Fulci, Lucio

(1927-1996)

   Screenwriter and director. Regarded as one of the foremost directors of Italian horror and honored among aficionados with the title "the godfather of Italian gore," Fulci studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia before making documentaries and working as a screenwriter. He learned the art of directing screen comedy by working as an assistant to Steno on such classic comedies as Un giorno in pretura (A Day in Court, 1954) and Un americano a Roma (An American in Rome, 1954) as well as many of the Toto films, such as Totb e le donne (Totd and the Women, 1952) and Totb a colori (Totb in Color, 1952). In fact, he made his solo directorial debut with I ladri (The Thieves, 1959), a crime comedy starring Toto and Giovanna Ralli. He subsequently directed a wide variety of films ranging from teen rock musicals like I ragazzi del juke-box (The Jukebox Kids, 1959) and Urlatori alla sbarra (Howlers of the Dock, I960), which featured then up-and-coming young Italian pop singers Adriano Celentano and Mina, to spaghetti Westerns like Tempo di massacro (Massacre Time, 1966). He achieved his best box office successes, however, with a dozen exceptionally popular screwball comedies featuring the popular comic duo Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia.

   His move to the darker side began in 1969 with Una sull'altra (One on Top of the Other), a thriller set in San Francisco with distinct similarities to Hitchcock's Vertigo. This was soon followed by Una lucertola con lapelle di donna (A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, 1971) and the more famous Non si sevizia un paperino (Don't Torture a Duckling, 1972), a dark giallo revolving around a series of gruesome child murders in a backward region of southern Italy. For a period he continued to alternate between genres but from the late 1970s Fulci devoted himself almost exclusively to horror, producing the many zombie and slasher films that would earn him worldwide notoriety, among them Zombi 2 (Zombie Flesh Eaters, 1979), Paura nella citta dei morti viventi (City of the Living Dead, 1980), Lo squartatore di New York (The New York Ripper, 1982), and Zombi 3 (Zombie Flesh Eaters 2, 1988). Having played cameos in quite a number of his films, Fulci rather appropriately chose to appear in his final film, Voci dalprofondo (Voices from the Deep, 1994), as a doctor carrying out an autopsy on the decaying body of the protagonist.

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira