6 Movies & TV Shows That Stole From Lesser-Seen Cult Classics
3. Kill Bill Stole “Eye Gore” From Italian Horror Director Lucio Fulci
It is no secret that Quentin Tarantino likes to steal, I mean pay homage, to tons of other movies. Kill Bill mostly steals from kung fu films, but Tarantino takes a detour to Italy so he can shoplift some scenes from City of the Living Dead, an ultra-gory Italian horror movie from the 80s.
In Kill Bill, when Gogo Yubari takes a meteor hammer to the head (yes, that is the name of that weapon) she cries blood before falling over dead. In City of the Living Dead, a character also cries blood under more supernatural circumstances. Tarantino lifted this shot directly from this obscure Italian horror movie, even perfectly matching the hue of the blood dripping from the character's eyes. But wait there's more!
Both Kill Bill Vol. 2 and City of the Living Dead have buried alive scenes. Both scenes are directed in a similar style. You could even argue City of the Living Dead's buried alive scene is even more intense, as the ax that is meant to free our victim, threatens her life.
There is one last piece of... "inspiration" Tarantino pulled from City of the Living Dead. According to this website that looks like it was designed on GeoCities in 1998, the director of City of the Living Dead, Lucio Fulci, is considered the “master of eye gore”. Fulci movies are known for spiders eating eyes, eyes gouged out by zombies and much more exciting eye mutilation. In Kill Bill, one of the Bride’s main ninja moves is plucking people’s eyes out of their head. Tarantino went full Fulci eye gore for Kill Bill.