Young Dracula

Young Dracula

Aka: Dracula in the Provinces

Original Title: Il cav. Costante Nicosia demoniac, ovvero: Dracula in Brianza

Directed By: Lucio Fulci

Italy, 1975

Comedy/Horror

I like to refer to it as the calm before the storm, the calm before second coming of Lucio Fulci. The movies he made after the impressive Gialli/thrillers, but before the magnificent grotesque movies that firmly placed him in horror mythos.

As you most likely know, Fulci started his career with comedies and dramas, so they are an important part in the fundament of what would come later on. With that I’m referring to the at times terrifyingly dark humour that is found in his films. Light dramas, saucy comedies, and fun fun fun is somewhat of a strange contradiction to the images and movies one associates The godfather of Gore with, but at the same time, if you weren’t making salty thrillers, westerns or horrors then it was the sexy comedy that the audiences in Italy wanted. Fulci was no stranger to making comedies; he even began his career as an assistant to the legendary Italian comedy director Steno, so comedies have an important place in his filmography. And before that second coming, Fulci directed some very interesting comedies that deserve to be rediscovered.

Young industrialist Costante Nicosia [Lando Buzzanca, who did a brilliant job as the politician with a bum-grabbing fetish in All'onorevole piacciono le donne (Nonostante le apparenze... e purché la nazione non lo sappia) (The Senator Likes Women) 1972, and his last leading role for Fulci] is the Toothpaste King. Despite being tremendously wealthy, the envy of town and married to beautiful wife, Mariú [Sylva Koscina], Costante is somewhat unhappy in his life as it is. His superstition has him convinced that he’s plagued with bad luck and watches carefully for all omens of evil forces. After insulting an old aunt at, a very gothic, dinner, Constanta takes off for a business trip to Romania.

In Romania, he goes to visit Count Dragulescu [John Steiner who’d starred in films for Fulci previously, and would go on to act in many classic genre pieces from here on] for a grand feast. After a series of comedic encounters and misunderstandings, Costante is binging champagne and making out with luscious women… only to wake up in the bed of Dragulescu. Upon his return to Italy, Costante is a changed man in more than one way. Convinced that night in the Romanian Count’s bed has turned him into a homosexual vampire, Constanta starts a transformative soul search that will take him on an unforgettable journey.

Getting into an Italian comedy from the seventies isn’t really as difficult as one would think. Fulci’s comedies are seldom straight forward slapstick routines, but more on the satirical side. Young Dracula goes for the jugular; the jokes sometimes racial, crude and chauvinistic, sometimes classic situation gags still do the job. Perhaps not as much tongue in cheek as something like The Senator Likes Women, Young Dracula has its moments where I almost feel as if Fulci is parodying the erotic comedy genre too. A specific scene where Costante confronts Mariú in the bath, should have been an obvious place for a saucy shot of nudity, instead Fulci uses it to present a gag about Costante‘s lust for blood. It’s also a vital scene for the shock ending that Fulci has prepared.

The main question is obviously does it work? Well yeah sure it works. It may not have the same natural appeal as the horror pieces do, but at the same time it’s a movie that mocks the genre and specifically the vampire niche. It does deliver quite a lot of laughs, there’s some nudity, and Buzzanca delivers a solid performance once again despite sporting a terrible Harry Reems moustache. I only mention that, as Christa Linder who’s to be seen in the movie would star against Reems the following year in his last adult film, Mac Ahlberg’s Bel Ami 1976. Young Dracula also features a tiny, but early appearance by very young Ilona Staller long before the days of being an Italian politician...

There’s no doubt about it, this is very much a Fulci movie. It’s riddled with typical Fulci surrealism. There’s a creepy atmosphere pre-dating David Lynch whilst an odd opera is held in a dining room at the hotel in Romania. A serious injury at the factory is shown in its gory glory. Costante has weird and frightening, but at the same time erotic nightmares. A slaughtered horses head is graphically on display, there’s an ungodly warlock [Ciccio Ingrassia] who holds an séance and one woman slits her wrist with a straight razor to feed Costante the blood of the proletariat. So yeah, this is Fulci-land indeed.

There’s a wonderful confusion to be found in Lando’s Costante character arc, on several occasions I find myself thinking of Robert Bierman’s Vampire’s Kiss 1988 and Margheritti/Morrissey’s Blood for Dracula 1974, the year before Young Dracula, which also is an alternative title to the Udo Kier, Joe Dallasandro vehicle. It’s a decent character arc that he has through the movie. After all he goes from superstitious, frustrated man to calm and relaxed, with a few bumps along the way.

Every approach to his wife, she’s got some excuse to avoid being intimate. This obviously results in a couple of skits and laughs in the early half of the flick when establishing Costante's sexual frustration of never being allowed to get cosy. Lines like “Don’t mess my make up, don’t tear my dress, don’t mess my hair… then you complain that a man picks up a hooker once in a while…” establish a clear image of this love sick man longing for some closeness. Although he’d probably never approach a whore, it’s still this yearning that makes him fall for the Vampires

erotic seduction later in Eastern Europe. Another important plot device presented in the first half is Costante's superstitious mind frame. He points out that he’s cursed with bad luck, freaks out when seeing a black cat cross the road, get’s hysterical when he accidently breaks a mirror in his wife’s room, and even tosses salt over the shoulder of the airplane pilots for good luck when he travels to Romania. Just like the sexual frustration, the superstitious side of Costante goes away with his transformation. Even the dog Gestapo that barks and snarls at him every time he arrives at his office block, runs and hides after Costante’s trip to Romania.

There’s a gay undercurrent to be found. At first Costante is avoidant of the male vampire in the castle despite several approaches, Costante backs away, almost repulsed. After almost fainting in the showers of his basketball team, he goes to a doctor pulling the old classic “ a friend of mine…” only to come up with the answer that he’s probably becoming a homosexual! When the doctor encourages Costante to go straight to his mistress to find out if a woman can still arouse him or if he actually was “deflowered” in Romania. But whilst chasing her across a field she trips and cuts her knee… Costante cant resist when being requested to sucking the bloody wound to save his mistress from blood poisoning, and in a metaphorical way, his vampire virginity is taken. Moments later she slaps him hard in the face because of the “love bites” on his neck. Despite the serious topic, Fulci quickly returns to the gags, after all this is a comedy.

The movie is high on production value and sees most of the familiar names that I associate with the really great Fulci movies. Frequent collaborator on early Fulci movies, editor Ornella Micheli is on-board, and does a wonderful job of it too. Sergio Salvati who shot almost all of the great classic Fulci movies brings a familiar look to the movie, and some scenes – even though being comedic – would easily fit into the horror canon.

The screenplay – written by amongst others Pupi Avati, Mario Amendola and Bruno Corbucci does what it should, there are some genuine laughs in there, and Fulci obviously brought his surreal grotesque to the table considering certain moments of the movie mentioned above.

But why is this a lost movie, still only available on shoddy bootlegs sourced from that even rarer Greek VHS? It’s odd, as Young Dracula easy could compete with the other comedies released so far. Perhaps the movie was forgotten by time, as Fulci himself never really appreciated the movie. A shame as it’s certainly got a lot going for it, and a restored version should be of interest for fans. Considering that I maniaci 1964, The Senator Likes Women 1972, La Pretora 1976, all received this treatment – not to mention those titles released in Italy - there’s no reason why Young Dracula shouldn’t. I’m keeping my fingers crossed because this one is an entertaining, and interesting movie considering that this is the Fulci comedies that plays closest to the sphere we all associate his name with - the horror genre.

Polish up on your Italian and enjoy, this would never have happened in the days of VHS.

1990: The Bronx Warriors

1990: The Bronx Warriors
Original Title: 1990: I guerrieri del Bronx
Directed by: Enzo G. Castellari
Italy, 1982
Sci-Fi / Action
Distributed by: Shreik Show

How damned fantastic is this movie? In my sincerest opinion Enzo G. Castellari’s 1990: The Bronx Warriors is one of the absolute best of the Italian sci-fi / post apocalypse flicks ever, and to top it all off - those opening titles are easily among the best opening titles ever. Simple, effective and fucking brilliant.

Castellari is a marvellous director who’s primarily associated with fast paced movies that stay safe in the “real world”, movies like The Inglorious Bastards (Quel maledetto treno blindato) 1978, Keoma 1976, The Last Shark (L’ultimo squalo) 1981, The Bronx Warriors suite 1982-1983, and the many great Poliziotteschi like The Big Racket (Il grande racket) 1976 and Street Law (Il cittadino si ribella) 1974.

Castellari – or Enzo Girolami which his birth names states and why you see that G. in his name – was more or less born into a career in the movie industry. His father Marino Girolami was a director too, responsible for almost a hundred movies where stuff like Violent Rome (Roma violenta) 1975, A Special Cop in Action (Italia a mano armata) 1976 and the classic Zombie Holocaust 1980 can be found. Marino Girolami’s brother, Enzo’s uncle, is Romolo Guerreri, director of films like Johnny Yuma 1966 and The Sweet Body of Deborah (Il dolce corpo di Deborah) 1968. So it’s no surprise that Enzo got himself into the game too. Working his way through a diverse positions – script supervisor, second assistant, editor, actor (he still frequents his own and others movies – more recently Q.T.’s Castellari inspired Inglorious Basterds 2009) and finally the logic step up to directing his own first feature, the spaghetti western Any Gun Can Play (Vado l’ammazzo e tornoro) 1967. The movie was a hit and secured Castellari’s future as he directed several more Spaghetti Westerns before moving into the World War 2 and Poliziotteschi flicks.

The movie that Castellari perhaps is most known for is the 1981 action/thriller The Last Shark, a movie that was seen by Universal – who produced Stephen Spielberg’s original Jaws 1975 and sequel Jaws 2 1978 – as being a bit too close to their movie, and taking a way too much money that close to their own Jaws 3-D 1983 opening (a complete piece of garbage compared to L’ultimo squalo). So they sued, and had the movie taken out of distribution. Castellari’s movie may have been taken off the screens, but it secured a place in cult cinema history for all eternity.

Luckily Castellari has stayed away from the blood drenched euro horror genre – apart from the Italian/Spanish co-production Sensitività (The House by the Edge of the Lake) 1979. The movie made no major impression and as not being a big fan of horror Castellari rejected the offer to direct the next horror film that Fabrizio De Angelis offered to him. Instead Castellari suggested that De Angelis take it to fellow director and friend Lucio Fulci, and the rest is Italian cult movie history. The movie was of course the majestic Zombi 2, one of Fulci’s greatest pieces of his second comeback as a director.

But today we take a look at the absolute best of the many Italian futuristic sci-fi movies that came in the wake of Walter Hill’s The Warriors 1979, George Miller's Mad Max 1979 and John Carpenter’s Escape from New York 1981 – Enzo G. Castellari’s phenomenal 1990: The Bronx Warriors.

In a nutshell 1990: The Bronx Warriors is about a young woman Ann (Stefania Girolami Goodwin – Enzo’s daughter, billed here as Stefania Girolami) who goes missing in, or runs away too, the Bronx – now a no-man’s-land where law enforcement has given up. Instead, gangs who are in constant conflict with each other for neighbourhood domination roam the area. Ann is at first taken by the Zombies, but pretty soon The Riders – who act as some sort of vigilante law keepers in the area – show up and after beating the crap out of the roller-skating Zombie gang member, Riders leader Trash (Mark Gregory) takes her with them. Due to a murder of one of the Riders gang members there’s tension between them and rival gang The Tigers – headed by The Ogre (Fred Williamson in his second of three movies for Castellari). The Tigers have found a tracking device – which obviously belongs o Ann, as they still don’t know that she’s the daughter of the President of the Manhattan Cooperation – but the Tigers suspect that the Riders gang member they wasted was a spy for the cops and this obviously causes a hardened tension between the two gangs. Trash members want to retaliate and avenge Chris’ murder, but Trash opts for a more restrained approach that has his second in command Ice (John Sinclair as John Loffredo) question his leadership.

At this point the executives at Manhattan Cooperation decide to send in Hammer [Vic Morrow] an infamous hit man, to track down Ann at any cost. But Hammer is a cynical cold bastard and he sees a perfect opportunity to start a war between the rival gangs and have them kill off each other once and for all. Hammer sneaks into The Riders hideout and after killing two of their number plants a Tigers ring – tension is wound up to a maximum and gang war is at bay. After a brief romantic moment on the beach, Ann is once again kidnapped by the Zombies and Trash left humiliated, he again opts for a more tactic solution where he suggests to take help of their old rival The Tigers in rescuing Ann. Trash has a hunch that something’s not right and the diplomatic tactic separates him and second in command Ice even further. Trash and a few men, venture through several rival gangs territory including a tap dancing one and the dwellers – seemingly post atomic blast underground beings - to have a meet Ogre and discuss a plan of how to free Ann, and at the same time sort out the concerns he has about the recent happenings.

As Ogre and Trash, assisted by the deadly but charming, Witch [Betty Dessy in her only role], set about to free Ann from Golan’s Zombies [George Eastman], Hammer stays close, provoking things even further, and luring Ice to betray Trash and the Riders loyalty to each other. Now Trash doesn’t only have rival gangs to look out for but also has traitor lurking in his gang.

Still following his sinister agenda to agitate the gangs into a full-fledged war, Hammer wallows in his successful tension between the gangs and having them set against each other, one small step from total gang war. But that’s not enough and finally in one last move to rescue Ann, he brings in the big guns for Operation Burned Earth which orders “ No Evidence, witnesses or other beings left alive” and the movie comes blasting at full speed into the burning climax that still has a few surprise shocks up it’s sleeve.

Starting off with those fabulous opening titles, the movie quickly sets up the obligatory New York location shot as Ann runs across the bridge. Cut to the interior of an office where the Vice president (Enzo himself) and Sam Fisher (his brother Ennio Girolami) of The Manhattan Cooperation are informed of Ann’s absence and start discussing how to act. So far only Castellari and two of his family members have been shown on screen, and finally there’s the text card to explain the current situation in the Bronx. It quickly sets up the plot and gives us a rough idea of the world the movie will be like. Hard, raw and ruthless.

Just watching those opening titles it’s easily understood that this movie is going to be something else. Ok cast wise the choice of seventeen year old Mark Gregory always surprises me, a guy that Castellari found at the gym where he used to work out (and still does), but he’s a well buffed guy and pulls the part as - hard ass biker boss, but still able to show a soft side - Trash like a charm. Gregory, went on to star in the sequel Bronx Warriors 2 (Fuga dal Bronx) 1983 and followed that with a string of Rambo-esque like characters in the Fabrizio De Angelis Thunder trilogy, Fernando Baldi’s Just a Damned Hunter (Un maladetta soldato) 1988, and after leading Pierluigi Ciriaci’s Afghanistan the Last War Bus (L’ultimo bus di Guerra) 1989 he vanished off the face of the earth and never made another movie.

Apart from the wild card Gregory, Castellari’s daughter Stefania Girolami Goodwin plays the second lead. Stefania had starred in several movies previous to 1990: The Bronx Warriors for her father, although this was her largest part in a movie to date, and later followed in her fathers footsteps and became a director herself. Now with the two leads out of the way, just take a look at that supporting cast! Fred Williams as Ogre, Christopher Connelly as Hot Dog, Vic Morrow as Hammer, in his second last performance – as you know he died in that terrible accident on the set of his next movie Twilight Zone: The Movie 1983, Enzo in his customary bit part, his brother Ennio, and Joshua Sinclair as Trash second man Ice, and the always-fantastica George Eastman as Golan. It almost plays like a who’s who of eighties action flicks. And with that said one can’t overlook the guys of Rock Stuntman Team (who did those unbelievable stunts in Ruggero Deodato's The Atlantis Interceptors 1983) once again pull off some great stuff and star as gang members side by side with real New York Bikers. Oh yeah I almost forgot, Bobby “Demoni 1+2” Rhodes is seen briefly in the flick, and he even get’s billing in the title sequence.

The masterful Sergio Salvati’s cinematography is outstanding, and his compositions here are only possibly challenged by the splendid work on Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2. Then I get all giddy again when Gianfranco Amicucci’s name comes up, because I know that this guy edits the beat to perfection, like he did on so many previous Castellari flicks, and 1990: The Bronx Warriors is a really tight and brilliantly edited piece.

Needless to say the knowledge of Dardano Sacchetti and wife Elisa Briganti behind the script (along with Enzo) also adds to the overall affection I have for this piece. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there are very few movies that don’t work with a script by Sacchetti, and he will always be among the greatest screenwriters of all time in my book. Stick his name on any old tripe and I’ll watch it, and I’ll enjoy it because I know it’ Sacchetti!

And being a Sacchetti/Briganti (with Enzo) script I start to see stuff that I don’t find in other scripts/movies. There’s a great little Romeo & Juliet / Stockholm Syndrome thing going on between Ann and Trash which I like, it’s adds to the movie and validates his reason for not simply bursting down the door of his rivals and simply taking them out. There’s a value at stake, and that always set’s up a great narrative. Then again the movie also reads as a critique to large organisations, and with that said, the downbeat ending – sure Trash makes it out, but to what price? – The ruthless cooperation are left standing with their pants down when Hammer pushes his personal mission – exterminate them all – to the top of the list passing the “rescue the princess” plot.

I also feel a strong Spaghetti Western vibe in 1990: The Bronx Warriors, as I feel that it deals with similar themes that have occurred in Spaghetti Westerns. The corruption, the one man vigilante, enemies forming temporary alliances - joining forces against a common foe – and the whole damned show going up in flames. I can’t say that it is a futuristic Spaghetti Western, but there’s definitely that kind of vibe to it, and several of the other Sci-Fi/Post Apocalypse films too.

Finally, and I know that I usually end up leaving the score to the last part, but there’s a reason for that. I frequently find that as I write, and if it’s a score I like through the movie, I listen to the soundtrack as I write, because those tracks may be great on their own, but with the images of the movie fresh at mind they are terrific. Such is also the case with Walter Rizzati’s brilliant score to 1990: The Bronx Warriors, it’s a great piece that uses a wide range of styles to bring depth to the movie. The funky beats to set pace and forward movement, the almost Wagner-ish piece that accompanies the funeral of the Riders gang members and that great progressive rock thumping and heavy bass jive makes an eminent soundtrack that conjures up those great images over and over again.

I love this movie, and each time I revisit it I get worked up like a kid about to get a bag of sweets as that unbelievably cool title sequence rolls by. The movie works for me every time, I never get bored, and I just get drawn in and enjoy the ride. Because it is a heck of a ride without any slack or slow sequences at all, and I do feel that it’s by far the best and most stylish of all the post apocalypse – biker gang movies of this time period. That’s off to the great Enzo G. Castellari who once again proves why we still talk about his movies and so many others have disappeared into the realms of the forgotten.

Image:

2.35:1 Widescreen

Audio:

Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0, English dub dialogue.

Extras:

There’s an interview with Fred Williamson, one with Enzo G. Castellari, trailers, a photo gallery and a very entertaining commentary track with Castellari.

And here's that splendid opening sequence with footage shot by Castellari himself, and Walter Rizzati's great score in all it's glory.

The Psychic

The Psychic
Original title: Sette notte in nero
Aka: Murder to the tune of Seven Black Notes, Seven Notes in Black
Directed by: Lucio Fulci
Giallo / Thriller / Horror, 97 Min.
Italy, 1977
Distributed by: Severin Films.

Story:
A woman suffers visions where she sees death and murder. She teams up with her friend in an attempt to solve the cryptic images she saw in her vision. Images that quite soon start finding their way into her current life, and her investigations turn into a matter of life and death as she starts to realize that the visions may not be of a past event, but of her impending future!

Me:
Good old Lucio Fulci, [Bio here] he really polarizes his audience doesn’t he. And it’s a strange fan base Mr. Fulci has because the impression I get is that the majority of them build their admiration for him off those few gore fests that he directed in the early eighties; Zombi2 1979, City of the Living Dead 1980, The Beyond 1981, House by the Cemetery 1981 and New York Ripper 1982, Yeah you know them don’t you... All great movies in their own, but sadly each a lesser movie than the previous one, that’s without getting into some of the really poor stuff he directed in the late eighties. But to say the least, his movies do have an aura and atmosphere that not that many other directors managed to conjure up in their movies, and that is possibly what makes him such a favorite among the European genre directors.

Towards the end of his life, in 1991, he made an impressive return to the genre with the gore fest Nightmare Concert, in my opinion Fulci’s comment on his celluloid heritage, the criticism towards him, in some way his own version of Fellini’ s 8½. The aging director summing up his art and crafts, which in some poetic way justifies the recycling of all that footage from some of those lesser movies in the swansong Nightmare Concert. Then there was Demonia, also in 1991, which showed a return to the good old mystique and atmosphere that made him so popular, still not a great movie, but definitely an improvement. Finally there was that almost “super group” project that never got made with Fulci onboard (not counting co-screenwriting credits), Dario Argento producing, Sergio Stivaletti responsible for the special effects and Lucio Fulci returning to the directorial chair; Gaston Leroux’s The Wax Mask. One can only imagine how that movie would have turned out; it could have become the last great movie of the dying genre or the crap-fest that it eventually became when it went into production after Fulci’s death.

I like Fulci, I like the constant rumors that he was a pain in the butt to work with, the accusations the he hated his actors and crews, that he only made movies to for money, etc; it’s all the stuff that creates legends. Contradictory to those rumors, more and more people only have affectionate and respectful things to say about him on the many featurette's that can be found on the masse of DVD releases of is movies, perhaps once and for all proving that he was a great guy, but perhaps once and for all proves my theory that he merely cursed to walk the path of horror gore-meister churning out atmospheric splatter fests until the end of time... And I really do like Fulci’s movies, even the really bad ones, there’s definitely worse stuff that came out during that golden period, and in many way’s I feel that his did his best even though he was struggle ling to stay productive in a genre that he probably wasn’t entirely satisfied working in. In later years, I have found myself growing tired of gory effects, gimmickry and shallow plots, perhaps due to seeing that classic suite so many times, I find myself going back to the older stuff, the comedies and the Spaghetti Westerns, the Dramas and definitely the Gialli / Poliziotteschi stuff before the gates of hell spewed out all those iconic zombies and ghouls. There is some splendid stuff back there, like the fantastic One on Top of the Other 1969, The Psychic 1977, the Gialli, Don’t Torture a Duckling 1972, and my personal favorite A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin 1971.

The Psychic, revolves around Virginia Ducci, [Jennifer O’Neil from Visconti’s The Innocent and Cronenberg’s Scanners] a woman scarred by the psychic abilities she found out she had when she saw as a child saw her mother throw herself off the cliffs of Dover in her first vision. But that was many years ago, and now Virginia has made the best of life having just started a serious relationship with wealthy playboy Emilio Rospini [Gabriele Ferzetti who played the Railroad Baron in Sergio Leone’s Once upon a Time in the West]. On her way from dropping him off at the airport where his private jet takes him on a business trip she starts having a series of disturbing visions of death and murder, strange people and secret tombs in walls. She visits her parapsychologist friend Luca [Marc Porel who also played against O’Neil in Visconti’s The Innocent] who starts helping her figure out what she may have seen. She goes to her boyfriends’ summer residence with the intentions of redecorating it, and suddenly has the shocking insight that this is the location she saw in her vision, and there is a corpse behind the wall.

This is what initiates Virginia’s investigations into the events that lead up to her boyfriends’ previous lover, a photo model, being murdered and plastered behind a wall in his summer house. The plot twists and turns as her boyfriend is put in jail suspected for murder, and eventually released as Virginia and Luca’s investigations prove that he couldn’t have conducted the killing. But then fragments of the vision start reoccurring in current time and just like Luca suspected all along, the visions where not of the past, but of the future!

The Psychic is really quite a decent movie; it’s full of traditional Giallo mystery solving, has some great plot twists and uses some magnificent devices on its way. The cinematography is excellent and shot by Fulci regular Sergio Salvati, who once again shows that he's a master of his craft. The script by Dardano Sacchetti is major league and possibly one of the finest that Fulci had to work with. Supposedly the script came about after Fulci and co-writer Roberto Gianvitti had been struggling for a year to write a story about a character with a psychic ability based on a book that Fulci was fascinated by. But Fulci was so determined that if you where psychic and knew your future nothing could change that. So a year later when Sacchetti was connected to the project he made a bet with Fulci that he could write a script where a foreseen future could be altered. Hence the ingenious musical watch that Jennifer O’Neil receives in the movie. And what a brilliant plot device that is! Sure it was a common device in early Spaghetti Westerns, but to item to change a foreseen future and save someone’s life is a stunning twist to the movie. But at the same time there is no outspoken salvation here, because the movie ends just as the chimes are acknowledged, and we never really know if Virginia is saved, or if Emilio gets away with his fiendish plan. Wonderful stuff and a highly recommended movie that proves Fulci’s skills outside the splatter and gore department.

I can’t really let go of the “bad Rep” Fulci used to have, and still does in some circuits, and considering that he often used the same people on his productions, editor Vincenzo Tomassi edited fifteen of Fulci’s flicks, Sergio Salvati shot some ten movies for Fulci and Sacchetti co-wrote more than eight films with Fulci, I think that we can come to the conclusion that he was a decent guy and people obviously liked and respected him or else they wouldn’t have worked on so many movies with him would they?

Although if I where to point out one thing that kept annoying me as I watched it would have to be all the ridiculous clarifications to what we are seeing. I feel that it’s somewhat underestimates it’s viewer on many occasions, I mean fans of Gialli have often seen more than one, and someone who was to start exploring that fantastic genre wouldn’t start with Lucio Fulci’s The Psychic, they would start with the textbook examples of Dario Argento or Mario Bava. The constant zooming in on O’Neil’s face or the object in front of her every time she realizes that she’s just seen a fragment of her vision in reality is ludicrous. We know that the indicating item or person was in her vision, or at least after the tenth time we saw it should know, and this kept disturbing me throughout the movie. The constant flash backs to further support that the thing/person is completely unnecessary, and we don’t need it in a Giallo. Remember Dario Argento’s masterpiece Profondo Rosso 1975? That mirror reflection that’s in the early part of the movie and returns but a few times to keep it alive? Just imagine if David Hemmings had flashbacks and the camera zoomed in on that area of the room each and every time he tried to figure out what he saw! Well that would have destroyed that movie, because half of the effect is that when you go back you see what he saw in the final reel! Brilliant. So If one where to remove these element from the The Psychic and only use them when it’s really necessary, like towards the end where her Luca presents his theory that the visions are not showing her the past, but the future, then BLAM, stick those images in there and create an effect instead of just wearing down my patience instead. Sure constant zooming into facial reactions is just as much a Fulci trademark as spooky atmospheres, but still it rattled me the wrong way unfortunately.

Last but definitely not least, the soundtrack! What an amazing soundtrack The Psychic has. Fulci had worked with the group Bixio-Frizzi-Tempera [Franco Bixio, Fabio Frizzi and Vince Tempera] earlier on his Spaghetti Western Four of the Apocalypse 1975, and later on Silver Saddle 1978, another Western that Fulci directed after The Psychic, but the score they composed for The Psychic is without a doubt on of their finest. Building off the chimes of that ingenious plot device, the musical watch that O’Neil has, the score just builds into such a terrifying and at the same time beautiful climax that it definitely outshines much of their later work. The track was later rediscovered by Quentin Tarantino, who used the track Seven Notes in Black in Kill Bill Vol.1. But in all honesty it is a brilliant piece of music still very enjoyable still today.

Frizzi later scored most of the classic Fulci horrors [Zombi2, The Smuggler, City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, Manhattan Baby and Nightmare City] and Tempera wrote the scores for the TV horrors Sweet House of Horror and The House of Clocks both 1989.

Image:
Widescreen 1.85:1 [16x9]

Audio:
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono English dialogue, no subtitles available.

Extras:
There’s almost no Lucio Fulci title on DVD with some self-respect that doesn’t have a lengthy featurette that in one way or another discusses Fulci and the movie in question. This time Severin have put together a little it they call Voices from the Dark, a great piece that consists of phone interviews with co-writer Dardano Sacchetti (although he claims that the script was all his and Fulci only commented from a directors view not story wise), Costume director Massimo Lentini, and assistant editor Bruno Micheli. (The Psychic was edited by Ornella Micheli a female editor who edited some of the most famous pieces of Italian genre cinema!) The addition of Bruno Micheli makes it all worth the while, as it’s rare, or never to my knowledge that an editor of an old piece of genre cinema gets to talk about his part in the process, and he gives some valuable input on how disciplined Fulci really was during the shooting of a movie and the amount of takes and scenes the editor had to work with. If only Fulci had been alive to add his comments to the process, this could have been a fantastic extra as there’s a saying in the industry that you make three movies, the one you write, the one you direct and the one you edit. Just imagine those three valuable commentaries on a movie like this! It would be a movie geek’s wet dream. At least it would be mine.

The US Trailer:


And that fantastic score: