De Keuze van Koolhoven: Lucio Fulci Night

Horror maestro Lucio Fulci for his part regarded his films as visual poetry: “when you cross boundaries, the outcome is poetry'. The boundaries are definitely crossed beyond belief in Zombie Flesh Eaters, be it in a rather prosaic way. A zombie taking a bite out of a shark after having grappled with a topless diver at any rate makes for some top-notch horror cinema.

eye and wood splinter

The plot, which sees a woman (Mia Farrow”s sister Tisa) and a reporter (Ian McCulloch) stranded in the middle of a zombie epidemic on an island in the Caribbean, is not exactly the film”s main attraction. The showstoppers conjured up by Fulci with virtuoso coolness, however, can justly be called classic. In addition to the previously mentioned encounter with the shark, there”s also a deliciously distasteful scene featuring an eye and a wood splinter.

shameless sales gimmick

The original Italian title of Zombie Flesh Eaters was Zombi 2. The figure suggested the film was a sequel to the vastly popular Dawn of the Dead (1979) by the American filmmaker George Romero, which had been released in Italy as Zombi. A shameles sales gimmick, although nobody would probably go as far as to say that Fulci's rip-off is only a poor imitation of Romero”s gory masterpiece. What is more, DOP Sergio Salvati – who learned the trade on the set of such films as Sergio Leone”s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – occasionally provided the film with an unexpectedly dreamy, if not to say poetic, atmosphere.

Fulci for Fake

Also screening is Fulci for Fake (Simone Scafidi, 2019), the first biopic on Lucio Fulci, including some previously unreleased footage. Lucio Fulci acquired a vastly enigmatic status because the legendary horror director rarely spoke about himself during interviews. Myth has always won from reality: Fulci wasn”t beyond embellishing his biography, creating a life and an oeuvre full of contradictions. He did, however, reflect something of himself in all his films, which form a mosaic of everything he struggled with in his life.

Both films are introduced by Martin Koolhoven, who will be larding his story with suitable trailers and film clips.