are these fulci ficks any good?

[charles lee ray]

are these good movies. Demonia, New York Ripper, House of Clocks, and Aenigma. what do you think?

[Jason13thh]

I have only seen Ripper from him and it was average.
It does not belong to his best movies according to me.
The film is really graphic and sleazy but that's all, in term of directing, acting, photography it was really average.

[CamaroMatt1996]

'House Of Clocks' and 'New York Ripper' were pretty good. the others were pretty bad.

Word
Matt

[Jewbo]

demonia is really dull prob the least fave of fulci's films that i have seen tho it does have 1 very cool gore scene that i wont give away.
new york ripper is prety damn good. i really enjoyed it. also has some great fulci gore and an ok story.

[izombie]

Demonia - For me was rather boring, but it did have a few good gore scenes closer to the end.

House of Clocks - was not to bad, I believe it was actually mad for tv.

New York Ripper - I can remeber my neighbor and I renting this movie many moons ago, before I new who Fulci was, it was painfully obvious that it was foreign but the lure of sex and some extreme eyeball trauma more than made up for it when you are 12 years old.

I recently added the uncut version of it to my Fulci collection and with a recent viewing I'd have to say, it's not great but I have seen worse rent before you buy.

Aenigma - For me this was another average Fulci film, which actually reminded me of the movie Patrick. The only thing that sticks out in my mind the is ******* Mild Spoiler ******** Naked girl covered in snails

[ERIN_LoJ]

I havent' seen any Fulci so I am in the same boat you are. Someone's sending me one of his movies soon enough and I will break my Fulci-virginity then and put up a review

[izombie]

IMHO Fulci is an aquired taste so hopefully you will like it!

[Requiem-for-a-Dream]

Originally posted by charles lee ray
are these good movies. Demonia, New York Ripper, House of Clocks, and Aenigma. what do you think?

Demonia- 7/10

A typically gory Fulci flick with lots of religious overtones. Recommended if you're into his brand of brutal horror.

New York Ripper- 8/10

A totally sick and twisted ball breaker of a horror flick with tons of gore, nudity and sleaze.

Matt

[countchocula]

Rated on a scale from 0-5 Chocula’s...

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MINOR SPOILERS

Lucio Fulci had a penchant for putting excessive gore and unnerving imagery at the forefront of his fright flicks. The Beyond and The Gates of Hell, in particular, are characterized by their revolting death sequences and sordid visuals. That’s why we love Fulci! But could you fathom watching one of his genre films that focused more on subtleties and plot twists than grueling zombie action? The House of Clocks is such an effort. It was made for television in the late ‘80s for a series called Houses of Doom. While most of the bloodshed is restrained, it was still deemed too violent to be aired. Imagine that! They couldn’t honestly expect Fulci to completely abandon his tendency to paint the camera lens red, now could they? Now, this flick doesn’t even compare to Zombie or Gates in the gore department, but there were more intestines leaking out than I thought there would be. My bloodthirst was quenched, and then some.

But in a shocking twist of events, this film’s strongest asset isn’t its gore! Holy shit! Fulci actually crafted a coherent, engrossing story. A group of thieves are planning to rob an elderly couple’s mansion. It’s festooned in jewels, precious trinkets, and...clocks. A lot of clocks. The thieves break in, but they accidentally kill the elderly couple and their gardener in the process. These deaths freeze every clock in the house. Time stands still. Eventually, the clocks start back up, but now, they’re spinning backwards. They go tock-tick, if you will (I’m brimming with wit). The delinquents become trapped in the mansion. Not a shabby place to be holed up in, but they soon realize that they aren’t alone.

From the very moment that the pristine, enchanting score saturates your ears, your head clears up a little. By Fulci’s standards, this storyline is lightweight and easy to digest. It’s complex, but not in an overwhelming way. This is a thriller/horror/suspense piece, but you’ll notice a few morsels of black comedy as well. I chuckled at the elderly couple chatting with a couple of rotting cadavers. Also, the first death sequence is a laugh riot. Whether or not this was intentional, I’m not sure, but Fulci had to have realized how over-the-top it was. It comes out of nowhere, and is sure to leave you grinning with perverse pleasure.

The dubbing isn’t a detriment. It can be grating at times, but for the most part, you won’t really notice it. It does make it difficult to accurately gauge everyone’s acting skills, though. Karina Huff plays our heroine, Sandra. “Heroine” may not be the appropriate word here. These people are criminals, and they deserve whatever torment they receive. But you’re still able to sympathize with them to a degree. Kieth Van Hoven plays Sandra’s boyfriend, Tony. He’s moderately likeable, although I was never concerned with his fate. Peter Hintz plays the asshole of the bunch, Paul. He’s the least likeable lead, but he’s more developed than he could have been. The entire cast is more developed than they could have been. Maybe I’m just saying that because I didn’t think for a second that the characters would be any more believable than stop-motion effects.

On the downside, the pace is uneven. It will be swift for a sustained period of time, and then suddenly, the film’s pulse will come to a screeching halt. It frequently dodders on the edge of monotony, accelerating only to decelerate a few minutes later. At times, you just want to give up on it. The final frames are a tad embarrassing. The twist ending is clever, but that last jolt is unintentionally hilarious. And this time, I’m sure that the humor was unintentional. All I’ll say is that it reminded me of a certain SNL sketch. The cinematography has a bland made-for-TV vibe (inevitable, I suppose), but that doesn’t mean that Fulci’s direction has faltered. He delivers effective lighting, a thick, gloomy atmosphere, and an adept sense of tension. I dug the novel premise, and it has made me view another film under a different light. The People Under the Stairs has a few things in common with this flick. People break into a lavish, profligate house with the intent to steal, they get more than they bargained for, and an extended chase sequence ensues. Both films even feature hungry attack dogs. Coincidence? Hmm...

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MINOR SPOILERS

The New York Ripper finds Fulci in his element. He embraces unfettered exploitation with brash abandon, and while it seems that he only strives to please himself, he pacifies many a gorehound. The word “restraint” just isn’t in his vocabulary. Even in his less explicit films, he has to toss in at least one sequence of embroidered grue. This egalitarian mindset applies to sex and nudity as well. On a number of occasions, Ripper adjourns the storyline, taking a moment to indulge in some random act of wanton lust, whether it be a live sex show or foot fucking (don’t ask). These mindless detours disrupt plot progression, but they inflate the film’s seedy atmosphere. This is a good thing since horror freaks are more likely to buy Ripper for a potent dose of sleaze than lucid storytelling (I did at least).

Underneath the graphic eviscerations and the meandering sex scenes, you’ll find a crafty whodunit. Someone is dissecting beautiful women in New York City and placing threatening phone calls to the victims. The lingering, schizophrenic calls themselves brought Black Christmas to mind, only this killer waxes irrational in the voice of Donald Duck. The reasoning behind our psychopath’s vocal stylings is defective at best, and his/her ravings capsize the film’s ominous mood. Still, to hear frenzied quacking during a sadistic death sequence is quite the trip! The dubbing is on/off, but it’s not nearly as treacherous as you’d think. Considering the circumstances, it’s actually tolerable and doesn’t vandalize the dialogue. The film isn’t raped of what little substance it boasts.

On the acting front, my expectations were met. It goes without saying that I was expecting stifled performances that were just good enough. The roles are cushy, and anyone who isn’t mentally handicapped could play them. Jack Hedley is Lt. Fred Williams, the standard cop. I don’t think that we ever see him express any emotion. It’s not that Hedley is nondescript; the character is just remarkably dull. Lt. Williams walks around for 90 minutes, looks fatigued, and speaks as if he’s heavily medicated. Dr. Paul Davis isn’t quite as monotonous a character, although he’s staggeringly annoying. He’s restricted to making turgid, verbose observations and inaccurate theories in regards to the killer’s identity. He’s smug and pretentious, but he’s never actually right about anything until the truth is spelled out for him (I may have just described myself).

Almanta Suska is decent as Fay, Ripper’s reluctant heroine. She gives one of the few emotive performances here, but I wouldn’t necessarily call her sympathetic. No one is, but that’s no reason to cause an upheaval. The characters are secondary to their actions. Aside from a couple of rickety POV shots, Fulci’s direction is second to none. The lighting is strikingly vivid, and some of the kills channel Mario Bava’s eye for lurid, swanky imagery. Those who detest the film are quick to dub Fulci a misogynist. I didn’t know the guy, and he could have had an intense hatred for women, but to suggest that Ripper endorses or advocates violence against women is an insult not only to its director, but to the people who enjoyed it. I, for one, appreciated the film’s unapologetic nature and savored its impenitent grit. It’s realistic, and reality isn’t always palatable.

Admittedly, I put my credit on the line when referring to this mass execution as realistic. The gore is profuse, but the effects are rarely convincing. In fact, the infamous “nipple piercing” is downright laughable, and I’m not so sure that I should have been laughing at such a brutal deed. Being the horror geek that I am, I’m immune to crude prosthetics, but this was worse than what I’m usually presented with (even in the field of Italian genre fare). Nevertheless, I’m keen on smutty nonsense, and The New York Ripper falls under that category perfectly. The grime is poured on thick, the gore/sex/nudity quotient is high, the pace is sturdy, the whodunit kept me guessing, and for a Fulci endeavor, the narrative is coherent. In brief, if you’re well-versed in spaghetti horror, you should already know exactly what you’re getting when you pop this flick into your VCR/DVD player. This review is moot, unless you aren’t well-versed in spaghetti horror. In which case, I can’t help you; you must first acknowledge that you have a problem.

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[JurassicMik]

New York Ripper is pretty much a waste, I found it boring after a while. There's lots of violence and gore, but it's not the fun "Dead Alive" type of gore.

[ERIN_LoJ]

I should have mentioned the name before (slaps self). I believe it is House by the cemetary. Thanks for the other reviews also -- shows which movies I need to be checking out in my ever-growing list of must watch horror films