Academic Writings on Lucio Fulci
“Don’t go out of your way or anything. I’m just wondering if anyone can lead me towards an online essay or other writing that you may be aware of.”
!
Are you offering to answer the “homework hotline,” Ari? Or asserting through your terse but meaningful message that in the good old days, we found our own research and wrote our own papers, start to finish. (And those were the days before the interwebz made it such a breeze.)
Z. Bart’s least favorite kind of thread…
anyway, my essay goes a little something like this: “Fulci is a million times better than Romero. The end.”
Romero wishes he had made this scene:
It started out as a reasonable request for academic citations than quickly and deftly moved towards the online essay. Shameless…..
Just write something about the zombie as nonhuman nomos of post-capitalist angst in Fulci and Romero and you’re gold.
Or crib Professor Cokehead on Umberto Lenzi:
lol wtf is he wearing? Is he a satanist altar boy now?
Haha! Professor Cokehead. And he is wearing something pretty crazy! Hahaha! The Reservoir Dogs outfits went mystic.
^ I like his “Italian” gesticulations and pronunciations. And that outfit is superb.
Lucio Fulci. Wonder who is next. Michael Bay?
As much as I think Fulci is (way) underrated in some parts of his filmography, I still think that looking for a comparison between Romero and Fulci’s zombies is brought down to how Fulci zombies only function to create gruesome gore and that’s it. No academic sources will be talking about it more extensively and analytically as what I just said.
Good luck, though.
You underestimate the resiliency of cultural studies, your dudeness (this collection features an English professor’s essay on Fulci and conceptions of blasphemy and religion – fascinating, I’m sure)
Although in tackling zombies, it’s just another reminder how often academics try to hop on current trends like ambulance chasing lawyers. You know by the time the edited volume comes out, it’s already over.
Fulci’s zombies were re-animated conquistadors, brought back to life through voodoo, laying waste to a tropical island. Draw subtext from that at your own risk…
Also, I expect to receive full credit in your essay.
^ They symbolize the evil of colonialism that never dies? Far-out!
Fulci zombies only function to create gruesome gore and that’s it.
And that’s why Fulci is better! :)
@ Drunken Father Figure of Old
Agreed, but Romero’s so much awesome.
For Fulci, I’ve only seen both ZOMBI 2 and CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD.
Watch House by the Cemetary. Probably his best along with The Beyond.
@ Tommy
Sure. THE BEYOND is on my watchlist, by the way. :)
Fulci’s best films are A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin and Don’t Torture a Duckling.
It has some of the best moments in horror. It has been a while since I last watched it. With this and other recent horror ‘discussions’ around here, it’s making me get back into the genre.
@ Ari
A LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN is on my watchlist, too. ;)
I’m not too much of a Fulci fan but ZOMBI 2 and CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD are still some good ones I’ve seen so far.
City of the Living Dead.
New York Ripper is also a seedy, dirty, grimy, nasty, misogynistic well made little giallo.
Yeah I guess I should say favorites, not best.
^ Yeah, New York Ripper is just too viscerally unpleasant and misogynistic for my tastes but, yeah, it’s effective.
@ Hellshocked
THE NEW YORK RIPPER might be one I’d wish to watch besides A LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN and THE BEYOND. I like some giallo flicks, especially Argento’s since he always made the best giallo films from the ’70s & ’80s.
I’ve heard the phrase “that film made me want to take a shower” used often but in the case of New York Ripper it is fucking accurate. New York in that film is a den of sexual degradation where a slasher does not only target his victims because they are women but uses their very femininity to kill them. You can almost smell the sweat and taste the grime. It is by no means a good film but I can’t deny how viscerally affecting it is.
Don’t expect Argento’s occasional touch of class here Christopher. This is to Opera/Deep Red what Zombi 2 is to I Walked With a Zombie.
Drunken Father, I kind of feel insulted in your comment about Fulci zombies being better because they’re nothing but gore-making machines. My favorite horror movie is Dawn of the Dead, and it’s also my favorite movie, and in it, the zombies create scare horror, which is the best kind of horror, and not gore “horror”. I do acknowledge that I think Fulci zombies are fun to watch (especially in Zombie) but we’re talking about scare horror here, and I think that the best kinds of scare horror are in horror movies that mirror the bad moods of an era, like Texas Chainsaw, which came in during when America and its soldiers were still reeling from the horrors of Vietnam War. Dawn of the Dead is the one such movie, for it’s an important artifact of the mindlessness created by consumerism, which still translates to the present in my opinion (The new iPad, anyone?).
About The New York Ripper, I think it has what I call “Blue Velvet Syndrome”, which I define as “the level of misogyny in a film with this syndrome feels so excessive that it steps down from greatness” (I still think that Blue Velvet is the best movie I gave 4/5 stars here on Mubi). Ripper has a serious condition of that; its level of misogyny is so high, it feels unreal and desensitizing.
@ari: Looks like I did underestimate the scholars of film. Oh well, recommend the book to the guy who needs help and looks like I’m gonna be preoccupied with something for this week. Oh, and I think that Zombie is Fulci’’s best film, but A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin comes in at a close second.
Reminder to everyone: Let’s help the kid with his homework now, eh?
When I was a teen the movies of Fulci were only shown in the worst theaters -to a mostly wino audience.
Your Dudeness – I know what you mean about scare horror vs. gore horror, and Night of the Living Dead is definitely my favorite Romero, and a pretty dang good horror movie, too! But Dawn of the Dead‘s “commentary” on consumerism I just find annoying and self-important. And I just can’t get behind the soundtrack for Dawn of the Dead. :(
What I like about the Fulci’s that I’ve seen (most notably City of the Living Dead) is the incredible atmosphere he creates. In the intestine-vomit scene, it has such a great feeling of being so terrified that you can’t move, and that confusion that you (or at least I) have in nightmares. In that scene, it’s so hard to figure out what’s going on or why it’s going on, and I just love that! (and I really like that soundtrack, too!)
However, I haven’t seen nearly enough Fulci or Romero to have even commented in the first place, so keep that disclaimer in mind if I said or in the future say anything stupid!
ShaKha
Hello good people.
I’m writing an essay for a class which is essentially a comparison between the zombies of Fulci and Romero. While there is no shortage of writing on Romero, Fulci is not nearly as prevalent. I have a handful of articles and books, but I thought I might be able to get a bit of help here.
Don’t go out of your way or anything. I’m just wondering if anyone can lead me towards an online essay or other writing that you may be aware of.
Thanks