Lucio Fulci (Italian pronunciation: [ˈlutʃo ˈfultʃi]; 17 June 1927 – 13 March 1996) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor.^[1] He is perhaps best known for his directorial work on gore films, including Zombie (1979) and The Beyond (1981), although he made films in genres as diverse as giallo, western, and comedy.^[2] Fulci is known as the "Godfather of Gore"^[3] a title also given to Herschell Gordon Lewis.^[4]

Life and career[link]

Fulci was born in Rome on 17 June 1927. After studying medicine in college and being employed for a time as an art critic,^[5] Fulci opted for a film career first as a screenwriter, then later as a director, working initially in the comedy field. In the early to mid-1960s, Fulci directed around 18 Italian comedies, many starring the famous Italian comedy team Franco and Ciccio. Most of these early films were not distributed well (if at all) in the USA.

In 1969, he moved into the thriller arena, directing giallos (such as Lizard in a Woman's Skin and Sette note in nero) and action films (such as White Fang and Four of the Apocalypse) that were both commercially successful and controversial in their depiction of violence and religion. Some of the special effects in "Lizard" involving mutilated dogs in a vivisection room were so realistic, Fulci was dragged into court and charged with animal cruelty, until he showed the artificial canine puppets (created by Spfx maestro Carlo Rambaldi) to the judge and explained that they weren't real animals.

The first film to gain him actual notoriety in his native country, Don't Torture A Duckling, combined scathing social commentary with the director's soon-to-be-trademark graphic violence. Fulci had a Catholic upbringing and referred to himself as a Catholic.^[6] Despite this, some of his movies (such as his Beatrice Cenci and Don't Torture A Duckling) have been viewed as severely anti-Catholic.^[7] In one of his films, a priest is depicted as a homicidal child killer, and in another, a priest commits suicide by hanging himself in a cemetery and is reincarnated as a murderous demon.

In 1979, he achieved his international breakthrough with Zombie, a violent zombie film that was marketed in European territories as a sequel to George Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978). He quickly followed it up with several other tales of horror and the supernatural, many also featuring shambling, maggot-infested zombies which were all the rage at the time. His features released during the 1979 to 1983 period (most of them scripted by famed Italian screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti) were described by some critics as being among the most violent and gory films ever made. City of the Living Dead (1980), The Beyond (1981), House by the Cemetery (1981), The Black Cat (1981), and The New York Ripper (1982) were among his biggest hits, all of which featured extreme levels of on-screen blood and cruelty.

Several of Fulci's movies released in America were censored by the film distributor to ensure an R rating (such as The Beyond, which was originally released on video in edited form as Seven Doors of Death) or were released Unrated in order to avoid an X-rating (as with Zombie and House by the Cemetery) which would have greatly restricted the films' target audiences to adults. The unrated films often played worldwide in drive-ins and grindhouses to hordes of delighted teenagers and horror fanatics. Many of Fulci's horror films tend to contain "injury to the eye" sequences, in which a character's eyeball is either pierced or pulled out of its socket, usually in lingering, close-up detail.

Several of Fulci's movies were banned in Europe or were released in heavily cut versions. Of the original 72 films on the infamous Video Nasty list in the United Kingdom, three belonged to Fulci: Zombie (1979), The Beyond (1981), and House by the Cemetery (1981).^[8] After viewing Fulci's New York Ripper, not only did the British Board of Film Classification refuse the film a certificate, but every single print in the country was taken to an airport and returned to Italy by order of James Ferman; it wasn't until later that VIPCO had the courage to release the film, initially outsourcing production to a foreign source under police supervision before releasing a home-grown VHS in 2002 and a DVD in 2007.^[9]

German gore director Andreas Schnaas (left) and the late Lucio Fulci (right) at the 1994 Eurofest, London, England.

After collaborating with screenwriter Sacchetti for six years, Fulci went off on his own in 1983 to direct the movie Conquest (a Conan-like barbarian fantasy) in Mexico, failing to involve Sacchetti in the deal. The film actually wound up doing quite poorly upon its release, and afterwards, Fulci had trouble jump-starting his working relationship with Sacchetti, who by this time had gone his own way.

Fulci became deathly ill from hepatitis in 1984 (right after he finished directing Murder Rock in New York City) and had to be hospitalized for many months, eventually getting well enough to be released. Fulci spent most of 1984 hospitalized with cirrhosis, and much of 1985 recuperating at home. After 1986, with his diabetes plaguing him and the departure of screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti from Fulci's circle of friends (see "Fulci vs Sacchetti" below), Fulci was far less successful in his endeavors. Most of Fulci's films after 1984 were badly written and cheaply produced, with the possible exception of his Aenigma (1987) and Voices From Beyond (1991).

In 1988, he directed only 65% of Zombie 3 in the Philippines and had to return abruptly to Italy due to a life-threatening illness, and the film was finished by an uncredited Bruno Mattei. Fulci hated the finished product and tried unsuccessfully to get his name removed from the credits. Mattei has said in interviews that the film was Fulci's, and that he (Mattei) just added a few extra scenes to pad out the running time.

In 1989, Fulci was hired to direct a pair of made-for-Italian-TV horror movies, neither of which aired in Italy due to the high amount of gore and violence (they were however later released on DVD outside of Italy). Fulci's intended comeback films Demonia and Cat in the Brain (both produced and released in 1990) were big disappointments to his fans in terms of overall quality, and almost didn't get released. His final project, the 1991 psychological thriller Door To Silence received terrible reviews and pretty much terminated his career.^[10]

For the last decade of his life, Fulci suffered from emotional and health problems, reflected by a marked decline in the quality of his work. His wife's suicide back in 1969 and a daughter's fatal car accident several years later always weighed heavily on him, and his hyper-violent films such as The New York Ripper caused him to be branded a misogynist by the critics, although he always claimed that he loved women. Fulci suffered from severe problems with his feet during the 1980s which was caused by diabetes, but tried to hide the severity of his illness from his friends and associates so that he wouldn't be deemed unemployable.

During this time, from 1987 to 1990, Fulci began lending his name to the credits of some very low-budget horror films that he hadn't even directed, simply to make the films more distributable outside of Italy. Although he did appear to have supervised the gore effects in both The Curse and The Murder Secret, he was hardly involved with some of the other projects that nonetheless bore the Lucio Fulci Presents banner on their advertising material. (See section "Films Presented by Lucio Fulci" below). Fulci tried unsuccessfully to have his name removed from the credits of one film in particular (Gianni Martucci's Red Monks), since he swore he had had absolutely no involvement with making that film. The following year, in reciprocation for the use of his name, Fulci was permitted to use gore footage culled from these films to make his notorious Cat in the Brain, in which he played himself.

Some of Fulci's fans have retroactively argued that at his peak, Fulci's fame and popularity were on a par with that of Dario Argento, another famous Italian horror film director with whom Fulci had avoided working and whom Fulci had openly badmouthed from time to time. Fulci was most likely resentful of Argento, since Argento had always received critical acclaim and recognition in (and outside of) Italy, and Fulci had been regarded there as something of a "horror film hack". (Fulci told friends that when he died, he predicted that the Italian newspapers would all misspell his name, if they even mentioned him at all).

Fulci and Argento met in 1995 and agreed to collaborate on a horror film called Wax Mask (a remake of the 1953 Vincent Price horror classic "House of Wax", based on a story by Gaston Leroux). Argento claimed he had heard about Fulci's miserable circumstances at the time and wanted to offer him a chance for a comeback. Fulci wrote a plot synopsis and a screenplay for Argento and thought that he was slated to direct the film as well, but he died before filming could begin (due to a series of delays caused by Argento's involvement with his own film Stendhal Syndrome at the time). Being in poor health, Fulci was furious that the filming was delayed so many times, as he knew he was running out of time and wanted desperately to make one last, big-budget film before he died. The film was eventually directed by former special effects artist Sergio Stivaletti. Reportedly the screenplay was entirely reworked by screenwriter Daniele Stroppa after Fulci's death, so the finished film sadly bears little resemblance to Fulci's original screenplay. (Stroppa had co-written two of Fulci's earlier films, House of Clocks and Voices From Beyond.)

Fulci died alone at his home in Rome on the afternoon of 13 March 1996 of complications from diabetes at age 68. There was some controversy regarding his death since Fulci had been so sickly and despondent in his later years, it was thought perhaps that he had intentionally allowed himself to die by not taking his medications, but no one really knows as he was alone at the time of his death.

Fulci's films remained generally ignored or dismissed by the mainstream critical establishment, who regarded his work as pure exploitation. However, genre fans appreciated his films as being stylish exercises in extreme gore, and at least one of his splatter films, The Beyond, has "amassed a large and dedicated following".^[11] In 1998, Fulci's The Beyond was re-released to theaters by Quentin Tarantino,^[12] who has often cited the film, and Fulci himself, as a major source of inspiration. His earlier, lesser-known giallo Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) received some critical acclaim.^[13] Fulci himself highly regarded two of his films, Don't Torture A Duckling and Beatrice Cenci as his best work (the latter which he said his wife had liked the best of all his films), and he had to have considered both Zombie and The Beyond as the two films that forever catapulted him to cult film stardom.

Fulci was feted like royalty at the January 1996 Fangoria Horror Convention in New York City, just two months before his death. He told attendees that he had had no idea his films were so popular outside of his native Italy, as literally thousands of starstruck fans braved blizzard conditions all that weekend to meet him.

Fulci vs. Sacchetti[link]

Fulci and screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti share many screen credits from 1977 to 1983. Indeed, most of Fulci's most celebrated horror films were written by Sacchetti. After collaborating with Sacchetti for six years, Fulci went off on his own in 1983 to direct the movie "Conquest" (a Conan-like barbarian fantasy) in Mexico, failing to involve Sacchetti in the deal. The film was supposed to be a very big budget "A" picture, and Sacchetti allegedly resented the fact that Fulci had not thought to involve him in the project. The film actually wound up doing quite poorly upon its release, and afterwards, Fulci had trouble jump-starting his working relationship with Sacchetti, who by this time had gone his own way. Most Fulci fans agree that the films Fulci made without Sacchetti after 1983 were not nearly as good as their previous collaborative efforts.

In 1987, Fulci accused Sachetti of stealing a story idea of his (a project which they were planning to do together in 1983 after Fulci returned from Mexico). He claimed that Sachetti later allowed director Lamberto Bava to direct the project (under the title "Per Sempre/ After Death") in 1987 without Fulci's knowledge that the film was even being made. Luca M. Palmerini and Gaetano Mistretta's book Spaghetti Nightmares, publishes two full interviews, one with Fulci and one with Sacchetti, explaining the reasons for the fallout.

Fulci's version is as follows: "One day I told Dardano the plot of my Evil Comes Back (later retitled Per Sempre/ After Death), a sequel on a fantastic note to The Postman Always Rings Twice, and he proposed it to several producers with my name on it as the director. Then, one day, he registered the screenplay with his name on it! (laughs) I later found out that he'd sold the story idea to a producer named Sergio Martino, but, in view of our past friendship, I decided not to sue him. I just broke off all relations with him. He is indeed a very good scriptwriter though."

Sacchetti's version differs: "When I proposed to Lucio my original treatment for "Per Sempre/ Until Death", which was nothing more than a sequel to The Postman Always Rings Twice in which a dead man returns to life, he became really enthusiastic and had my story read by a producer friend of his who then commissioned me to write a finished script. At that time, Fulci assumed that he would direct it. Later, for various reasons, problems arose and the film was never made. Four years later, Bava used my script to make Per Sempre/ Until Death and Fulci, who wasn't working much at the time, got angry with me and started hurling these accusations. It's one thing for him to say that we were originally supposed to make the film together, but to claim that he originated the story and that I stole it from him is pure science-fiction".

Complete filmography (as director)[link]

Note - Films with Italian titles were never dubbed into English or distributed outside of Italy. Approximate English translations of the titles are provided.

• I Ladri/ The Thieves (1959)
• Ragazzi del Juke-Box/ Juke Box Kids (1959)
• Urlatori alla sbarra/ Howlers of the Dock (1960)
• Colpo gobbo all'italiana/ Getting Away With It, Italian Style (1962)
• I due della legione straniera/ The Two Legionnaires (1962)
• Le massaggiatrici/ The Masseuses (1962)
• Uno strano tipo/ A Strange Type (1963)
• Gli imbroglioni/ The Swindlers (1963)
• I maniaci / The Maniacs (1964)
• I due evasi di Sing Sing/ Two Escapees From Sing Sing (1964)
• I due pericoli pubblici/ Two Public Enemies (1964)
• 002 agenti segretissimi/ 002 Those Most Secret Agents! (1964)
• Come inguaiammo l'esercito/ How We Got The Army into Trouble (1965)
• 002 operazione Luna/ 002 Operation Moon (1965) aka Dos Cosmonautas a la Fuerza/ Two Unwilling Astronauts
• I due parà/ The Two Parachutists (1965)
• Come svaligiammo la Banca d'Italia/ How We Robbed The Bank of Italy (1966)
• Massacre Time (1966) (aka Colt Concert, aka Django the Runner, aka The Brute and the Beast, aka Tempo di Massacro) spaghetti western
• Come rubammo la bomba atomica/ How We Stole the Atomic Bomb (1967)
• Il lungo, il corto, il gatto/ The Tall, the Short, and the Cat (1967)
• Operazione San Pietro/ Operation Saint Peter's (1967)
• A Bullet for Sandoval (1969) This spaghetti western was allegedly co-directed by Julio Buchs and Lucio Fulci
• Double Face (1969) (aka Doppia Faccia) Fulci co-wrote this film's screenplay for director Riccardo Freda
• One on Top of the Other (1969) (aka Perversion Story)
• Beatrice Cenci (aka Conspiracy of Torture, 1969)
• Tepepa (1970) (aka Blood and Guns) Fulci claims he produced (but did not direct) this spaghetti western
• A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971) (aka Schizoid, aka Carole)
• The Eroticist (1972) (aka The Senator Likes Women, aka All the Way...A Lady)
• Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) (aka The Long Night of Exorcism)
• White Fang (1973) (aka Croc-Blanc)
• Challenge to White Fang (1974) (aka The Return of White Fang)
• Dracula in the Provinces (1975) (aka Young Dracula, aka Il Cavaliere Costante Nicosia Demoniaco...Ovvero Dracula in Brianza)
• Four of the Apocalypse (1975) spaghetti western
• The Magistrate (1976) (aka La Pretora, aka My Sister-in-Law)
• Sette note in nero (1977) (aka Seven Notes in Black, aka Murder to the Tune of the Seven Black Notes)
• Silver Saddle (1978) (aka They Died With Their Boots On) spaghetti western
• Zombie (1979) (released in Italy as Zombi 2; aka Zombie Flesh Eaters, aka Island of the Living Dead)
• Contraband (1980) (aka The Naples Connection, aka Luca the Smuggler, aka Vicious)
• City of the Living Dead (1980) (aka The Gates of Hell, aka Fear in the City of the Living Dead)
• The Black Cat (1981) (aka Il Gatto Nero, aka The Cat of Park Lane)
• The Beyond (1981) (aka L'Aldilà) (Censored U.S. video version was retitled Seven Doors of Death)
• The House by the Cemetery (1981) (aka Zombie Hell House, aka Freudstein)
• The New York Ripper (1982)
• Manhattan Baby (1982) (aka Evil Eye, aka Eye of the Evil Dead, aka Possessed)
• Conquest (1983) (aka Conquest of the Lost Land)
• The New Gladiators (1983) (aka Warriors of the Year 2072, aka Rome 2033 - The Fighter Centurions)
• Murder Rock (1983) (aka Murder Rock - Dancing Death, aka The Demon is Loose!)
• The Devil's Honey (1986) (aka Dangerous Obsession)
• Aenigma (1987)
• Zombie 3 (1988) (aka Zombi 3) completed by Bruno Mattei after Fulci became ill
• Touch of Death (1988) (aka When Alice Broke the Looking Glass)
• The Ghosts of Sodom (1988) (aka Sodoma's Ghost)
• The Sweet House of Horrors (1989) made for Italian TV
• The House of Clocks (1989) (aka The House of Time) made for Italian TV
• Demonia (1990) (aka Liza)
• A Cat in the Brain (1990) (aka Nightmare Concert)
• Voices From Beyond (1991) (aka Voci dal Profondo/ Voices From the Deep, aka Urlo dal Profondo/ Scream From The Deep)
• The Door to Silence (1991) (aka The Door Into Silence) Fulci's last film

Films "Presented" by Lucio Fulci[link]

• The Curse (1987) (aka The Farm) (Fulci was credited as co-producer on this H. P. Lovecraft adaptation (based on HPL's "The Colour Out of Space") which was directed by David Keith; Fulci also supervised the gore effects)

• The Murder Secret (1988) (aka Don't Be Afraid of Aunt Martha) (Fulci was credited as co-producer on this film directed by Mario Bianchi; Fulci also supervised the gore effects)

• The Red Monks (1988) (aka I Frati Rossi) (Fulci fought in vain to have his name removed from this film's credits; the film was directed by Gianni Martucci whom Fulci claimed he never even met; Fulci was credited with handling the film's special effects, which he denied having been involved with)

• Massacre (1989) (Fulci lent his name as co-producer on this film directed by Andrea Bianchi although he claimed he was hardly involved at all with making it; Fulci's involvement is dubious.)

• Bloody Psycho (1989) (aka The Snake House, aka Lo Specchio, aka Nel Nido del Serpente/ In the Nest of the Serpent) (Fulci lent his name as co-producer on this film directed by Leandro Luchetti; Fulci's involvement is dubious)

• Escape from Death (1989) (aka Luna di Sangue/ Moon of Blood) (Fulci lent his name as co-producer on this film directed by Enzo Milioni; Fulci's involvement is dubious)

• Hansel and Gretel (1989) (aka Non Si Serviziano i Bambini/ Don't Torture the Children) (Fulci was said to have co-directed this film with Giovanni Simonelli; Fulci's involvement is dubious)

Bibliography[link]

• Il terrorista dei generi, tutto il cinema di Lucio Fulci by Giacomo Cacciatore, Un mondo a parte, Rome (2004)
• Beyond Terror, the films of Lucio Fulci by Stephen Thrower - Fab press (1999)
• Spaghetti Nightmares by Luca M. Palmerini and Gaetano Mistretta, Fantasma Books, Key West, Florida, 1996.
• Lucio Fulci: beyond the gates by Chas. Balun ; [special introduction by Antonella Fulci]. 2nd ed. Key West, Florida: Fantasma Books, 1997. ISBN 1-888214-07-4
• "Cripte e incubi. Dizionario dei film horror italiani" by Manuel Cavenaghi, Bloodbuster edizioni, Milano, Italy, 2011 - ISBN 978-88-902087-5-1

References[link]

External links[link]

• Lucio Fulci at the Internet Movie Database
• http://www.santoandfriends.com (Mexican horror film site)
• Interview http://www.shockingimages.com/fulci/interview.html