2. Don't Torture A Duckling (1972)
Back in the days before he did straight horror movies, Lucio Fulci directed a couple of really good Gialli (namely Don't Torture a Duckling and A Lizard in a Woman's Skin). If you have only seen his horror canon and you are not impressed, watching Don't Torture a Duckling will soon change your mind about his directorial skills. Three boys - Bruno, Michele and Ponino - chum about in a small village in the south of Italy. A reclusive witch called La Magiara (played by my favourite cult movie actress - Florinda Balkan) sticks pins in three little boy voodoo dolls after she has dug up the skeleton of an infant. Later on at home, Michele has to deliver a glass of juice to a young woman - Patrizia - laying low in his house after a drugs scandal. Patrizia sexually taunts Michele but there are worse things happening in the village. Bruno has gone missing. And then Ponino is found dead. A media circus descends on the small village including Andrea, a sharp as a tack journalist who recognises Patrizia from her days in Milan. The two start an independent investigation. Don Alberto, the village priest tries to help them out. Francesco - an elderly hermit who practices black magic - was the mentor of La Magiara. He angers the police for not co-operating with them and so they go and lift La Magiara for the crimes. She confesses to the murders but it becomes clear that she doesn't know the modus operandi of the killings and thus she is released. The hostile and intolerant villagers still think La Magiara is a child killer. They whip her with chains in some agonising sequences and leave her to die. The day after, another boy is found dead. This makes Andrea and Patrizia more keen to find the killer. They meet with the priest and they see he has a little sister who is educationally subnormal. She keeps pulling the heads off her dolls - as if she was imitating the strangulation of the boys. This leads Andrea and Patrizia to wonder if the priest is involved in the killings. The priest's mother goes missing but is rooted out by Andrea and Patrizia. She cries to them that her son is a killer - he killed the boys to stop them from committing sins and to prevent them from sexual development. A cliff top battle ensues between Andrea and the priest. Don't Torture a Duckling features the best ever cliff top death sequence in any film ever. Watching Don Alberto encounter every fragment of rock on the way down is so much fun! The film is a very unique Giallo in that young boys are the victims instead of young women. Fulci does an excellent job of evoking small town boredom in the boys and the mischief they get up to. Small town narrow mindedness is explored through the death of La Magiara andthe locals' hostility towards Patrizia because she wears modern, revealing clothes. The film is also anti-clerical in its execution - providing Don Alberto as the religious zealot killer - this was a very daring move from Fulci because I don't think portraying the clergy in a bad light was the done thing in early 1970s Italy. So bravo to Fulci for having balls the size of church bells. The film is exceptionally well written by Gianfranco Clerici - an amazing writer of Italian sex and horror movies. The twists in the plot are clever and will keep you interested until the fabulous climax of the film. A+ for Lucio!