Friday, October 2, 2015

31 Days of Horror: Days 1 & 2

It's the most wonderful time of the year. It's October. And as per tradition, I watch horror movies all month long leading up to the ghastly holiday.



DAY ONE


This is classic grindhouse folks. And what more appropriate video company to release I Drink Your Blood than Grindhouse Releasing. 

The plot: a kid decides to infect a town by injecting rabies into cookies. There is copious amounts of gore and nudity here as one would expect from these types of flicks. It's one of the few films at the time to reach Herschell Gordon Lewis levels of goriness. 

Is it quality? Far from it. But then again, you don't go into a McDonald's expecting expensive cuisine. Look out for the PT Anderson version of this film I Drink Your Milkshake. 

DAY TWO

Italian cinema has two sides to it. The light side- Fellini, Rossellini, De Sica, Antonioni, Risi. And a twisted, grotesque dark side- Argento, Fulci, Soavi, Martino, Deodato. Today we're gonna discuss Fulci. 

Before his much grislier later work that earned him the moniker "the godfather of gore", Lucio Fulci was known for being a premier genre director that tackles everything from westerns to giallo and he was doing it since the late 50's. Duckling happens to fall into the latter category. 

Giallos are murder mysteries that were mastered by Fulci and Argento. What Duckling does so well is how it lures the viewer in using its multiple protagonists and suspects. Italian horror movies always have great soundtracks and Riz Ortolani's work here backs this up. 


2 comments:

  1. I've seen Don't Torture A Duckling and enjoyed it. The mystery keeps you guessing to the end. I agree it's not as gory as Fulci's later zombie films. There are a bunch of giallo gems from Italy. Can see you are already familiar with the directors.

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  2. These sound like a blast.

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