Lucio Fulci
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Fulci's attention to gruesome detail is so excessive it's ridiculous, approaching blood porn.
—VideoHound's Cult Flicks & Trash Pics
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Lucio Fulci was an Italian screenwriter and director, best known for splattery gialli and horror films (though he also made westerns and comedies). His films seldom pass up an excuse for gore, and the effects are consistently over-the-top — sometimes horrifyingly convincing, sometimes amusingly fake, but always extreme. His films are driven by theme rather than visual style; they tend to be deeply pessimistic, and propelled toward nihilistic Downer Endings.
His best-known films (all from the period 1971-1982) are:
- Lizard in a Woman's Skin, a psychedelic Police Procedural.
- Don't Torture a Duckling, an extremely pessimistic giallo touching on themes of small-town xenophobia as the townspeople suspect all of the "outsiders" for a rash of child-murders.
- Four of the Apocalypse, a dark Spaghetti Western based on stories by Bret Harte.
- Zombi 2 (known as Zombie Flesh Eaters in the UK and Zombie in the US), where a Caribbean island is infested with zombies. Titled Zombi 2 because Dawn of the Dead was titled Zombi in Italy.
- City of the Living Dead, zombie flick with religious tyings which was followed by two loose "sequels" (Read below)
- The Beyond (a.k.a. Seven Doors of Death), a sad, thoughtful horror film based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. Features extra zombies thanks to Executive Meddling.
- The House by the Cemetery, a Mind Screw Haunted House film. Features a character named Freudstein and goes from there.
- The New York Ripper, a Serial Killer film widely decried as misogynistic and has a serial killer that sounds like Donald Duck.