Lucio Fulci, along with his elder Mario Bava (who he worked for) and his contemporary Dario Argento, are the trilogy of Italian horror legends. Fulci and Argento are best known for their gory horrors flicks. They took the gore of George A. Romero’s zombie movies to the extreme. I’ve seen two films each from Fulci and Argento. I like Argento, who makes gory horror with stories that remind me of Hitchcock and DePalma. I have not liked Fulci. Where Argento wants to scary you; Fulci wants to repulse you. Gore for gore sake in horror films is pointless and exploitative. When it’s done right it’s frightening.
But the former art critic and medical student Fucli seems obsessed with melting and torn human flesh. He also has something with eyes popping out or poked in. I think his place in cinema history comes from the fact that his imagery is unforgettable. But the bad car wreck that I saw last week is unforgettable too and that isn’t art.
In this film, there is a book called Eibon, which holds the secrets to open the seven gates of hell. Beginning in 1927 in Louisiana, Schweick (Antoine Saint-John) is crucified for his black magic in his hotel room by an angry mob. Sixty years later, New Yorker Liza Merril (Katherine MacColl, THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY) buys the hotel and begins to renovate in. But soon accidents start to happen and the creepy blind woman Emily (Sarah Keller, THE FINAL DARKNESS) warns Liza to get away. As scarier and scarier things begin to happen around the hotel, Liza relies on Dr. John McCabe (David Warbeck, 1981’s THE BLACK CAT), who at first believes Liza is crazy.
Plotting in the film isn’t great and character development is completely missing. I mean Emily becomes more interesting than Liza pretty quickly. I find Fulci a slockmeister who has attained fame because he continued to do it long enough.