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God of Gore

There aren't too many people in this world that I truly idolize. Most of them are represented on this site. One on my list whose work I worship, is Lucio Fulci. He might not have been the nicest person to work with, but his dedication to his genre is the only thing that was important to me. I had thought about trying to attend his first American visit at the Fangoria Weekend of Horror in January 1996, but a few obstacles got in my way. First, I was just starting to make some good money at work. But second, the SNOW. We had just gotten hit with over 30 inches of snow, I wasn't going anywhere fast. I thought to myself, Fulci will be back. Boy, I do really regret that now.
It was around April that I heard about the mastero's passing. He had died on March 13 from complications from diabetes. Fangoria had mentioned it in passing and did a nice really piece on him in their July issue. I was shocked and deeply saddened. I mean I saw "Dawn of the Dead" and "Zombie" at about the same time and I think "Zombie" was every bit as good or better than Dawn. That night I stayed up and watched "Zombie", and "The Gates of Hell"and remembered the man and rejoiced in all the joy he brought me through the years. But I just didn't leave it at that. No, I began searching out Fulci's work and truly saw that his mastery transcended more than these two films. I saw "The Beyond" "House by the Cemetery", "Zombies 3", "Demonia" and "Cat in the Brain". Not all were masterpieces, but "The Beyond" and "Zombies 3" were pretty damn entertaining. IMHO Fulci did more for pure horror than any of the other Italian directors, including Argento, Bava, Lenzi, Deodato.
Why do I like the work of Fulci? Let me think..... Oh yeah the GORE!!!!(i.e imagery) Fulci had mastered the technique of bringing the audience to the edge of their seats and than shocking the shit out of them. I will never forget the eye ball puncturing scene or the shark attack from "Zombies", the drill scene from "The Gates of Hell", the little girl having the side of her head removed by a gunshot in "The Beyond", or the guy being quartered in "Demonia". Fulci used gore to its fullest potential without making it the main focus of his films and for those who think it was, you are missing out on the atmosphere and beauty of his work. He never sold out his work to the censors either. Also, Fulci just as Argento, was wonderful at using music for the atmosphere of his films.
Fulci's zombies are my favorite. They are the slow moving type. I love the look of the zombies, all decayed with maggots. I can't stand those fast moving zombies that can use weapon and all that other crazy shit (i.e. like talk). Well, there are a few exception of course (Return of the Living Dead, The Dead Next Door), but overall Fulci's zombies RULE!!!!!!
Lucio Fulci was an amazing filmmaker. He was a genius, a pioneer, and man who never received the credit he deserved. He was always overshadowed by Dario Argento, who IMHO has made nothing anywhere nearly as good as "Zombie", "Gates of Hell", and "The Beyond". Fulci's work will continue to live in my heart and hopefully in the hearts of all the fans that visit this site. Requiescat in Pace, Maestro--we will never forget the joy you brought us with your work. Your memory and films will never die.

Lucio Fulci

Lucio Fulci is best remembered for his delirious hallucinatory and visceral horror films of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Expressed in these films was a creative libation of splanchnic yet nonetheless seductive images strung together by loose, almost incoherent, narratives. As a director, Fulci has worked in most genres. In over 60 films and 120 scripts he has shown himself to be a film pragmatist, working within generic and financial constraints to produce films which intensified during certain periods of time and style to redefine genre and cinematic pleasure.

Born in Rome in 1927, Lucio Fulci's indoctrination into film could be described as theoretical. While this is poignantly reminiscent of those critics who claim his direction as 'great' is similarly theoretical and not necessarily borne out in his technique, Fulci's beginnings as an art critic and medical student created the first levels of a baroque palimpsest, defined by flesh folded in new configurations which simultaneously folds the viewer in a visceral rather than conceptual way. These beginnings received diverse and somewhat oddly configured additional plateaus through training at Luchino Visconti's Experimental Film School with film philosophers such as Nanni Loy, Umberto Barbaro, Francesco Maselli and Luigi Chiarini rather than technicians or cinematic artisans.

Fulci began his public career scriptwriting and making rudimentary documentaries such as Pittori Italiano dei dopoguerra (1948). During this time he worked under Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini, Federico Fellini, Steno and Mario Bava. However the insistence of many critics and filmographers on emphasising this effulgent genesis seems symptomatic of the compulsion to redeem Fulci as a serious or valuable director. Essentially at this time Fulci primarily demonstrated his ability to perform technical tasks which fulfilled other people's projects. Later, in reference to his most established and praised works one could claim he was similarly fulfilling the demands of producers to make quick, cheap films that would sell. Fulci's talent seems therefore to lie not necessarily in some auteurist vision, but in his capacity to create beauty, perversion and surprise – perhaps due to, rather than in spite of, his constraints.

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