Before enjoying his biggest success with Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979), Lucio Fulci had shown a flair for dark thrillers with A Lizard In A Womens Skin (1971), Dont Torture A Duckling (1972) and The Psychic (1977). The latter is a favourite of Quentin Tarantino, and you can see the appeal because Fulcis best films are pure cinema, a succession of startling images set to a memorable score. Whether you consider him a master craftsman or a peddler of senseless knock-offs, his films are so stylized that you could take a single frame from any one of them and hang it on your wall. The Black Cat (1981) has some beautifully atmospheric moments as Fulcis camera prowls through a fog-shrouded English village, and who can forget the spiders from The Beyond (1981) or its climactic assault by the living dead? Another director who fell under Fulcis spell is Sam Raimi, who borrowed his technique of shooting close-ups of eyes for The Evil Dead, a movie that, like Zombie Flesh Eaters, The Beyond and The House By The Cemetery, ended up on the Video Nasties lists during the 1980s.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
