"And you will face the sea of darkness, and all therein that may be explored. "

A couple weeks back, i painted an illustration for Lucio Fulci's "Zombie", an incredibly violent horror film that was Italy's answer to "Dawn of the Dead". While i love that film, my favourite film by the director, Lucio Fulci, is "The Beyond".

Part of the three films that make up Lucio Fulci's "Gates to Hell" trilogy*, "The Beyond" focuses on a woman who inherits a hotel built on one of the seven cursed gateways to hell. Pandemonium ensues, in the form of ghostly blind girls, flesh-eating spiders, acid baths, crucified painters and more horrible things happening to eyeballs than should ever be contained in one film.

This one, like a lot of Italian cinema of the time, is not really about plot, or even characters. It works hard to put together a compelling and unsettling mood through the use of incredibly gruesome set-pieces, and iconic imagery. The vision of hell that is showcased towards the end of the film, and the character of Emily with her stark white eyes are most notable in this department. The score is one of my favourites, though the same composers' score for "City of the Living Dead" might barely beat it in my books.

If you haven't watched many Lucio Fulci films, this is a great place to start.

Check out the trailer here!

* The other two films in the "Gates to Hell" trilogy being "City of the Living Dead", and "House by the Cemetery", another couple favourites.

"The darkest day of horror the world has ever known."

Sorry for the semi-late entry this week, the local print shop was closed early for Canada day. This week's entry is the third in a seminal horror trilogy, "Day of the Dead".



I chose the world's most sympathetic zombie, "Bub". In "Day of the Dead", the zombies have basically won. The last rag-tag group of surviving humans live in a bunker in Florida, arguing with each other and desperately trying to teach zombies not to eat us. Bub is the most successful example of training a dead person to not see human beings as food. He's able to recall some memories such as how to salute (he was in the army.), learning how to use a walkman, and mock-shaving with a razor.

Of course, this all proves to be for nothing when the facility is invaded by the living dead. "Day of the Dead" might be my favourite in the original trilogy of Romero zombie movies, but they're all pretty amazing. No Romero zombie movies exist after "Day of the Dead".

Click here to view the trailer!

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