(1971)
Overall: MEH
Lucio Fulci's second giallo A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, (Una lucertola con la pelle di donna, Carole, Schizoid, and also released as a hardcore version in France five years later called Les Salopes vont en Enfer), is ripe with memorable, elaborate visuals that nearly compensate for the preposterous, melodramatic story. There is no time wasted as the first act contains a series of surreal, acid-laced dream sequences full of naked people, ghoulish figures, blood and guts, and lesbian shenanigans. Even once the film settles into a conventional giallo by numbers murder mystery, there is still a number of thoroughly Italian set-pieces that are hilariously bizarre. The most infamous is a moment where a bunch of live dogs are hung up in a laboratory with their stomachs ripped open and vital organs exposed, a scene which is never explained nor brought up again. It also spawned a real life criminal investigation as Fulci and his special effects supervisor Carlo Rambaldi had to testify and prove in court that they did not actually mutilate real animals for the shot. While it is somewhat refreshing that it does not end with the standard, heart-racing murder chase where we finally see the killer's true identity for the first time, sadly the last act is still pretty dull as characters have to explain the plot out loud to other characters in long, boring monologues.
(1972)
Overall: MEH
Two giallos in a row, the appropriately titled Don't Torture a Duckling, (Non si sevizia un paperino), once again saw Lucio Fulci working with screenwriter Roberto Gianviti, switching to rural, southern Italy where of course murders are happening that present everyone as a suspect and continually confound the authorities. This one is noteworthy for introducing the type of nasty violence that Fulci's later film's would become highly renowned for. Though the gore level may be comparatively less prominent than later releases, it is still unpleasantly violent and sleazy as we see a woman get brutally beaten to death and another one blatantly tease a young boy whilst fully nude. It is the type of misogynistic and exploitative stuff that was often common in such European commodities of the day and it gets a laugh now for how in bad taste it is. The plot is very standard of the giallo genre and kind of a bore because of it, depending on how much of a fan one is. Characters get posed as suspects so early on that of course it cannot ever be that simple, so there is little to no suspense when the movie presents these people as such. By the time you are at the ending, there is hardly anyone left and the script kind of goes with an easy twist, all things considered. Of course, what giallo would be complete without wildly clashing music, Riz Ortolani's lush, romantic score here naturally playing over some of the most brutal murder scenes?
(1977)
Overall: GOOD
Working again with screenwriters Roberto Gianviti and Dardano Sacchetti, both of whom he collaborated with several times before and since, Lucio Fulci's Sette note in nero, (Seven Notes In Black, The Psychic, Murder to the Tune of the Seven Black Notes, Death Tolls Seven Times), is probably the director's strongest, straight-forward giallo. Revolving around a clairvoyant woman who can see the past, present, and future though not necessarily positive of which time-frame she is having visions of, it gives the film a solid and unique enough premise to put the mystery together, differentiating itself from others in the genre. There are some hokey moments of bringing back vital dialog in voice over at crucial scenes just in case the audience are morons, plus at least one gargantuan plot hole happens near the end where a man is left severely injured in an abandoned church only to find himself fully diagnosed, bandaged, and taken care of in a hospital mere moments later it seems. Yet aside from these kind of goofy details, the script unveils its secrets excellently and Fulci and cinematographer Sergio Salvati keep everything visually enticing. For a Fulci movie, it is very low on gore and utterly absent of any sexually-charged imagery, but it needs neither of these things to keep it on the higher end of such Italian thrillers.
(1979)
Overall: GOOD
Outside of his initial giallos, Lucio Fulci's first bonafide horror film was Zombie 2, (Sanguella, The Island of the Living Dead, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Zombie: The Dead Walk Among Us, Gli Ultimi Zombi, Woodoo, L'Enfer de Zombies, Zombie 2: The Dead Are Among Us, Nightmare Island, and just Zombie). A typical, Italian cash-in/unofficial Euro-sequel to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, it has held up as one of the quintessential walking corpse movies in its own right. While the story follows a coherent structure, it is as illogically silly as any other film of its kind. There is a graveyard full of conquistadors that rise up JUUUUUUST at the moment our main characters happen to take five there, a brilliantly ridiculous zombie vs. shark fight, (why was that zombie there to begin with?), and the usual question as to why some recently dead were left lying around without bullet holes in their heads to keep them from coming up while others were bulleted immediately. Lest we forget, why would our heroes make a last stand in a building they willingly set fire to with themselves still in it when they then simply leave out the back and jump on a boat anyway? Just as he would in his "Gates of Hell" trilogy, Fulci's zombies move at a typical snails pace and nearly every character who gets bit by them could have easily NOT gotten bit by them, simply by side-stepping a tad. All this aside though, it is still a lot of damn fun.
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