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Short Update: Bonus Fulci Reviews Coming Soon!

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Lucio Fulci Behind the Camera

May 21st, 2026

Here's an update that I've been looking forward to making for a while! Last year, one of the first big projects that I did for this site was a marathon of the films of Lucio Fulci. Out of all the directors of Italian horror films that I've looked into over the years, I have to count Fulci as my personal favorite. Zombi 2 was the movie that introduced me to the world of Italian horror films (and by extension, Italian sequelsploitaiton), and his nightmare-logic opuses of City of the Living Dead and The Beyond are my must-see recommendations if you want some of the best gore effects, music, and eerie cinematography that early-80s Italian horror films had to offer. I had long admired his classic works, but last year's marathon was the first time I had watched the films that he made as he dealt with various health issues and the collapse of the Italian genre film market. There were definitely some stinkers in the bunch (looking at you Door into Silence and The Sweet House of Horrors), but certain ones like Voices from Beyond showed that his creative spirit still had some juice left in the tank despite being hampered by ever-shrinking budgets and poor distribution.

While my marathon was extensive, it was far from complete. I only covered the 20 movies of his that I owned at the time, and being a horror fan, naturally all of them fell into the horror / suspense genres. While Fulci may be most well known today for his work in horror, his career actually started out in the world of comedies in the 1950s and 60s. As he matured as a filmmaker, he liked to experiment in various other genres, often following a popular trend at the time while still leaving his own unique mark on whatever niche he was playing around in. I recently bought six movies that will fill in the holes in last year's marathon. While I'll still be sticking to his genre works, there's a lot of variety and experimentation in the selection here, and each one will be a first-time viewing for me. Here's the lineup that I'll be taking a look at in the weeks ahead:

  1. Perversion Story: Fulci's very first giallo, made after doing a long string of comedy films throughout the 50s and 60s.
  2. A Lizard in a Woman's Skin: Fulci's second giallo, made only a year before Don't Torture a Duckling.
  3. Contraband: Made right after Zombi 2, this was Fulci's only foray into the poliziotteschi genre, which were essentially Italian crime / mob action films.
  4. Conquest: Fulci's only sword and sorcery film. This is just one entry in a wave of Italian fantasy films that were made to cash in on the success of John Milius' Conan the Barbarian.
  5. Warriors of the Year 2072: Fulci's post-apocalyptic action film. This is one of several mid-80s Italian cash-ins on films such as George Miller's Mad Max / The Road Warrior and John Carpenter's Escape from New York.
  6. The Devil's Honey: Fulci's erotic thriller. This movie marked his return to filmmaking after dealing with a major bout of illness he contracted during the making of Conquest. After this, he would only get to make Aenigma and part of Zombi 3 before transitioning into direct-to-video / television work.
  7. Wax Mask: This one is a special outlier, but I had to include it for historical reasons. When Dario Argento found out about Fulci's ever-declining health after Door into Silence, he offered to produce a theatrical project for Fulci to write and direct. While Fulci did write the script, he sadly passed away before filming could commence. The end result was rewritten and directed by special effects technician Sergio Stivaletti.

Once I'm done covering all of these, I'll be re-ranking my collection to see how these new additions stack up to the ones I've already written about. The world of Italian genre films is such a blast to explore, and I love any chance I get to introduce people to an area of film that sometimes gets overlooked here in the States. These aren't the only selections from Italy that I plan on covering this year, so consider this an appetizer before the main course arrives later in the year. I'll be starting on these very soon, so hold onto your eyeballs and keep them on the site!

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