Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered- Volume 1

Note: Paura hits the streets the same day as His Name Was Jason, the retrospective on Friday the 13th! Horror fans should pick up both, and rejoice at such a boon!

Before the advent of DVD technology, we used to know a director solely through his work. Even with the addition of audio commentaries and interviews and the odd True Hollywood Story, his catalogue is usually our most direct source to the mind and soul of the man who created it. For Mike Baronas, knowing Lucio Fulci beyond the films became a cause. His quest to know the real Fulci led to Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered, Volume 1, a massive collection of interviews with a four hour running time. The disc works as a labor of love, as Baronas was clearly passionate, and dedicated many years to giving an inside view to Fulci for fans who shared his passion. As the director has a rabid following here in the States, Fulci fanatics should eat this disc up.

Before it reaches the menu screen, Paura plays some suspenseful music over distorted pictures of Fulci. That the pictures are not clear is telling; because Paura presents a Lucio Fulci who is remembered in ways that are often contradictory to each other, sometimes within the same interview. Fulci comes across as a complicated man, at odds within himself and the rest of the world, and yet not without instances of kindness and love. If Baronas had been looking for answers in these interviews, he seems to have drawn new questions. This is a boon, as it makes the series of recollections a genuinely interesting look into a man I'm not sure anybody truly knew.

The menu breaks the interviews into three categories: the cleverly titled Victims and Accomplices cover Fulci's actors and crew, respectively. Peers is exactly what it suggests, recollections from Fulci's fellow Italian directors. For each section, there's a Play All option, or you can watch each interview separately. Preceding each interview is a list of credits for the interview subject, as well as a series of pictures. Be forewarned: if you don't speak fluent Italian, be prepared read a lot, as there are a lot of subtitles.

The disc's best quality is its breadth of the interviews. Baronas took the time to speak to nearly 90 people involved with Fulci, collecting stories from all points and genres of the director's long career. With the notable exception of Ian McCulloch, star of Zombie, Baronas managed to hunt down just about every living person who had any importance in a Fulci film. The interviews with Fulci's contemporaries, many of whom were his friends, add some weight by providing an outside perspective. The sheer quantity of all the subjects allows for many different perspectives, and multitudes of anecdotes that address both the director's personal and professional sides. Some of the interviews are more lively than others, but that's to be expected, and really doesn't matter because if you don't like an interview or two, there are upwards of 80 others. Ultimately, Fulci lovers will rejoice as so many stars and colleagues share a wide range of stories.

With this impressive breadth, however, comes a sacrifice in depth. Some of the interviews run upwards of five or six minutes, but most of them are much more abbreviated. Most disappointing was that Catriona MacColl only had time to relate two brief anecdotes; having starred as the lead in Fulci's beloved zombie trilogy, she must have scores of interesting stories to share. Understandably, even at a length of four hours, Paura could only sustain so much content. I just wish I had more out of some of the participants. (One odd note: no less than three of the women interviewed are interrupted by their dog. An interesting curiosity.)

Taken as a whole, the interviews paint a contrary picture of an extremely complicated man. Special effects makeup artist Carlos Rambaldi presents him as extremely happy and kind to all, whereas Beatrice Ring of Zombie 3 describes him as a sadist who tortured his crew and actors. The same man who graciously gave producer Fabrizio De Angelis a painting for helping him obtain a house also slapped an eight year old Luca Ventanini for calling "Cut" when he got confused by a change on the set. Actress Cinzia Monreale fondly recounts how he used to call her a "bitch." The gestalt of Fulci's life displays him as a man with marital problems, and later health problems, as he dealt with diabetes in his physical decline. Some of the subjects use these as excuses for his behavior, while others give him no quarter. Most enjoyable is how many subjects say harsh things about him, but with a smile; clearly they loved him despite his seemingly large flaws. While it's easy to pass off Rambaldi's praise as kind words for a friend who's no longer with us, doing so would discount the inevitable conclusion: Fulci was not easy to understand.

Much of the talk also focuses on Fulci's work. Many of those who worked on his crew discuss his technical genius, which should be obvious to even the most casual observer of his catalogue. Fulci understood how the camera produced mood, and used visuals to create an atmosphere of dread in his best works (and even in some of his worst). Many of his shot compositions are brilliant. So it's no surprise that numerous participants refer to him as the "maestro."

Surprising, then, is how many participants mention that Fulci is largely forgotten in Italy. Given his popularity among American horror fans, many of whom revere him with godlike stature, I was stunned to discover that he has no such following in his own country. Yes, the wave of spaghetti horror coming out of Italy ended long ago, but I have a feeling the country still remembers Argento and Mario Bava. Sadly, Fulci's legacy has been cast aside, just another enigma presented in Paura.

Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered, Volume 1 seeks to show its audience who and what Lucio Fulci really was. In doing so, it reveals a man who was fully unknown by all who met him, and in the end, unknowable. Fulci remains a mystery, which makes this collection of interviews all the more intriguing than had it provided all the answers.

--Phil Fasso