the camera movements during the funeral. It's a master at work. There's master touches all over the movie, even if it's far from perfect - but it's far from bad either. The actors do what they can do with cheesy dialogue, but turns out okey performances. The music is one of the best things. Very simple, almost meditative electronic stuff that fits very good to the dream-like quality of the movie.

When it comes to pure horror it's like a normal Fulci-movie: it's more about dread than dead. The atmosphere is thick and slow, and as usual no jump-scares. Just a feeling of something sick. Of course there's some gore: a nasty autopsy, a few gory knife-stabbings and a decomposing body. But it's quiet laid back compared to some of his other work. 

So, slim on story, but fat in depth and atmosphere. Fulci still shows us who could transform an ordinary italian tv-movie to something very special.

X-rental: The New Gladiators (1984)

Without a doubt one of the most underrated films in Fulcis career. Sure, it's a bit silly, but The New Gladiators is a stylish, violent and fun sci-fi movie. The swedish release is great and uncut, but I wished there could come a good dvd-release.

Zombi 2 (1979)

This is an historical moment, ladies and gentlemen. The first thing is that I'm writing about "Zombi 2" and not "Zombie Flesh Eaters". I prefer the second title, but I'm getting older and lazy and started to use the controversial "Zombi 2"-title. If someone is getting upset about that, just fuck off ;)

The second historical moment is this: I don't see any problems with the traffic in the final scenes. Really. There's no problem at all. I don't see it as "revealing mistake" or something else silly that IMDB would have called it. There's a zombie-invasion in New York. You have a bridge. Because of all the traffic there's not chance to drive faster. No way in hell. It would be more realistic to drive slower actually. You see a lot of traffic in the scene, and they are going back and forth from Manhattan - probably not just to save themselves, but to find relatives, do some random raids for free teves and so on. So now I said it. And I'm proud of not being one of those "Oh, look at the calm and non-zombie-related traffic at the bridge!"-type of people. At least I've been on the exact same place at the zombies, which a lot of other fans hasn't. Haha.

Dread. That's the word for Zombi 2. I've never seen a movie (maybe The New York Ripper) that has such a feeling of dread and despair. Everything is dirty, slimy, unhealthy, gory, black, disgusting and just revolting. The gore is extremly graphic and detailed, and also very well made. You know, from the beginning, that it will go to hell with everything. Everytime the story cuts to doctor Maynard at the island you know there's some nasty shit going on. When people die in his hospital it's not nice. It's terrible, and headache-inducing. The illness almost spreads out from the dvd and infects the whole viewing-experience. But don't get me wrong, this is a great movie. Probably one of the best zombie-movies ever made. Fulci was a master of details, and there's nothing in this movie that hasn't that Fulci-feeling (well, maybe one thing - and that's historical moment nr 3... more to that later). Just forget about the gory make-up effects for a while and check out the sets. Wonderful and loaded with details, interesting props and a whole story of it's own. Fulci clearly knew what he wanted.

People also, sometimes, complains about the corny dialogue. Might be true, but it's not that much that people seems to think. The two cops in the beginning has a few cheesy lines, but for me that's all that is. The rest of the actors does a very fine job. There wouldn't be a Zombi 2 without Tisa Farrow (has anyone tried to contact her by the way?), Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver, Auretta Gay, Olga Karlatos and of course Dakar. Richard Johnson does a very fine job, probably better than most actors of his stature would have done in a similar situation.

So, now on to historical moment part 3: The shark-scene sucks. Yeah, it's true. Sorry. It's not a boring scene, but it belongs in another movie. Like Zombi 3 or 4. It's just to silly to be in Zombi 2! The underwater-footage looks great, the shark is neat and the not water-proof zombie-make up stinks. It's just something that stops the movie in the middle. The movie has a flow, an atmosphere of doom... and then they throw in an underwater-zombie that attacks a shark... plus a couple of breast-shots. I sit through that scene everytime because I don't believe in fastforward a movie... but it's getting closer and closer everytime!

And yes, here I am on top of the bridge. A little slimmer though, but proud as hell.

Door into Silence (1991)

Ah, dear Lucio really likes to fuck with our minds and expectations. Door into silence is not a horror movie. I won't even consider it a thriller. It's more of a black comedy dressed like an episode of Twilight Zone. By the way, do you remember the time when everyone hated Murder Rock and loathed Cat in the Brain? It was that time when even Argentos Stendahl Syndrome was a fiasco, a bad movie. Now it's been more than a few years and people start to understand that these aren't bad. I'm not sure that Door into silence will get the same treatment, but more people will understand it and see that it's not that bad that some "experts" claims it to be.

John Savage, a bit chubby and with curly blonde locks, plays Melvin Deveraux. He's in a hurry... to his own funeral, but he just dosen't know it yet. A strange woman shows up from time to time, teases him... flirts with him and acting mysteriusly. But the worst thing is the hearse, a fast-speeding car with a crazy driver who tries to get Melvin off the road several times.

Slowly Melvin understands that there's something wrong with the situation. Some people just dosen't seem to notice him, and is it his body that's laying in the hearse? And why dosen't the hot sun ever set?

It's not much to talk about concerning the storyline. It's just John Savage going around in his car, chasing the hearse or being chased by it. Sometimes there's flashes to stuff that's already happen and he's getting more and more irritated on the sun. But you know, I kinda liked it. It's a slow movie, but ninty minutes went quite fast after all. The directing is most of the time excellent and Fulci knows how to tell a story. It has a cheap tv-look, but the cinematography is very good and quite moody.

I can understand why not many typical Fulci-fans like this movie. There's no gore for example. But the atmosphere is good, and a good jazz soundtrack (some stuff taken from New York Ripper if I didn't hear wrong) makes everything much more enjoyable. The ending, with the music choice, is ironic and and sudden. But it fits the movie. This is more of a typical dream, much more than his other experiments in the genre: It's slow and repetitive, and has a hopeless feeling of that there's no way to change destiny. For Melvin, life is fucked. And I wonder if he dosen't deserve it?