F - Fulci (Lucio)
Lucio deserves to occupy the F position due to the sheer number of films that he directed on this list - The New York Ripper, House By the Cemetery, The Beyond, Zombie Flesh Eaters. All of them classics of a kind. I do believe he is the ultimate video nasty director. All of his films made around the Nasty era have a Nasty sort of vibe to them. Even in 1990, his homage to himself - Cat in the Brain/Nightmare Concert - looks and feels like a Video Nasty. Of his films on the DPP 72 List, some are very famous and some are very infamous. The Beyond is considered one of the finest Italian horror films ever made. Zombie Flesh Eaters will usually be in zombie film fan's Top 5 Favourite Zombie movies. The sequence of the underwater zombie wrestling a shark is one of the most striking in all of zombie cinema. House By the Cemetery is noted as a decent film. The New York Ripper has gained infamy for its misogyny, ultra violence and general sleaze. It is a film that evokes very passionate responses and continues to generate controversy to this day. On the whole though, there are scores of directors of Video Nasties who wish they had an ounce of Lucio's talent (Bruno Mattei, I'm looking in your direction).
G - Groovy Music
Nobody, no nation in the entire world does soundtracks as good as Italian horror novies. Think of Cannibal Holocaust, what does it evoke? Apart from carnage, mayhem and death, I am sure you can hear the strains of Riz Ortolani's soundtrack soaring above the slaughter. As well as being beautiful, it is instrumental in making Cannibal Holocaust the success it is. Some people would argue that the lovely main melody is dissonant to the horror on our screen. I don't see it that way. I see the score as a plea for humanity and beauty amidst ugliness. And in the sinister sequences we get a harsh one note synthesiser score. This is perfect for creating menace. Riz Ortolani went on to score a further Deodato movie - House on the Edge of the Park that makes me want to drop some serious disco moves. Zombie Flesh Eaters also has a marvellous score. Played out on a synthesiser, it fits the sombre mood perfectly. It makes a big impact at the beginning of the movie, you think "This is a movie with gravitas" and is also particularly effective when the Conquistadors awake from their slumber. The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue does not boast a sweeping, majestic score like Cannibal Holocaust, it is rather more industrial and uses a series of sounds which sound like zombies exhaling in agony. However, it is a highly effective weapon in scaring the audience silly in what is a very scary movie.