1981, Color, 86 m. / Directed by Lucio Fulci / Starring Katriona MacColl, Paolo Malco, Giovanni de Nava, Dagmar Lassander, Ania Pieroni, Giovanni Frezza, Daniela Doria, Carlo de Mejo
Anchor Bay / WS (2.35:1) (16:9) / DD2.0
1981, Color, 86 m. / Directed by Lucio Fulci / Starring Katriona MacColl, Paolo Malco, Giovanni de Nava, Dagmar Lassander, Ania Pieroni, Giovanni Frezza, Daniela Doria, Carlo de Mejo
Anchor Bay / WS (2.35:1) (16:9) / DD2.0
devotes more time than usual to character development and surprising plotting, allowing the graphic gore to serve as a function of the story rather than an end unto itself. The last of Fulci's Gothic zombie excursions, House is also a strangely beautiful film, with Sergio Salvati's expert scope photography crafting a strange world of childhood fairy tales gone very bad and Walter Rizzati's poignant score providing much needed emotional support.
A middle class couple (Katriona MacColl and New York Ripper's Paolo Malco) move to New Whitby, Boston, ignoring the protests of their young son, Bob (Giovanni Frezza), who experiences visions of a spooky freckled girl warning him about bloody events in their new house. While MacColl is a little miffed to find out the house is next door to a cemetery (irrelevant, but it does give the movie a cool title) and the tomb of a Dr. Freudstein is situated in the middle of their hallway, the couple decide to tough it out and make the best of the 
situation. Not surprisingly, nasty things begin to happen: Malco is attacked by a bat (and this is a Fulci bat attack, folks-- he paints the walls red with this one), spooky-looking babysitter Ania Pieroni (Tenebrae, Inferno) inexplicably disappears, and real estate agent Dagmar Lassander (a long way from her sex starlet days) meets up with a poker-wielding assailant.
In the last half hour, Fulci really shines and produces some of his finest work; the claustrophobic mixture of chills and supernatural poetry would do Mario Bava proud, with an unexpected but very satisfying supernatural resolution. He also wreaks havoc with audience expectations, which adds immensely to the air of childhood uneasiness in which the whole world feels like it can collapse from underneath you at any moment.
When House was released to U.S. theaters and on Lightning Home Video, the gore remained intact but two of the reels were placed out of sequence and much of Rizzati's score was stupidly replaced. The Japanese Daie laserdisc, letterboxed and uncut, was a very welcome 
alternative, and EC's Holland-produced Region 2 DVD went one even better by removing those pesky subtitles. To make things even more confusing, EC then anamorphically remastered their DVD, supposedly from the original negative, while retaining the same extras: the European theatrical trailer(be warned, it contains a lot of spoilers), juicy trailers for A Blade in the Dark and Mountain of the Cannibal God, and a half hour 1994 Eurofest interview with Fulci (in Italian with a translator on hand).
Anchor Bay's belated release of House marks both its first widescreen and correctly sequenced appearance in America, discounting an unauthorized bootleg disc from the notorious Diamond. The image quality is the best of all, with exceptionally rich colors, less grain than its counterparts, and a sharp overall appearance that mostly belies the film's age. Inexplicably, the disc does not contain the same jolting 5.1 remix treatment afforded to The Beyond or City of the Living Dead; instead the viewer is left to settle with a moderately effective two channel surround mix, which tosses in a few nice directional effects to the front speakers but leaves the rear channels largely silent apart from some very mild ambient support to Rizzati's score. The striking full motion menus (which take the viewer through the house, of course) lead to the hilariously lurid U.S. trailer ("Be sure to read the fine print! You may have just mortgaged... your life!"), the European trailer, a handful of abbreviated TV spots, a gooey still gallery, and cast and crew bios. However, completists may not want to toss out those EC discs just yet, as that's still the only way to own both the Fulci interview and a version of the film with (optional but handy) English subtitles.
1981, Color, 89 mins.
Directed by Lucio Fulci/ Starring Katherine (Catriona) MacColl, David Warbeck, Sarah Keller, Antoine Saint-John, Veronica Lazar, Anthony Flees, Giovanni De Nava, Al Cliver / Written by Gianfranco Clerici & Roberto Gianviti / Produced by Fabrizio De Angelis / Anchor Bay / WS (2.35:1) (16:9) / DD5.1
Oddly enough it was also virtually unknown for many years, with most American fans unfortunate enough to be stuck with a brutally edited, rescored version entitled 7 Doors of Death (released on Thriller Video back in the early '80s). When the original cut of The Beyond finally surfaced on Japanese laserdisc, the floodgates opened and the film's reputation went through the roof, even winding up with an unlikely theatrical release from Grindhouse and Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder Pictures on the midnight movie circuit. No matter how you see it, Fulci's hallucinatory masterpiece is one ride you'll never forget.
During a sepia tone prologue set in 1927 Louisiana, a group of men arrive by boat at the Seven Doors Hotel. They burst into Room 36 and proceed to chain whip the inhabitant, a painter and warlock named Schweick. Meanwhile a young girl downstairs named Emily (Sarah Keller) reads from an occult text called the Book of Eibon, which erupts into flames as Schweick's face is dissolved with acidic sludge. In 1981 the abandoned hotel is under renovation thanks to the new owner, a relocated New Yorker named Liza (Catriona MacColl). When one of the handymen suffers a bloody accident on the scaffolding, the local doctor, John McCabe (David Warbeck), is called in to keep things under control. A number of bizarre incidents begin to occur beneath 
and around the hotel, such as constant ringing from the bell in Room 36 and a gruesome fate for poor plumber Joe (Giovanni De Nava). During a car trip along an eerie causeway Eliza first meets Emily, who still looks exactly the same except for her eyes, which have turned a milky white. Other "accidents" at the local morgue and a bookshop indicate that the Book of Eibon holds the key to the hotel's dark secret, with a cryptic gateway to Hell housed somewhere within the property. Ultimately the humid landscape is beset by shuffling zombies, with Liza and John frantically fighting for their lives as they attempt to close that which should never have been opened.
By most rational standards, The Beyond can be a confounding experience. The plot has little to do with linear story properties or rational development, and the acting is highly stilted and often awkward. However, any Fulci fan knows that when the filmmaker has kicked into high gear, these are really attributes, not flaws. The lovely and endearing MacColl served as leading lady in three of his best zombie films; apart from being a first rate screamer, she's a terrific protagonist and seems to be enjoying herself. The late Warbeck carved a niche for himself in British and Italian exploitation titles during the '70s and '80s, and his rugged leading man qualities are put to excellent use here as he turns from concerned family physician to pistol-packing defender against the undead. Their characters are more warm and engaging than they really have any right to be, which makes the poetic and thoroughly chilling ending all the more powerful. If anyone ever questions Fulci's abilities as a filmmaker, kindly direct them to the last 90 seconds of this film. The special effects by splatter maestro Giannetto De Rosi are effectively repellent, with eyes popping from their sockets and faces blending into mush. The legendary, painfully slow tarantula attack sequence is both stomach churning and hilarious, with squeaking arachnids covering one poor victim and casually removing portions of his face with their... uh, teeth, apparently. All of Fulci's most noteworthy collaborators attack this film full throttle, with the amazing Sergio Salvati pumping up the atmospheric lighting across the scope frame and Fabio Frizzi manipulating piano solos and electronics into a tremendous music score. 
Forget what mainstream critics like Roger Ebert had to say; this film is a heartfelt poem for horror fans and, most importantly, a gory good show.
The distribution history of The Beyond has been unusually tangled over the years, with its most recent acquisition providing even more drama. When Rolling Thunder stepped in, the video rights went to Miramax. Unfortunately their owner, Disney, wouldn't even consider allowing a laserdisc release, despite the massive amount of supplementary material compiled by Grindhouse. The title drifted in limbo for a while after its theatrical run, with a decent Region 2 DVD from EC Entertainment turning up in Holland of all places. Finally the licensors made a deal with Anchor Bay, and years later the DVD finally hit the market. So was it worth the wait? Most definitely. The film itself looks terrific, with the widescreen compositions looking balanced and well judged, while the colors range from appropriately muted to garish and vivid during the gore scenes. The disc offers several audio options: a thunderous 5.1 remix, which offers some wild and amusing separation effects to the rear speakers and increases the 
scare value immensely; a 2.0 surround version of the same mix; the original mono soundtrack for the more nostalgic viewers; and the original Italian audio track, which is much better than average and invests the film with some welcome dynamic, emotional shadings. Though the packaging makes no mention of it, the disc also includes optional English subtitles, a very welcome addition. The most notable special feature here is the commentary track by MacColl and Warbeck, recorded while the latter was on his deathbed. You'd never guess it, though; this is easily one of the best commentary tracks ever recorded and never lets up for a moment. The two actors show a great deal of respect for Fulci and the film itself while poking fun at the filming experience, cracking jokes and making some astonishingly witty observations about the action onscreen. The affection and knowledge shown by this pair cannot be overstated, and it's extremely satisfying that their comments can finally be heard. Check out Warbeck's method of soothing MacColl's queasiness during the tarantula scene for an especially good chuckle. The DVD also includes the international English trailer (apparently ported over from the Japanese laserdisc master), the Rolling Thunder reissue trailer (with a slightly different opening), a similar German trailer, and a file of cast and promotional photographs and artwork. An alternate color version of the opening sequence has also been recovered from the German release version, and obviously, it's much more disgusting seeing Schweick's bloody chain wounds and candy colored face melting in full, MGM-style Technicolor. Necrophagia's music video for a thrash metal song called "And You Will Live in Terror," directed by Jim Van Bebber and featuring clips from the film, is also included but will probably only appeal to a select few out there. Easter Egg hunters out there can also follow the Eibon symbols and see the original U.S. opening for 7 Doors of Death and a trailer for Fulci's latter day postmodern horror opus, A Cat in the Brain.
drills in this one, folks.
In a small village in southern Italy, young preadolescent boys are turning up dead from strangulation. Evidence points to a number of possible suspects, especially the local "witch," Martiara (Florinda Bolkan), whose voodoo practices and possible insanity make her a likely candidate. But what about Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet), the bored city girl hiding out after a drug scandal, who now passes the time by flaunting her naked body in front of children? The local Catholic Church, headed by young Don Alberto (The Psychic's Marc Porel) and his mother, Aurelia (Irene Papas), tries to keep the population under control, but even the local police are baffled by the case. A reporter from the north, Andrea (Tomas Milian), comes to investigate and recruits Patrizia to discover some genuinely ugly truths about the quiet provincial town.
Virtually unseen outside Italy since its release, Don't Torture a Duckling is one of the crucial films in the Fulci canon. He once again displays the precise control of the giallo format found in the previous A Lizard in a Woman's Skin and One on Top of the Other, but he also introduces a number of elements which would reappear prominently throughout his later work. The film's theme of innocence preserved through murder, coupled with the prominent use of Donald Duck as a plot device, later appeared in the much nastier New York Ripper, while the memorable face-smashing finale dovetails nicely with its identical appearance at the beginning of Fulci's next film, The Psychic. However, Duckling's most memorable sequence, in which a main character is subjected to a horrific fate involving 
chain-whips, is so effective that Fulci repeated it during the prologue of The Beyond and returned to the concept of provincial vigilantism in City of the Living Dead. However, Duckling is much more than a simple blueprint for Fulci's themes and obsessions; on its own terms the film is a singular accomplishment, a chilling horror film and social thesis flooded with sunlight, punctuated with odd scenes of dark rainfall. This contrast is reflected in the magnificent score by Riz Ortolani, which oscillates between chilling atonal suspense music and the deliberately syrupy, haunting main theme which appears ironically in several key scenes. The acting is also among the best in a Fulci film, with Bolkan in particular delivering a tour de force performance as the mistreated outcast. One of the many Euro starlets who blossomed in Italian thrillers, Barbara Bouchet never looked better and has an undeniably memorable entrance in the film.
Long available to collectors via dupes of a half-letterboxed (1.85:1) transfer from Dutch video, Don't Torture a Duckling has long been overdue for a decent video presentation. Thankfully, Anchor Bay's DVD does justice to the film's expert scope photography and unorthodox color schemes. This still looks like a '70s title, which means some visual grain and film stock inconsistencies from time to time, but it's hard to imagine this looking much better. Though much of the film was filmed with English dubbing in mind, some of the voices are a little jarring considering the rural nature of the characters. Otherwise the audio is fine, but in this case an alternate Italian track might have been welcome (as opposed to titles like Shock where it makes little difference at all).
1980, Color, 93 mins.
Directed by Lucio Fulci
Starring Christopher George, Katriona MacColl (Catherine MacColl), Janet Agren, Carlo de Mejo, Antonella Interlinghi, John Morghen (Giovanni Lombardo Radice), Daniala Doria
Anchor Bay, Blue Underground (US R1 NTSC) / NoShame (Italy R0 PAL) / WS (1.85:1) (16:9) / DD5.1
Father Thomas, the local parish priest in Dunwich (another Fulci nod to Lovecraft, get it?), hangs himself in the local cemetery, unleashing a series of uncanny events on the small, desolate town. Corpses rise, worm-infested bodies pop up, glass explodes and punctures bleeding wounds into walls, and a teenage girl (Daniela Doria, also abused in Fulci's The Black Cat) regurgitates her intestines, much to the horror of her boyfriend (director Michele Soavi in an early acting bit). 
Meanwhile in New York, a psychic, Mary Woodhouse (Katriona MacColl), experiences a vision of the Dunwich horror during a seance and falls into a deathlike trance. She is narrowly saved from being buried alive by an aggressive reporter (Christopher George), and they drive to Dunwich to stop the escalating evil before it reaches full force on All Saint's Day.
While this all may sound like a mindless gorefest, City of the Living Dead is much more than the sum of its gooey parts. From the late 1970s to 1982, Fulci assembled a stunning crew for his zombie-centric horror films, culminating in his masterpiece The Beyond. Thanks to Sergio Salvati's magnificent cinematography, Gino de Rossi's skincrawling special effects, and Fabio Frizzi's haunting score, the film works up a feverish series of incidents which provide a heavy visceral kick missing from Fulci's later comeback efforts. The game cast does quite a job, with the lovely MacColl in first of three memorable lead roles for Fulci and blonde starlet Janet Agren (Eaten Alive!) turning up as a neurotic Dunwich resident. On a narrative level, City makes no sense at all (especially the last 30 seconds), but if you're willing to just kick back and go along with Fulci's demented fever dream, it's quite a ride.
For horror fans, Anchor Bay's DVD is the long awaited answer to a lot of prayers. Previous versions of City have been extremely grainy and usually cut, though the Japanese and EC Entertainment laserdisc releases were the best of the bunch.
The Anchor Bay edition (later reissued from Blue Underground) presents the complete English version, and the image quality is greatly improved. The eerie prowling camera shots of the town streets at night look smooth and ominously rich, and of course, the showstopping drill scene can be experienced in all its widescreen glory. The film has always had a grainy, gauzy appearance which still lingers here; everything from cheap film stock to bad lab work has been cited for this flaw, but fans have grown to accept it as just another part of the film's weird, disjointed anatomy. The original European English-langauge trailer is included, and the audio has been given a spacious 5.1 overhaul which nicely separates the Frizzi music and some of the punchier sound effects to the outer speakers. Considering the high number of jolting, manipulative sound effects, this could well be the scariest audio remix in DVD history. For you '80s sleaze fans, there are also some amusing radio spots for its amazingly unlikely American theatrical run. It's just too much fun for one DVD.
A bit more controversial is the much later Italian DVD release from NoShame, which includes the Italian and English audio tracks along with one terrific exclusive: a long reel of footage from the original film shoot in Savannah, Georgia, complete with lots of spooky graveyard shots. It's a wonderful bit of Fulci memorabilia and is almost worth the price tag by itself. Unfortunately, while the transfer appears cleaner and more vivid on smaller TV monitors, the film has undergone so much digital scrubbing to remove that beloved film grain that it's completely unwatchable on larger home theater screens, with actors' faces often blurring into a sludgy mess and any onscreen movement accompanied by blurring and ghosting galore. Stick with the Anchor Bay transfer, but die hards may want to spring for this odd alternate edition as well.
1982, Color, 91 mins.
Directed by Lucio Fulci
Starring Jack Hedley, Almanta Keller, Howard Ross, Andrea Occhipinti, Alessandra Delli Colli, Paolo Malco, Cinzia Di Ponti, Daniela Doria
Anchor Bay, Blue Underground (US R1 NTSC), Another World (Sweden R0 PAL) / WS (2.35:1) (16:9)
Lieutenant Williams (Jack Hedley), a hooker-loving police detective, finds himself pursuing a brutal serial killer who, according to one eyewitness, quacks like a duck as he slashes his victims. Yes, indeed, every time a broken bottle or razor blade is wielded in malice, the soundtrack explodes with a deafening "quack quack quack!" Each murder becomes more unsavory than the last, with women from all walks of life falling victim to the madman. Dr. Davis, a gay professor (House by the Cemetery's Paolo Malco), offers his services to the police, and a young potential victim, Faye (Almanta Keller), escapes the killer's clutches (a splendidly weird half-dream sequence) and begins to unravel the mystery herself. When the killer cuts a little too close to home for Williams, the stakes increase and uncover a startling revelation lurking behind the madman's psychosis.
Tossing in every convention of the Italian giallo formula, Fulci emerges with an unholy response to such slick urban thrillers as Tenebrae and Dressed to Kill. Like Tenebrae, with which this film shares more than a few interesting structural similarities, the earlier scenes of brutality focus mainly on women, but the director turns this malefic gaze back on the viewer by ultimately offing virtually every cast member in a spectacularly nihilistic display of misanthropy. While the gore scenes here are alarming and convincingly executed (for the most part), the killings also elicit a great deal of agony from the viewer and ultimately implicate any observer for participating in a society where "you have to be the best." Granted, most of Fulci's social observations may be complete hooey when you consider they're being delivered by a homicidal duck (a weird tribute to his earlier Don't Torture a Duckling, perhaps?), but the eerie final ten minutes provide enough poignance and food for thought to at least indicate Fulci had more on his mind than simply trading in hardcore sexist gore. Even many Fulci fans find this film repugnant, an understandable reaction given the treatment and subject matter, but a few elements are noteworthy even with these misgivings. Francesco De Masi's marvelous big city crime score gives the proceedings an appropriately jazzy and sleazy bent, while cinematographer Luigi Kuveiller (Deep Red) magnificently uses the scope frame to capture an atmosphere of rotting claustrophobia completely lost on previous transfers. Though only a small portion of the film was actually shot on location in New York, the setting is all too convincing and bizarre. The actors generally do a good job despite the chaotic and frequently hilarious dubbing job, with Hedley making an interesting social hypocrite and genre stalwart Andrea Occhipinti (A Blade in the Dark, Conquest) expanding his range somewhat as Faye's boyfriend. And finally, if you ever wanted to know where Dario Argento got the idea for the cheek-piercing bullet in The Stendhal Syndrome, look no further than this film's showstopping finale.
Most American viewers first encountered New York Ripper through Vidmark's atrocious VHS release in the mid-'80s. Unwatchable panning and scanning, coupled with an ugly faded and brown transfer, immediately earned the film a bad reputation which was only slightly improved when Cult Epics (Professional Cinemedia) issued a much needed widescreen laserdisc several years later. Though smudgy and overbright, the laserdisc at least provided some indication of the visual artistry inherent in the film and restored several brief bits of sex deleted from the U.S. cut. Surprisingly, the most notorious restored scene involves no gore but involves a toe job in a local Puerto Rican dive, and for better or worse, Anchor Bay has retained all of this legendary footage in their DVD release. The transfer looks terrific, much better than any other release in the U.S. or Europe, with some delicious candy-colored lighting designs that should have Gothic Italian buffs gasping with delight. (Just check out that green light in the stripper's dressing room.) A couple of scenes will always look a little cruddy, such as the opening doggie hand-fetching, but overall the materials are in excellent shape. Strangely, the last shot of Malco standing on the sidewalk froze and faded into a wild psychedelic pattern on the laserdisc, while the DVD simply fades to black -- a much more rational choice. Unlike Zombie, we'll probably never get a remixed 5.1 soundtrack for this one. However, the mono track sounds fine and renders De Masi's score with plenty of gritty punch. The explicit European trailer is included, as well as a handy Fulci filmography.
While other companies have offered their own subsequent editions of New York Ripper in the ensuing years, the most notable one is a "special restored" version from Sweden's Another World series. The transfer is indeed noticeably crisper than the AB one, with somewhat punchier colors as well and a bit more picture information visible on all four sides. It also boasts the correct placement of Malco's final scene, so we'll take their word for it. Extras on this one include a De Masi interview (Italian with optional English subs), a "Ti Ricordi Lucio Fulci 2" featurette running about 14 minutes (also with subs), a funny interview with Howard Ross (ditto), a giallo trailer reel, and for the feature itself, optional subtitles in Danish, Norweigan, Finish and Swedish. It's also quite cheap, so even if you have the earlier release, it's worth the double dip.
1979, Color, 91 mins.
Directed by Lucio Fulci / Starring Tisa Farrow, Ian McCullough, Richard Johnson, Auretta Gay, Olga Karlatos, Al Cliver (Pier Luigi Conti)
Anchor Bay, Blue Underground, Media Blasters (US R1 NTSC) / WS (2.35:1) (16:9) / DD5.1
The plot (what there is) follows Tisa Farrow (Mia's look-alike sister who appeared in The Grim Reaper and the excellent cult film Fingers) as she travels with Ian McCullough from New York to the cursed tropical island of Matoul, where the dead have been coming back to life and attacking the locals. The mayhem all stems from the reckless mad scientist, Dr. Meynard (The Haunting's Richard Johnson), who has been combining science with ancient voodoo rituals. Pretty soon, the entire cast (including Fulci regular Al Cliver and Auretta Gay) is fighting off hordes of the living dead, and the blood runs deep enough to require a raincoat.
Originally released under the title Zombi 2 in Italy, Fulci's epic was intended as a pseudo-sequel to George Romero's profitable living dead classic, Dawn of the Dead (released in Europe as Zombi). However, Fulci opted to drop Romero's satiric approach and goes straight for the jugular, offering no social commentary or redeeming substance whatsoever. Of course, it's an easy film to attack; it lacks the flair of Fulci's The Beyond or House by the Cemetery, and on the whole, the acting is pretty awful. Farrow and McCullough have little to do besides look neurotic, and Johnson skulks about in a haggard fashion and grumbles about the dead disturbing his work. The best acting award easily goes to the beautiful Olga Karlatos, who also enlivened Fulci's Murderock and is best known as Prince's mom in Purple Rain! She makes a very strong impression in the two scenes she has, particularly during the infamous close encounter between one of her eyes and a very large wooden splinter.
The VHS editions from Wizard Video, Magnum Video (who also issued a long out-of-print pan and scan laserdisc), and a handful of public domain companies looked pretty wretched, suffering from greenish skin tones during the island scenes and muffled, scratchy audio. The Japanese laserdisc (under the Zombi 2 title) looked substantially better, though the print was somewhat worn, with hissy sound. The Roan and Anchor Bay versions (on laserdisc and DVD respectively) feature a digitally remixed soundtrack in Dolby Digital, with some oddly recorded new sound effects. Of course, the dubbed voices still sound canned, and Fabio Frizzi's stirring music score doesn't sound as punchy as one might wish, but that can't be helped. Though the clarity of the picture is fine, the colors have been digitally enhanced and punched up a little too much for comfort on the laserdisc; for example, during a couple of faded scenes, the shadows glow an electric blue. Turn down the color control on your monitor a bit, however, and the film looks as it should. On the other hand, the Anchor Bay DVD is too pale, washing out even the blues of the ocean scenes. The fun bonus material includes the US theatrical trailer, a couple of TV spots, and some hilarious radio promos. Also, the commentary by Ian McCulloch provides quite a few chuckles, including his amazing comparison between Fulci and Preston Sturges! More often, though, the comments stray way off the subject and may not please Fulciphiles. In Britain there’s a slightly cut version as Zombie Flesh Eaters, marketed as the “Extreme Version;” it looks adequate enough. The German disc from Dragon, under the title Woodoo, is uncut, looks nicer than any of the other options, and also features an Antonella Fulci interview.
Now things get really complicated. Due to a rights snafu, both Media Blasters and Blue Underground wound up with the American DVD rights for the film, which resulted in the latter company issuing its version first, containing the English and Italian audio tracks with optional English subtitles. The transfer looks simply terrific, with cool but pleasing colors and a nice option between a new, more faithful 5.1 mix and the mono original (both languages). Extras include a hilarious slew of trailers and radio spots. Then the Media Blasters edition appeared under the title Zombi 2, with a similar but slightly more yellowish transfer and the same audio/subtitle options. Extras this time out include a whole disc packed with interviews with most of the participants, including the FX artists and actors; however, it's cut into an incredibly long, rather shapeless documentary form and requires viewers to carve out a lot of time and patience to get to all the good stuff. So what does it all mean in the end? Well, if you like the movie, you gotta buy 'em both.
1991, Color, 93 mins.
Directed by Lucio Fulci
Starring Lucio Fulci, David L. Thompson, Jeoffrey Kennedy, Malisa Longo, Brett Halsey, Ria de Simone
Raro (Italy R0 PAL), Shock (Holland R0 PAL) / WS (1.66:1) (16:9), Blackhorse (UK R2 PAL)
One of the most deranged films in the Italian horror canon, Cat has sharply divided Fulci fans on virtually every level. Cheaply shot on 16mm and blown up to 35, the narrative consists largely of excerpts from other films (particularly Fulci's A Touch of Death and Ghosts of Sodom) intercut with new Fulci scenes. Since actor Brett Halsey (infamous from Fulci's S&M drama, The Devil's Honey) appears 
in several different clips from different films, the experience is not unlike Plan 9 from Outer Space as his appearance changes from scene to scene. Newcomers to Fulci will definitely wonder what the fuss is about: the acting is uniformly terrible, the visuals are cheesy at best, and Fabio Frizzi's score awkwardly mixes new Muzak compositions with exceprts from his past glory days (The Beyond, etc.). Scene for scene, this may be Fulci's goriest film, and this aspect alone has earned it some fan loyalty; on another level, it's a bizarre cry for understanding, as Fulci appears to be exorcising demons and coming to terms with the nastier pitfalls of his chosen profession. Many people will be turned off by the nonlinear and often maddening collision of nonsensical scenes and misogynist gore, but it's an interesting film nonetheless.
To date, the only American edition of this film came on laserdisc from Box Office Spectacular, aka Grindhouse Releasing. The print is as good as can be expected given the source materials, and it's definitely cleaner than the Japanese release. The limited stereo soundtrack features little rear channel activity, mainly punching up some of the more violent sound effects and the music passages. The English dubbing sounds more canned than usual, and the Italian soundtrack is also included in mono. The disc also includes the original trailer, a gallery of stills and promotional Fulci artwork, and a very lengthy and endearing video segment of Fulci at the 1996 Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors. The much later international DVD editions are a mixed bag, with the Raro version faring best thanks to a surprisingly nice anamorphic transfer and both Italian and English audio options. The Dutch one comes in a close second, but by all means avoid the British disc, a fullscreen mess you don't want to experience at all.
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