Cult Movie Challenge 2018 | 7/52 | Lucio Fulci
On a beach, in a shimmering vapor, Ilias receives his chestplate. His father blesses him and gives him the bow of Cronos before Ilias takes a boat and goes into the “very dark and evil domain.”
In a haze of smoke, hairy tribal people look on as a horde of dog monsters stands on the horizon. Their leader, Ocron, stands nude except for a mask, chanting as though summoning the sun. The people offer Ocron a meager amount of meat. Lest you forget, this is Fulci, a dog monster axes a dude in the head, and his scalp just flies off, blood shooting everywhere. Then they take a woman from the village and rip her into pieces to serve Ocron. Ocron cracks the woman’s head open like a coconut and eats the brains.
I think Ocron fucks a snake? She receives a vision of Ilias, without a face, pulling back his bow and shooting her with a blue arrow of light. So, she sends her creatures to find this guy. They witness Ilias shoot a snake in the head to save a tribal woman. The men try to chase down Ilias and capture him, but are stopped by an outlaw named Mace, who swings bone nunchaku at them.
Ilias and Mace team up to rid the land of evil, get laid, and stuff.
Is this movie Fulci’s homage to Bava? I may like this more than most sword & sorcery movies, but I’m still not a super fan of the genre. It’s nonsense, but it’s entertaining nonsense.
I recommend being high! If you think you’re missing the plot, don’t worry, there isn’t any!
Stray Thoughts
- The film has scenes where the shot is crossfaded with a background shot, giving everything a haziness. There’s smoke, gauze, light refractions — everything they can do to obscure the image and make it look, I don’t know, ethereal?
- Claudio Simonetti’s bringing that 80s Italian shimmer with his score, and it enhances the movie so much.
- I love the subtitle’s choices for what constitutes “romantic” or “cheery” music.
- The furry monsters look like Party City Chewbacca costumes.
- I’m glad zombies could make a cameo from every other Fulci movie.
- The shredded condom mummies were something else.
- The cinematography is quite well done in places. Alejandro Ulloa knows how to make this cheap as hell movie feel a little less cheap.
- This movie is one of two that Letterboxd put in the “Gory, Naked, Sexy” nanogenre. The other film is Tintorea: Killer Shark.
- Oh, hell yeah, heroic dolphins.
- Ilias nearly dies so many times. Thank god he found Mace or he’d be fucked a million times over.
- The blacklight cave where everyone glows blue like Dr. Manhattan. Maybe the darkest scene of any movie ever. Like, the lighting, not the content.
- I love how Zora just sighs and peaces out.