I LOVE Zombie II. It's one of my absolute favorite movies of all time and my hands-down favorite Fulci film.
I actually started a thread about it a while back (the digression of the thread amuses me so much that I am reposting):
http://horror.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33180
We went from Zombie II to genetic shark hybrids. Fortunato and I are going to take over the world with our zombie sharks. Either that or get horribly disfigured.
...
I have also seen
Don't Torture a Duckling,
House by the Cemetery, and
Lizard in Women's Skin and I have to say none of them come close to the brilliance that I thought he showed in
Zombie II. I thought that Duckling was boring (Fortunato, don't kill me!), House was good, but the zombie looked silly.
Lizard in Women's Skin had some brilliant direction, though and I was riveted throughout the whole film.
I think that Bub hit the nail on the head:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bub the Zombie
To me, Fulci as a filmmaker held a lot of potential. His early gialli, Una Lucertola con la Pelle di Donna (A Lizard in a Woman's Skin) and Non si Sevizia un Paperino (Don't Torture The Duckling) showed intelligence, eyes for details and a swarthy outlook for the plots he constructed.
Even when he achieved much critical and popular success for Zombi 2, E tu Vivrai nel Terrore - L'aldila (The Beyond) and Lo Squartatore di New York (The New York Ripper), his vapid sense of adding sensationalism to gore affected his genius in film-making. He was great at utilising a film budget, and often got the best out of the meagre resources at hand, but overall, Fulci remains a pale shadow of a brilliant self - much like Dr Freudstein of his trademark film, Quella villa accanto al cimitero (The House by the Cemetery). He will always be remembered as someone who delivered much lesser than what he had potential for.
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