 |
| Shark vs. Zombie |
While fans may consider it disrespectful, Lucio Fulci is basically a poor man's Dario Argento. Fulci films are gorefests with poor budgets that tend to eschew the Troma-style glee, generally making them funnier albeit unintentionally. Fulci's first forays into film were comedies though, and they were quite successful in Italy. His onscreen antics were enough to have him hauled into court where he was forced to recreate special effects to prove that he was innocent of animal cruelty.
American distributors edited Fulci's films to avoid a dreaded X-rating though some were released as "Unrated." Three of his films were included on the UK's video nasty list. Fulci's movies are definitely grindhouse gorefests that often played at drive-ins. He later found lasting fame with the advent of home video.
Lucio Fulci has a large following of fans who appreciate his work and, to be sure, his is a name well-known for good reason. Fulci certainly knows how to heighten the tension to a nearly maddening level and the payoff in gore always delivers. The quality of the effects leaves a lot to be desired, making many of Fulci's kill-scenes anticlimactic.
Fulci also lacks Argento's sense of style, though he has some appreciation for color and certainly theatrics. Fulci's gore comes across as campy, perhaps intentionally so, while both directors are known to go for over-the-top gore. Lucio Fulci's life was marred by tragedy but his film endeavors spanned all genres. His movies are best remembered for their notoriety but his contributions to the Horror genre cannot be denied.
Copyright 2014, The Weirding
Splatterflicks are a particularly messy sub-genre of gore but the word is used interchangeably to refer to any gory horror movie. The real stars of these films are the SFX department. While many splatterflicks feature a seemingly inexhaustible string of Creative Kills, their primary focus is not just gore but blood - and buckets of it. George Romero, known for his standard-setting zombie films, is credited with having coined the term to describe his film, Dawn of the Dead.
Splatterflicks generally have their roots in the lush imagery of the Hammer Films movies of the 1970s. Most of these were period pieces involving Vampires and the Supernatural with high-end production values and sexy feature players in various states of undress. And lots of bright red blood. Dario Argento's films easily fit this sub-genre though they are considerably more sadistic than Hammer Films or even the average Slasher.
While certain similar sub-genres such as Torture Porn and "Gorno" are closely related to Splatter, the former tend to revel in the torment of their victims' suffering and brutality of the attackers. Splatterflicks focus on shock and sheer gore - to "go for the gross-out." as Stephen King once said. Yet the Grand Guignol of France was notorious for its graphic depictions of death and bloody violence and some of the very earliest films included scenes of great carnage, such as D.W. Griffith's Intolerance. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was relegated to this category on its release.
Copyright 2014, The Weirding
