As Stephen Thrower points out in his informative "Beyond Terror", TOUCH OF DEATH is the only Fulci film written entirely by the man himself, without the aid of other screenwriters. The result is far from perfect but certainly more character-focused than usual for "Godfather of Gore",notorious for his listless main heroes.
Budget limitations have forced Fulci to adopt minimalist style here, which suits the material rather well.
TOUCH OF DEATH was produced by Lugi Nannerini and Antonino Lucidi, responsible for the string of extremely cheap and dismal "Lucio Fulci presents" cash-in films. It's only logical to draw the comparison between TOUCH OF DEATH and those productions. Despite similarly tight budget which only allows for a handful of locations, Fulci manages to pull off some rather complex shots, showing himself to be in a class above the likes of Andrea Bianchi or Giovanni Simonelli as a director. One or two scenes are genuinely effective, like when Brett Halsey breaks into the house at the stables, accompanied by hysterical horse racing commentary on the radio.
Now to the minus sides: Brett Halsey.
This man obviously doesn't take the material all that seriously.
His performance is just a tired pantomime at times.
Halsey went on to appear in Fulci's troubled would-be comeback DEMONIA (1990)
Al Cliver gives the best performance in the film as the cynical crook Randy.
His last screen credit today is also in DEMONIA. Hopefully we'll see more of Cliver in the near future.
Overall, I've grown to enjoy TOUCH OF DEATH on repeat viewings. It's really not a first-rate Fulci, but in some ways it is quite original.
Lots of reviewers claim that this film's original ratio was fullscreen, since it was a made-for-TV film. The existing DVD's from Shriek Show and EC would seem to prove that.
Both were made from a BETA master(same one?). However, TOUCH OF DEATH was released letterboxed on VHS in France under the title Soupçons de mort. That was not a cropped fullscreen release and had a lot more information on the sides . So somewhere in the world there has to be original widescreen elements that need unearthing.
Quando Alice ruppe lo specchio(Italy, 1988)
Written and directed by Lucio Fulci
Starring Brett Halsey, Zora Kerova, Sacha Maria Darwin.
Ah a bit of defence from a film that is difficult to defend- and I pretty much agree with what you say here, the cheap feel really works with this one- feels like a fly on the wall look at the life of a serial killer. so a made for tv feel i suppose enhances that in the age of shows like "big brother"
ReplyDeleteThere is a scene early on with a chainsaw I think is absolutely incredible and still think thats one of the great moments of gore cinema. Effective film but the mysoginist comedy is a little unsettling - not a film I can watch over and over but it gets on the player from time to time
i like this movie-the gory bits together with other "dismal" lucio fulci presents titles (which i actually like except "Hensel and gretel!")can be enjoyed again in his self-reflective "Nightmare concert"...by the way perhaps you remember me-we had contact first tru cinema nocturna forum and then myspace..before you kinda "dissapeared"..as far as i remember you sent me also some of the "Independent" stuff you are involved...
ReplyDelete-mario-
God yeah - that corpse dismemberment is just ace. There's something personal in TOUCH OF DEATH which makes it more valuable than a lot of other projects Mr. Fulci slapped his name on around the time. If it skipped some of the sicker jokes, TOUCH OF DEATH would have a bigger audience, for sure. But it's good enough as it is for me - a rare gory Fulci film that's not been discussed to death at genre forums yet.
ReplyDeleteOh my god, Mario!
ReplyDeleteHello - long time no see!
Of course how could I forget you:)
We had some rather intelligent discussions back in the day.
I actually added you recently on Myspace through my "NAKED TRIP" profile.
Real nice to hear from you, old friend - please come by again! We should not lose touch this time!
This is one of the Fulci movies that I haven't seen. I made an attempt to watch all of his readily-available movies and review them last year on my old blog, but I ended up stopping after I saw "Murder Rock". What a piece of shit that was. Actually I gave "House of Clocks" a shot after that, but couldn't get passed the first ten minutes.
ReplyDeleteheh-yea it wasnt exactly "yesterday"..but i remember we had a mutual admiration for the sleazier giallos... and for cinzia monreale in frankenstein 2000 :-)) (a film that by the way was shot in austria-so here "on the corner"!
ReplyDeletestrangely even in buio omega: i could notice a car with a viennese(!) license-plate...
anyway i agree we should not lose touch this time :-)
I liked the basis idea and the black humor of this film, but you can see that it's only another italian trashous horror with "red tomatoed blood", mannequins, absurd dialogues etc.
ReplyDeleteFulci sure does love his mannequins.
ReplyDelete@ Aaron - well I could write a few paragraphs in defence of MURDEROCK, but I won't because upon my inital viewing I too considered it utter shit. But something caused me to revisit it(I'm a hardened trashfilmaddict). I think you would find some redeeming Values in TOUCH... - it's one of the more enjoyable late Fulcis', with VOICES FROM BEYOND.
ReplyDelete@Riccardo: well yes it is trash, but that "Fulci touch" makes it something special for me. I'd like to make a similar dark and minimalist film one day,too.
@ Mario: yeah, we both love stuff like GIALLO A VENEZIA and DELIRIO CALDO.As you can see here, my tastes haven't shifted far - still the same:) Please drop me a line at alexander_bakshaev "at" yahoo "dot" co "dot" uk, so I know how to reach you in case we lose sight of each other for 2-3 years, like the last time :)
I have to agree with you guy,. Touch is a complex movie, I wan't to like it because of some great stuff in there, and at the same time I'm alienated by some of the bad stuff in there. Halsey definitely being on of them. But considering where Fulci had been previously and with the knowledge that he wasn't considered a "real director" in Italy, he still made the most of it all. During the nineties, if you met Italians outside of Italy they always knew of Argento, but almost never of Fulci. And in all honesty and no matter how much we love Fulci's stuff, some of the later stuff is really really poor. I somehow think that's why he summed it all up with the "greatest hits" package Cat in the Brain. And YEAH THAT CHAINSAW SCENE IS FUCKING AWESOME!
ReplyDeleteBy the way on Throwers books, there's a couple of cover art images in there that I made back in the day. :)
You should do a write-up on Murder Rock in the future. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on it. I just thought it had the potential to be so much more... as a Giallo it felt like a complete and utter failure to me. Maybe you could open my eyes to a few things about it that will help me the next time I watch it. I did think the women in the film were gorgeous though!
ReplyDelete@ CiNEZILLA:
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Fulci wasn't enjoying any popularity in his home country towards the end of his life, which is sad.
Beyond Terror is full of great visual materials, Which artwork did you do?
@ Aaron:
Yeah, I'll definitely write something on Murderock. One of the best things about it is Cosimo Cinieri in the lead role.
I just realised something about Fulci and the script for Touch... I need to re-watch it and check some theories out, and if it holds up I'll show you how that movie (along with CitB) are his most personal works.
ReplyDeleteIn the hardback edition: p241,+ p243Murder Secret - Really sloppy stuff because the guy I made them for wanted that "Asian/Middle East" feeling to the artwork. The stuff I made for Midnight Video in the states was a lot more artyfarty. :)
So, you've done a good deal of artwork huh?
ReplyDeleteNice to speak to someone involved with Fulci product:)