In which Lucio Fulci succeeds in simultaneously resurrecting the Italian horror cinema, his own career and the dead – not necessarily in that order – and Lyz makes a somewhat less successful effort to overcome her horror of eye trauma. Yes, it’s still more MONTH OF THE LIVING DEAD!
FROM THE VAULT
- Lesbian Assassins & Zombie Loggers — posted by KeithA on August 12, 2010
- Ain’t that a kick in the head? — posted by KeithA on August 8, 2019
- As promised, the witless and the indefensible — posted by El Santo on March 22, 2015
- Disappointed by my lack of disappointment — posted by KeithA on April 4, 2008
- Kommissar X Goes to Canada — posted by KeithA on July 14, 2008
Pages
- About the Cabal
- Full Index of Reviews
- Roundtables
- 01: Brainathon ’99
- 02: Bangs'n'Whimpers
- 03: Post-Apocalypso
- 04: Review All Monsters
- 05: Pretty Mad Scientists
- 06: Tainted Love
- 07: Days of Future Past
- 08: Secret Santa
- 09: Catch a Throwing Star
- 10: Four-Color Features
- 11: Big Bugs
- 12: Fish With Bicycles
- 13: Go Go Go-Go Boys!
- 14: paLe IMITATIONS
- 15: We're Gonna Need a Bigger Roundtable
- 16: Whoa… Deja Vu.
- 17: Month of the Living Dead
- 18: B-Masters Beach Party
- 19: Kinji Fukasaku – The Man No Genre Could Tame.
- 20: Home Video Holocaust – The Video Nasties
- 21: Father Dearest: Who's Your Daddy?
- 22: So Sorry…
- 23: Back to the Well
- 24: Another Month of the Living Dead
- 25: The Ottoman Empire Strikes Back
- 26: Rubber Soul
- 27: Shhhhhh
- 28: Month of the Alternative Living Dead
- 29: On Time & Under Budget
- 30: These Kids Today…
- 31: Mea maxima culpa
- 32: Stingathon ’09
- 33: 10,000 B.S.
- 34: Foot Notes
- 35: Don’t Touch That Dial!
- 36: He Conquered the World
- 37: Secret Santa’s Revenge
- 38: At the Movies of Madness
- 39: They Might Be Giants
- 40: The Other Elizabeth Taylor
- 41: The Dark Guys of London
- 42: Falling Stars
- 43: To Be or Not To Be! (Pilot Error)
- 44: Teeth and Tentacles
- 45: Brunoween
- 46: Howl of the B-Masters
- 47: It’s Alive!
- 48: Bad, Black and Beautiful
- 49: Don’t Quit Your Day Job
- 50: B-Mentia 15
- 51: Quelle Horreur!
- 52: Carradine, Thou Wayward Son!
- 53: Tall, Dark and Gruesome
- 54: Pets Gone Wild
- 55: The Bad Place
- 56: From The Bible To Barbarella
- 57: A Fistful Of Pennies
- 58: Hello, Dolly
- 59: No, Not That One!
- 60: Dr Terror’s House Of Honours
- 61: WTF!?
- 62: In The Key Of B
- 63: The Forgotten Dawn Of Horror
- 64: The Most Dangerous Roundtable
- 65: Room For One More
- 66: Were-WHAT?
- 67: The China Anniversary Syndrome
- 68: The China Anniversary Syndrome: Part 2
- 69: The China Anniversary Syndrome: Part 3
- 70: The China Anniversary Syndrome: Part 4
- The Links We Love
#1 by JessicaR. on October 14, 2007 - 1:56 am
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Ah it’s four in the morning here and just when I thought sleep finally beckoned here’s a new AYCYAS a scientist review. Looking foward to it, and have you any up dates for Et Al? Seeing you take on non genre fare is great.
#2 by lyzard on October 14, 2007 - 2:06 am
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Thanks, Jessica – sorry for the sleep deprivation! Should be updating Et Al. next week; hoped to have it done sooner but it was a bitch of a week at work and I just didn’t get to it.
#3 by Zack on October 14, 2007 - 8:26 am
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Curse you, woman! Don’t you know you’re supposed to post these on Monday, so I can read them at work? Now I’m going to spend the whole day resisting the siren song of new material. I mean, I’m going be in the projection booth with no ‘net access, but _still_. A little consideration, y’know?
Oh, and yay.
#4 by Blake Matthews on October 14, 2007 - 10:09 am
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Excellent review. I’m kind of like you, Liz. I read and re-read reviews of dozens of horror movies without actually having watched them. I simply don’t have the courage to get into Italian horror cinema…but it’s a fun read.
#5 by Blake Matthews on October 14, 2007 - 2:06 pm
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Hey Liz, if you *love* random acts of violence against eyes so much, I suggest you (not) check out Salvador Dali’s “Un Chien Andalou” (An Andaluvian Dog). It’ll make you cringe.
Download here: http://www.archive.org/details/ChienAndalou
#6 by El Santo on October 14, 2007 - 3:12 pm
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You realize what you’ve done, right? Somehow, you managed to massage your chronological order fixation, participate in the Month of the Living Dead, and keep a place-saving toe-hold in your shark-movie retrospective, all with a single review. Nicely played.
(Alhtough I feel obliged to point out that, with Italian zombie movies, there’s a beginning before the beginning, in the form of Let Sleeping Corpses Lie…)
#7 by lyzard on October 14, 2007 - 8:32 pm
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Thank you, Blake, I have been avoiding that for at least twenty-five years….and shall continue to do so.
#8 by lyzard on October 14, 2007 - 8:35 pm
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“….(Alhtough I feel obliged to point out that, with Italian zombie movies, there’s a beginning before the beginning, in the form of Let Sleeping Corpses Lie…)….”
Tsk. That’s Spanish. It’s also a freaky one-off, rather than the birth of a peculiar new sub-genre. Although I guess you do have that whole Blind Dead thing.
For the record, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie is the film I would have done if I hadn’t done Zombie. Although I think it has an eye-gouge too, doesn’t it? – or the aftermath of one? Bloody Europeans!
#9 by KeithA on October 14, 2007 - 9:07 pm
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I was thinking of doing Let Sleeping Corpses Lie myself, since every time I post anywhere, Lyz won’t let the sleeping corpse lie, and bugs me about posting a zombie movie review.
As for Zombie — it has a curious “every other” effect for me. Every other time I watch it, I think it’s awful. Every other other time, I think it’s brilliant. This has been my problem with Fulci since day one. He’s like a blister on the inside of the cheek you can’t help but keep biting.
#10 by lyzard on October 15, 2007 - 4:34 am
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I enjoyed Zombie as a film a lot more than I expected to, but I don’t know how it would hold up to repeated viewings for someone uninterested in gore effects per se – although there are any number of stunning compositions in there that I could look at over and over.
#11 by El Santo on October 15, 2007 - 7:28 am
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“tsk. That’s Spanish.”
Sort of. Jorge Grau is a Spaniard, but the production company he was working for when he made Let Sleeping Corpses Lie was based in Italy.
#12 by Zack Handlen on October 15, 2007 - 8:20 am
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Man, dead on about the inherent squickyness of Fulci. The movies of his I’ve seen (this one, The Beyond, Gates of Hell), I’ve enjoyed, but I always feel sort of diseased after watching them.
#13 by The Rev. D.D. on October 15, 2007 - 9:29 am
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Thank you for yet another fine review, Ms. Kingsley. I enjoy reading reviews for movies I’m familiar with (i.e. have seen several times) because it lets me match notes with the respected members of the Cabal, so to speak.
I have to say, to my shame, that it never even occurred to me that the shark was probably doped to the gills (no pun intended) for that sequence. I did notice it appearing to struggle a couple of times, but figured if it REALLY wanted to get away from the human, it would have with ease and they wouldn’t have gotten their shot. Now that you’ve pointed out the elephant in the room I doubt I’ll be able to enjoy that scene like I once did.
Congratulations on facing your fears with this movie. I’m not bothered by eye violence, but I do tend to wince at throat violence (a well-done slitting makes me cringe quite a bit), so I can somewhat sympathize. You mention being able to handle the throat work after the eye gouge; I imagine because it was done better than about any other effect in the film. (I know Susan’s death was made easier on me by the obvious red water gushing from the hole.)
This movie was also my first foray into the world of Italian horror, and Italian zombie movies, albeit one I made many moons before you. I enjoy it quite a bit; for some reason I don’t find that slower stretch as interminable as most do. (That may be due to my love of kaiju eiga, many of which take their damn time getting to the fun, and often in a much more boring manner.) I almost wish I’d seen it after a few other Italian zom movies…the disappointment I got from the next few I saw was amplified by comparisons to and expectations from this one. (Gates of Hell in particular, which I think was the next I saw…same type of movie, same director…not the same experience by any means.)
OK, I think that’s enough out of me. ‘Til next time…
#14 by J.P. Farrell on October 15, 2007 - 9:42 am
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I don’t understand your contention that the Tiger shark was drugged. He nailed every one of his lines.
#15 by KeithA on October 15, 2007 - 12:02 pm
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One of my favorite writers, Tim Cahill, who writes outdoor and adventure nonfiction, had a story in one of his books (pretty sur eit was Jaguars Ripped My Flesh) about a couple friends of his who were divers and shark photographers. He meets up with them and has to go out on a boat with his pals and an Italian film crew to shoot underwater footage of a zombie fighting a shark for some stupid movie called Zombie. According to Cahill, the shark was pretty doped up. Not in a way that harmed the animal, but doped never the less.
The entire bit is pretty funny, being familiar with the movie as I am. Neither Cahill nor his friends in charge of the boat and the shoot seemed to think very much of Fulci and his crew. And then when they found out Fulci wanted to shoot a nude scuba diving sequence, they pretty much lost it at how idiotic the whole thing was.
As for eyeball violence — I assume you’ll not be watching the giallo Eyeball any time soon.
#16 by lyzard on October 15, 2007 - 4:54 pm
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>> “tsk. That’s Spanish.”
> Sort of. Jorge Grau is a Spaniard, but the production company he was working for when he made Let Sleeping Corpses Lie was based in Italy.
We-ee-elll…. An Italian production written and directed by Spaniards and shot in England…. I’d disqualify it the same way I’d disqualify Zombie Lake, what was what, Italian-French-Spanish? It just doesn’t fit the mold of what we think of as “an Italian zombie movie”. (A remark that should be construed neither as criticism of Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, nor praise of Zombie Lake.)
I suppose this is like arguing over whether Black Christmas or Halloween was the first American slasher. One was technically the first, but the other was the one that opened the floodgates.
#17 by lyzard on October 15, 2007 - 4:56 pm
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>> I don’t understand your contention that the Tiger shark was drugged. He nailed every one of his lines.
I’ll grant you this: it gave a livelier performance than Tisa Farrow. (Talk about there being no there there.)
#18 by lyzard on October 15, 2007 - 5:04 pm
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>> Now that you’ve pointed out the elephant in the room I doubt I’ll be able to enjoy that scene like I once did.
There are times watching films when it just sucks to be me, and this is one of them. (And of course, that compells me to ruin everyone else’s fun, too. No, no – no need to thank me!)
There are some species of sharks you could get away with handling like that, but the tiger isn’t one of them; they’re much more aggressive than the great white; so I don’t think there’s much doubt about how it was done. Still, if I can be sure that the shark was okay, as Keith’s story indicates, well, then I guess I can sit down and shut up.
#19 by lyzard on October 15, 2007 - 5:06 pm
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>> As for eyeball violence — I assume you’ll not be watching the giallo Eyeball any time soon.
I wouldn’t say it was on my current must-see list, no.
#20 by John Doe on October 15, 2007 - 9:02 pm
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Thank you for another excellent review ms. lyzard. The anal-rententive in me though has to ask how a caribean isle becomes a date.
#21 by Nathan Shumate on October 15, 2007 - 10:28 pm
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Lyz, you might also want to avoid a particular scene in 28 Weeks Later. It was extremely cringeworthy for me; I don’t think you’d be able to stay in the room.
#22 by Zack Handlen on October 16, 2007 - 7:19 am
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Well, so long as we’re doing this–Dead and Buried, anyone?
#23 by The Rev. D.D. on October 16, 2007 - 9:03 am
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I hope these tags work…
>> There are times watching films when it just sucks to be me, and this is one of them. (And of course, that compells me to ruin everyone else’s fun, too. No, no – no need to thank me!)
I can empathize with that sentiment. The scenes of dying ‘hoppers in [i]Beginning of the End[/i] has always brought me down when viewing it, even from the first time, since it was so blatantly obvious that they were feebly kicking in their death throes…poor little hoppers. (Says the guy that used to chase them into garden spider webs.) And don’t get me started on that caveman movie with the burning iguana…or the ones with the caiman and monitor lizard assaulting each other…
At least there’s [i]The Giant Gila Monster[/i], where the star seems to be enjoying himself and remains unharmed throughout; and [i]The Killer Shrews[/i], which is full of some of the happiest dogs you’ll ever see (probably ancestors of the dog in [i]Ft13th Part 4[/i]).
#24 by lyzard on October 16, 2007 - 2:16 pm
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>> Lyz, you might also want to avoid a particular scene in 28 Weeks Later.
>> Well, so long as we’re doing this–Dead and Buried, anyone?
Hey, Nathan, how about a new blog section? – “Warnings For Wussies”.
Hmm….it just occurred to me that if I persist with the Italian zombie film, I also get to deal with their penchant for breast ripping/nipple munching. (You know, I’m beginning to feel personally persecuted….)
#25 by KeithA on October 16, 2007 - 2:30 pm
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Conveniently enough, every Cahill book is sitting on my self except for one, and this happens to be it. The space where it used to be is there, but I have no idea where the book is. Sort of like my car, which was “relocated” by the city to make room for construction vehicles, but no one bothered to jot down where the hell they moved it to.
Anyway, I seem to remember other funny things about the shark, like it was really old, had no teeth, stuff like that — but I could just be imagining that. If the book ever turns up, I’ll reread it. It’s probably int he back of my missing car.
#26 by El Santo on October 16, 2007 - 5:15 pm
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“it just occurred to me that if I persist with the Italian zombie film, I also get to deal with their penchant for breast ripping/nipple munching.”
Funny you should mention this. I just got finished watching City of the Walking Dead, and let me tell you, there are some extremely… shall we say “exuberant?”… random acts of violence against breasts in that one.
#27 by lyzard on October 16, 2007 - 6:14 pm
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Oh, fabulous! I think (as I said to Zack elsewhere) that I’m going to retreat for a while to the safety of the 1930s. Women didn’t have breasts back then, right?
#28 by Blake Matthews on October 16, 2007 - 6:58 pm
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Watch “Tarzan And His Mate” to find a positive answer to that question. And derrieres, too!
#29 by Blake Matthews on October 17, 2007 - 8:28 am
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Oh, according to El Santo and Dr. Freex, Maniac (1934) also has definitive proof that women had breasts back in the 30s.
#30 by lyzard on October 17, 2007 - 4:06 pm
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And that cats had eyeballs.
#31 by Braineater on October 18, 2007 - 11:48 am
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Great review, Lyz. Welcome to the fetid Matoul of Italian zombie flicks… that’s one sheet-bound body in the pit. Several dozen more to go…
#32 by lyzard on October 18, 2007 - 8:25 pm
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It occurs to me that you, Keith and Santo have a LOT to answer for, Will. Remember, kids: “Friends don’t let friends watch Italian zombie movies.”
(So what *is* next on the agenda, anyway? Dr Butcher MD??)
(Ohhhh, yes, now I remember; Dr Butcher MD = Zombi Holocaust = DOUBLE eye-gouging, right?? “Typical audience reaction….”)
#33 by Braineater on October 18, 2007 - 10:22 pm
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Burial Ground has some copycat eye-gouging, too, now that I think of it. In addition to the gratuitous nipple violence, that is. The Italians were very inventive about what they did to the squishy parts of the human body in these movies.
#34 by El Santo on October 19, 2007 - 7:05 am
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“(Ohhhh, yes, now I remember; Dr Butcher MD = Zombi Holocaust = DOUBLE eye-gouging, right?? ‘Typical audience reaction….’)”
Also a scalping and a head taken apart with an outboard motor. And Will’s absolutely right when he calls Burial Ground‘s eyeball scene a “copycat” gouging– it is in many respects the most flagrant duplication of the one from Zombie that I’ve seen.
#35 by Zack Handlen on October 19, 2007 - 9:03 am
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Eye gouging doesn’t bug me, but the nipple violence does. There’s a scene in Castle Freak that still makes me squirm just thinking about it.
#36 by KeithA on October 19, 2007 - 11:07 am
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I think the only logical step from here is directly into ZOMBI 3. It’ll change your life. Not necessarily for the better, but it’ll change your life. And it does feature the famous flying zombie head.
#37 by Matthew Fudge on October 20, 2007 - 9:49 am
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So none of this thread is about Pizza right?
#38 by Blake Matthews on October 20, 2007 - 10:17 am
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Did Italian movie zombies ever eat pizza or pasta? Or what about Italian movie cannibals? 😉
#39 by Braineater on October 20, 2007 - 1:14 pm
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It’s the red sauce, Matthew.
Actually, you might want to check out the Italian zombie comedy Io zombo, tu zombi, lei zomba…, which actually does feature zombie pasta (I’m planning a review, if I ever get around to it).
#40 by lyzard on October 20, 2007 - 3:39 pm
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“….I think the only logical step from here is directly into ZOMBI 3….”
Wow. You said “logical” and “ZOMBI 3” in the same sentence.
Unfortunately [sic.], ZOMBI 3 isn’t available here, whereas ZOMBI HOLOCAUST and BURIAL GROUND are. Inscrutable are the ways of our DVD companies. But, hey! – ZOMBI HOLOCAUST is *a* ZOMBI 3, right?
#41 by KeithA on October 20, 2007 - 10:04 pm
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Lyz, I think you are about to get an early Christmas present…
#42 by lyzard on October 21, 2007 - 2:01 pm
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I feel just like Phoebe Cates in Gremlins: “….and that’s how I found out there was no Santa Claus.”
#43 by Blake Matthews on October 23, 2007 - 7:18 pm
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Oh Liz, I was reading a book about film from 1949 and I discovered that the film Extase (Ecstasy), a Czech film from 1933, also has proof that women had breasts back then…at least Hedy Lamarr did.
#44 by lyzard on October 23, 2007 - 10:39 pm
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“That’s HEDLEY!!”
#45 by Blake Matthews on November 6, 2007 - 12:38 pm
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Hey Liz, if you dislike eye violence so much, what did you think of the eye violence in “Horror Express”? It was of a slightly different nature than that of “Zombi 2”. Ah, “Horror Express”, that was a scary movie for a young pre-teen like me.
#46 by Mark on September 11, 2008 - 9:29 am
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Somewhat belated response, but according to the IMDB trivia section the shark/zombie fight involved the shark’s trainer, since the original actor got sick, so I szuppose this can be seen as further evidence of the shark having survived his 15 minutes of fame (although I always wondered if it’s even possible to train a shark – never heard of ot before).