When you binge on a specific director...

Right, it wasn’t necessary, and absolutely just taking cheap shots at you. I fully expect the thread to get closed if it continues.

Which is a shame, because I tried to bring up Bava and Fulci it it didn’t go anywhere.
Le sigh

I'm contractually obligated to bring up Fulci every couple of posts, so any such discussion will not die with this thread.*

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That above is the line past which there should be no further discussion about discussion, which is to say no more clap backs or even polite defenses about how people were treated or mistreated earlier in this thread, or others.

Sorry, gotta draw the line (metaphorical or otherwise) somewhere. I recognize it's not always possible to do this without someone getting the "last word," but hopefully we're all mature enough to just accept that, in the long run, that kinda thing will roughly even out.

And yes, I'm doing this because there's a lot of good stuff in this thread and I'd like to avoid closing it. Thank you.

I was going to mention earlier that some of the earlier Fulci films - like Lizard in Woman's Skin, Don't Torture a Duckling and One on Top of the Other - are very good examples of the kind of slightly surreal, mood-oriented films that fits in with the type of thing Franco was doing. The later zombie films are also, um, "narcotic", for lack of a better term for it, in their atmosphere, and definitely don't adhere to the normal plot conventions, but they're definitely worth checking out. And of the later ones, I really like The Black Cat as well, with Patrick Magee ("Victim of the modern age!!!")

Which Bava have you seen?

Bad logistics. I'm above the line and discussing the discussion.

@thread: I have a hard time binging a director now because I've seen so many from so many directors. I'd rather binge an actor now. I'm slowly working my way up Sonny Chiba's tastier movies.

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

I must confess I haven’t watched much from either, with great sadness. I have a real urge to for the past year, however.

Of Bava, I have only seen Blood and Black Lace,which I really enjoyed, but I plan on binging quite a few of his films this October since Shudder is streaming them. Black Sunday and Black Sabbath, for example, as well as some of his giallo.

Of Fulci, I’ve seen City of the Living Dead, and Zombi, which I wasn’t much of a fan of, but I read his Giallo are better. Also plan on watching his films this October on Shudder.

I was mostly hoping to steer the conversation into their films to get a better idea of their work and jot down which films to prioritize for when I do my annual horror-cram.

On the subject of my Orson and Franco binges, I watched Don Quixote (1992) last night. It rings of Franco's bad editing, but I have to place some blame on the fact that Welles didn't finish it. There were some pretty interesting scenes, but I didn't appreciate how the movie ended differently from the book. I never read the book but I know the ending, and I liked it.


I'm almost done with my Orson binge. I'm going down my top 100 currently for some director I need to binge on. Next I need to watch a couple Peter Jackson movies and True Lies.

Black Sunday is special. As a B&W horror, it's more in line with the time's Universal/Hammer horror films of dark castles and stormy moods. It's a classic. Bava is known more for his color films, and Black Lace is an excellent example, closer in line to Hitchcock in setting. Kill Baby Kill is a great combination of these styles, using his stylistic use of color in a more supernatural-type horror vein. (Sabbath is also great in this regard.) And Planet of the Vampires has been reknowned for inspiring Alien, but it's much more colorful and sanguine. I would say that these films are Bava's best.



The slashers really start to formulate after that - Hatchet For the Honeymoon, Five Dolls For an August Moon, Bay of Blood, etc. Lisa and the Devil has thankfully been restored, and falls into the more somnambulent, dream-like style which was re-edited with unneccessary exorcism footage at the time. Shock is also restored, and is just an effective, nasty little demonic picture. Better than Fulci's House By the Cemetary, at least.

And I have to reiterate my belief that Welles' restored/reconstructed Other Side of the Wind is a phenomenal achievement, a sexy fricassee of cinema experience.

Yeah, I’ve been eager to watch all of those films you’ve mentioned, but I usually prefer to wait until October to binge the bulk of them, since it helps amplify the mood. Don’t judge haha.

I think there may be a few Franco films streaming here and there that I may also check out for comparisons sake.

I know nothing of Margheriti (although I am familiar with his name) nor of Rollins or Walerian (whom I know nothing of)

Not at all. There's lot of good stuff out there.


Margheriti used a lot of pseudonyms (Anthony Dawson was a common one), and he made his share of weak, awful pictures, but the ones I mentioned are solid.



Jean Rollin is a true artist, auteur, whatever you want to call it. He could fuse the modern Nouvelle Vague aesthetic to the more exploitative erotic horror films and create some really delirious and disorienting work that still manages something like beauty. I saw where someone voted his Iron Rose in the foreign thread. It's probably a good indicator of how you may appreciate his approach. Strong atmosphere. Not really sure what happened. A daze, a dream, a dread.



Walerian Borowczyk sits on the fence between Euro-exploitation and more subversive Eastern European political satire. He also employs sumptuous color and a nasty attitude towards social mores. I wouldn't quite recommend him just yet.

Fulci is interesting in that he has a career spanning several decades but only has a decade or so of his work discussed all that frequently. I confess I share those blind spots, but outside of his horror films I quite enjoyed Four of the Apocalypse, which has some of the same hallucinatory quality and violence as his best known films, but with a disarmingly melancholy tone.


If you've seen City of the Living Dead, you'll know roughly what to expect with The Beyond (which is probably his best movie), but I think it's a nicer looking movie (largely thanks to the aspect ratio) and a less sparse one as well, narratively. I do think comparing these two to his giallos makes a clear case for the loosening narrative structures as a deliberate artistic choice, necessary for the nightmare logic both films pursue.

Zombie I didn't gel to at all when I first watched it, but once I got used to how his movies...moved, I found it played a lot better. Some very nice jungle atmosphere, which I admittedly have a weak spot for.


JJ made a good case for his early giallo, but I think New York Ripper from his later period is worth your time as well. About as mean-spirited as I've seen a movie be, but undeniably stylish, Donald Duck voice be damned.


As for other essentials...if you have the room, I'd make time for Cat in the Brain, which has the man himself taking a starring role. It's not quite as pointed a comment on his work as Argento's Tenebre, but plenty of fun for fans. Might make a good double feature with the doc Fulci for Fake, which provides some interesting personal context for this and New York Ripper especially.

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CatInDaBrain4Life

Cat in the Brain > Tenebre

Yeah, I think Rollin's films are closest to what Franco's best films aim for, but like JJ, I found Rollin's films a bit more deliberate in their effect. I remember liking The Living Dead Girl with Angelique Blanchard and Marina Pierro the most, and also gelled really strongly to his horror movies with Brigitte Lahaie, who has a very arresting screen presence: Fascination, The Grapes of Death (she's in this only briefly but her scene is the highlight) and Night of the Hunted. (And before anyone asks, no, I haven't seen the pornos they did together - I've only seen a few French hardcore pictures from the same era and had a mixed experience, so haven't made them a priority.) I will say that his lightness of touch doesn't necessarily translate well outside of horror. I've seen The Sidewalks of Bangkok, which is mostly interesting for showing a poor a fit his style is for the spy thriller genre.


As for Borowczyk, I quite liked The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne with Pierro and our good friend Udo Kier, but to parrot JJ again, a lot of the effect comes from his skewering of societal norms. Not as readily fun as the other directors you cite. The others I've seen from him are basically soft porn, well executed but might be best approached further down the road. (For reference: Immoral Tales = pretty good ; Love Rites = pretty good, but helps if you share my fondness for Marina Pierro ; Behind Convent Walls = not good (a little too condescending towards its subject matter for my liking), but Pierro is the best part).

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