"The Beyond"
"Contraband"
"House by the Cemetery"
"Zombi 2"
"City of the Living Dead"
"Don't torture a Duckling"
These are his best imho.
But worth a look are:
"The Black Cat"
"Conquest" (BAD, but lost of cheesy fun)
"Cat in the Brain" (Weird as hell. Fulci plays himself being haunted by the violent images he has filmed over his career - super gory footage from other people's films and some of his own unreleased films at the time - while a mad psyvhiatrist sets him up to look like a murderer!!)
It's true he went off the boil (as have Romero, Argento and Carpenter) but when he was good..he was very good.
The importance to the 80's Italian horror boom (along with Argento's work) of Fulci's films should not be forgotten.
.
"Zombi" showed that Italy/Europe could pull off it's own take on Romero's film, with it's own crew (not simply an Italian edit) and make it an international hit...It was one of THE launch pads for that glorious half decade of extreme horror from Europe. That actually got European horror onto more American screens than anything else had.
At his peak, with his regular crew, Fulci created (and they still infact remain) some of the most successful, influential and, even in the carbon copy culture of the Italian horror market, unique movies in the horror genre.
The way he shot scenes (with the superbly skilfull eye of Sergio Salvati) like the graveyard opening of "City of the Living Dead", or the truly masterful shot of the lone zombie shuffling through the wind blown street of the deserted village in "Zombi", or the wonderfully creepy sequence in "The Beyond" where the dead take over the hotel...their shuffling silhouettes caught in the murky glow of the lights...gave us images and atmosphere that will not find in other Italian horror films.
For all the fun of "Nightmare City" or "Burial Ground" and their like...you will not see the technical and artitic triumpths like those described in any of the above sequences.
There was a vaneer of class that coated these films that was rare then, and would later (including in the later films of Fulci himself) be non-existent in Italian horror full stop.
In his prime Fulci was anything but a hack or fake.
He did rely on his crew more than say Argento did. But Argento too very rarely has the same impact without top notch people behind the camera, or 'Goblin'/Simonetti on the soundtrack.
Fulci had Salvati to capture his superb images, Fabio Frizzi to score those images, Frabrizo De Angelis to Produce and make Fulci's visions reality, Vincenzo Tomassi to edit his vision, Dardano Sacchetti to pen the complex/uniquely dreamlike plots and De Rossi (whichever one!) to supply some of the most unique and enjoyable gore you will find in Italian horror.
Without these people at his side, Fulci for the most part fell down (though not always) and that is perhaps the biggest arguement against him being a truly strong Director. His later work, even by 1982, was slipping in quality and by the final years had become a pale, and at times sad, shadow of what he once gave us.
But this has to be said happened to many Italian Directors...even Argento to a lesser extent...as the industry collapsed and budgets and distribution both became smaller and smaller.
But given the amount of films, and the amount of years he made those films, this could be forgiven.
He still remains, despite the last years of his career, a very important, well loved, influential, and oft watched and re-released Director.
And as someone who had the once in a lifetime privilage of meeting him, I can also vouch for the mammoth passion that he had for his films and the horror genre in general (even when he was much older and frail) and the respect he held in the hearts of many, MANY a horror fan.
Originally posted by SelphieT
Wow, thanks guys!I also have another question. I think this is from a Lucio Fulci movie, but I'm not sure.
Do any of you guys know what this little scene is from?
gates of hell yes. otherwise known as city of the living dead
also check out zombie flesh eaters, the beyond, and 'house by the cemetery'
Re: Lucio Fulci movies
Originally posted by Selphie
What are your favorites? What do you recommend to watch?I plan on checkin out some of his films.
I pretty much love everything from Fulci...his horrors films, the spaghetti westerns he made, and a few of his crime/mafia films and all his Giallo. There is a fantasy one which is extremely cheesy...but you ignore it once the gore scenes appear.
City of the Living Dead is one of my favourite horror films of all time due to the Lovecraftian threat it presented. The arcane zombies were intelligent and seemed to be limited only by the victims will/faith. They wanted to mess with you before they got ya.
Goblin's musicäl scores as always was excellent.
Slow at times but more then made up for it with memorable scenes. 👆