Shudder Saturday: Don't Torture A Duckling (1972)

Some people really like Don't Torture A Duckling. They view it as a great giallo, and they view it as a great film from director Lucio Fulci. I need to start this review by saying that I am not one of those people. It's generally entertaining, but not necessarily in the way that was intended.

The plot is quite simple. A number of children have been murdered in a small Italian town. The police work their way through a few suspects, including a woman who seems interested in witchcraft, while a visiting journalist (Andrea, played by Tomas Milian) and a shamed young woman (Patrizia, played by Barbara Bouchet) stumble on some information that may eventually lead them to solving the case.

Co-written by Fulci with Roberto Gianviti and Gianfranco Clerici, this is, on the one hand, a sharp commentary on hypocrisy and at least one major institution. On the other hand, it's a bit too silly and amused by the many distractions littering the runtime to be considered a real classic. I assume that those who are fans of it appreciate the sleazy vibe and the nasty edge to it, especially in the cold approach to depicting the multiple child deaths, but there's a disappointing lack of tension here, nor anything that could be considered particularly stylish or visually attractive (with the notable exception of Miss Bouchet, of course).

Milian and Bouchet are the stars, even if they have to linger in the background as the film heads off to show us another murder or a suspect being side-eyed, at the very least. The fact that Bouchet has to act in a couple of scenes in which she teases a couple of different young boys is an odd choice, but one that all involved commit to. Florinda Bolkan is the witchy woman who becomes the number one suspect, Irene Papas and Marc Porel end up dragged into the unfolding pain and misery, and Vito Passeri is enjoyable as a character who has to convince everyone that he "didn't murder any kids, honest, it was just an opportunity to make some money by demanding a ransom in exchange for details of where a body is buried".

This doesn't have any of the Fulci treats that I find in many of his other features, personally. It's not even his best slasher movie to make use of a duck (that would be the dark and violent The New York Ripper, which has the killer being ducky during a number of phone calls). I'm not one to yuck anyone's yum though, as it were, and many others would probably recommend this. I didn't hate it, and it's too enjoyably bonkers to completely dismiss, but I can't see me being keen to revisit it as I revisit a number of other Fulci greats.

5/10

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Shudder Saturday: The Psychic (1977)

I was going to start this review by saying that this was one of the few Lucio Fulci movies I hadn't seen before, but that's not quite true. There are lots of Lucio Fulci movies I haven't seen before. The Psychic just happens to be one of the other titles I was already aware of, although I don't think I ever saw it mentioned as one of his best film.

A murder mystery that revolves around the visions of a clairvoyant woman, Virginia (Jennifer O'Neill), who hopes to use her particular talent to prove her husband (Francesco, played by Gianni Garko) innocent of a murder, The Psychic is an enjoyable bit of nonsense that is susprisingly satisfying by the time it plays out a fairly predictable finale. The mixed cast of characters aren't really people you care about, this is all about atmosphere and plot ahead of characterisation (standard for Fulci . . . although you could easily argue that he often doesn't even care about plot), but our lead is strong enough to carry the film on her shoulders, and acts in a way that feels plausible and understandable.

I will admit that my memory of this is already fading, having only watched it a few days ago for the first time, but horror fans will certainly view this as a very tame work compared to other Fulci horror movies. There aren't any standout set-pieces, no extreme gore or tension, but the script, co-written by Fulci, the prolific Roberto Ganviti, and Dardano Sacchetti (who would also work with Fulci on the Gates Of Hell trilogy), never tries to pretend it is aiming for anything other than a solid amateur detective tale in which the detective has the "gift"of second sight that may help or hinder her investigation.

It may have helped that I didn't know what to expect from this, all I knew (assumed) was that it didn't feature any major zombie outbreak, but The Psychic won me over quite early on. A large part of that is due to O'Neill, who is extremely watchable in the lead role. Nobody else is quite as good, and that includes Garko, Marc Porel, Gabriele Ferzetti, Ida Galli, and one or two others, but it doesn't matter. What matters is the lead that we are most closely attached to for the bulk of the runtime.

It's easy to see why this is rarely mentioned by people listing the best films from Fulci. It's just a decent little thriller, nothing more and nothing less. But I liked it. The use of the fragmented visions, lacking crucial context until much later in the movie, is a fun, albeit familiar, device, and the musical motif also plays in nicely before the end credits roll (the original Italian title is Sette Note In Nero, which translates to "Seven Notes In Black" . . . if Google Translate can be trusted).

Not an all-time great, but this was a decent distraction while it was on. Oh, and there's some excellent music contained within the score, including a section that will already be familiar to anyone, like myself, who saw the Kill Bill movies before seeing this.

7/10

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Demonia (1990)

If you are after coherent and believable horror then the work of Lucio Fulci isn’t for you. But if you want atmosphere and impressive set-pieces then you should check out his work. If you’re a horror fan then you have probably already heard of his best titles, but his filmography also includes a number of lesser-known gems.

Demonia isn’t one of them.

If I tried to explain the plot then I think we would all just start laughing, underlining just how ridiculous it is. Basically, a young woman starts to have visions of some bad things, there is an archeological dig going on, and some vengeful spirit nuns start killing off people. Meg Register is Liza, the woman having the visions, and Brett Halsey plays Professor Evans, helping to oversee the fated archaeological dig. And Fulci himself plays a policeman investigating the deaths that start to occur.

Demonia is bonkers, and not really in the best ways. And yet, for reasons I cannot quite put my finger on, I found myself enjoying the silliness of it all. Maybe I was just in the right mood for it, I did pick it as a viewing that I figured would keep me away from anything too weighty and/or grim, or maybe those being harshly critical of it, and they are many, have been a bit unfair.

Are Register and Halsey good in their main roles? Not really. I don’t blame them though, Fulci never seems to give much thought to his cast members and they are asked to be as over the top and silly as the script they are working with. Others onscreen suffer from similar fates, although both Christina Englehardt and Lino Salemme are a bit livelier and more fun than the rest.

If you can accept the ridiculousness of the script, co-written by Fulci and Piero Regnoli, and the fact that there are no truly standout moments, Demonia isn’t a terrible way to spend ninety minutes. Never mind that Fulci himself tried to get his name removed from the thing (ironic, considering the lack of story credit given to Antonio Tentori). I wouldn’t recommend anyone watch this ahead of The Beyond, Zombie Flesh Eaters, City Of The Living Dead, and a number of other slices of more worthwhile Fulci, but I wouldn’t completely dismiss it. It’s absolutely daffy, and sometimes absolutely daffy perfectly fits the bill.

5/10

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Shudder Saturday: The House By The Cemetery (1981)

I love me some Lucio Fulci horror. The man doesn't give a damn for things like logic or reality, but he can create some absolutely wonderful set-pieces, and can also layer on atmosphere so thick that you have to cut through it with a chainsaw to even just see the screen. Unfortunately, The House By The Cemetery (the last in his "Gates Of Hell" trilogy) is one of his weaker films. There are still moments that will please fans, they're just too few and far between in the middle of a plot that's hard to care about.

And I'm not going to take up this entire review with space trying to explain the plot. Let's just say that a family moves into a new home, that home having also been the site of evil happenings, and it's not long until more evil happenings start to, ummmm, happen. That will do, trust me, that's all you need to know.

You get some familiar Fulci-isms here, of course, including a random prologue that becomes relevant a bit later on, someone with psychic abilities, spooky children, an animal attack (this time it's a bat), and an undead figure shambling around and killing people. There are moments of gore, moments to bewilder anyone new to the cinematic world of Fulci, and general oddness throughout, but it all feels like someone trying to emulate Fulci without really managing to get things right.

Part of this can be attributed to the script, which was written by the director, Dardano Sacchetti, and Giorgio Mariuzzo (developing the plot thought up by Elisa Briganti), but scripts have never been the main focus of a Fulci movie. Yet, even in comparison to others that he brought to the screen, this is particularly weak. There's no building of tension because the core of the story is so weak, there are no characters to really care about, or be interested in, and the dialogue is either clunky exposition or reactions to moments of horror that would send most people running for the hills.

Catriona MacColl and Paolo Malco are the two main adults, the latter being responsible for his family moving into "the creaky and creepy house of murder and death" (my title, not a name given to the location in the film, despite it being completely appropriate), and the main child, Bob, is played by Giovanni Frezza in a performance that is up there in the annals of most annoying movie children ever. Not that I blame Frezza entirely for that. It's a mix of the dubbing and however he was directed by Fulci. Ania Pieroni isn't onscreen long enough, playing a babysitter named Ann, while Giovanni De Nava is arguably shown too much in the second half, playing Dr. Freudstein, the character causing so much death and horror.

There are still moments here that make this worth your time, just, but it's probably the weakest film from Fulci to feature a shambling corpse, and it's not a patch on so many of his other movies that you could pick from the decades during which he gave us a pretty damn impressive number of memorable genre films.

5/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.

The Beyond (1981)

Lucio Fulci is a director who tends to invoke extreme reactions in people. His work is often extremely gory, more than a little bit bonkers and very atmospheric, but there are many of his films that people also just dismiss as nasty, misogynistic trash. I've not seen too many of his movies, but I've seen enough to know that I like his stuff, even if it is completely off the wall at times. City Of the Living Dead (please be kind to my brief review, it was one of my first for Flickfeast) remains a firm favourite in the zombie movie sub-genre, thanks in no small part to the atmosphere that's laid on with a shovel. The Beyond is its equal.

Catriona MacColl plays Liza Merril, a woman who finally has a shot at getting something good happening in her life when she inherits an old hotel in Louisiana. It's unfortunate that the hotel is built over one of the seven entrances to Hell and that a long-dead artist named Schweick seems intent on leading hordes of the undead into the world of the living. If Liza heeds the advice of blind Emily (Cinzia Monreale) then maybe she, with the help of Dr. John McCabe (David Warbeck), can stop all hell breaking loose. Literally.

Fans of City Of The Living Dead should love this movie as it's certainly a thematic companion piece to it, making up a nice trilogy of sorts that would be completed by The House By The Cemetery. Fulci also co-wrote the screenplay with Dardano Sacchetti and Giorgio Mariuzzo though it's hard to imagine them doing much more than imagining nasty, gory death scenes and then making the rest of the plot up while the cameras were rolling. To be fair, a lot of the footage from the last third of the movie was added at the insistence of the distributor, but the movie feels like a melting point of ideas and outrageous horrors anyway so nothing ever feels too incongruous, even as everything gets crazier and crazier.

MacColl is a lovely leading lady, David Warbeck acts capably alongside her and Cinzia Monreale plays a young woman who can sit at a piano and play her own spooky theme music. Veronica Lazar and Anthony Flees are given enough just enough screen-time to make it clear that they might not live to enjoy any retirement in their old age and Maria Pia Marsala is a young girl who sees a lot more blood and death than any young girl should see.

The acting is uneven, of course, and so are some of the special effects moments, but the good far outweighs the bad when it comes to the eyeball trauma, flesh being lashed off in chunks, faces being severely disfigured, tarantulas enjoying some meat treats and the atmosphere that starts to build up during the middle of the movie and thickens and thickens right up until those brilliant final images.

In case you didn't realise it already, this is another film that I hold dear to my horror-loving heart, flaws and all.

8/10

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The New York Ripper (1982)

Lucio Fulci has given horror fans plenty to choose from over the years, some of it great and some of it not so great. Personally, I'll always be a fan of his ever since I fell in love with the mist-laden atmosphere of City Of The Living Dead AKA Gates Of Hell. Then I saw The Beyond. Well, I though that the man could do no wrong. Then I saw The House By The Cemetery. If you're reading this and you're a fan of The House By The Cemetery then don't get yourself in a rage just now, I believe my first and only viewing of the movie was a butchered VHS release back in the early 90s so I'm definitely going to revisit it now that it's been given a shiny overhaul. But that viewing did show me that Fulci wasn't perfect and as I got to know more and more horror fans around the world I quickly learned that opinions of the man ranged from horror maestro to past master who lost his way to misogynistic hack. Despite the misses mixed in with the hits, I still like to think of him as a real master of the genre.

Which brings us to The New York Ripper, not necessarily a masterpiece of a film but certainly one of the more, deservedly, notorious titles to be affected by the big Video Nasty nonsense in the 1980s and even beyond. It's a very, very nasty movie, there's no denying it, with some horrific violence towards women and a real atmosphere of sleaze. Yet I'd also have to say that it's an enjoyable, unflinching horror that's part time capsule, part psychobabble and all Euroschlock. Directed by Fulci, who also helped to write the thing, it's not up there with his very best work (already mentioned above) but it's very good.

One of many movies made at this time showing New York inhabited by a bunch of Italian actors, there's no point in discussing the quality of the performances or dialogue here. Let's face it, these factors are not the best things that the movie has to offer.

The slim plot revolves around a killer who targets women and kills them in brutal and specific ways. The killer seems to resent the fact that the victims ARE women and will often mutilate their breast or vaginal area (one scene involving a broken bottle was still strong enough to make me flinch thirty years after the movie was initially released). Lt. Fred Williams (Jack Hedley) is the man determined to catch this killer, a determination strengthened by mocking phone calls in which the killer talks in a duck-like manner. And when Fay Majors (Almanta Keller) attracts the attention of the killer how long does she have left to live?

There's every chance that this might offend you, it's certainly not the kind of horror movie to put on if you're trying to win over a newcomer to the genre, but you have to admire Fulci for going as far as he does. The rest of the movie may not be up to much but the death scenes are uncomfortable and well realised while the taunting of the police by the strange voice of the killer works fairly well.

If you want to pick apart this movie then it's all too easy (the bad dialogue, the poor supporting characters, etc) but if you're willing to overlook the lack of polish on the surface then you'll see a harsh and violent thriller/horror that really lives up to its title.

7/10

The region-free Bluray is available here -
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-York-Ripper-Blu-ray/dp/B002E01MI8