city of the living dead [1980]

the high temperature today was 77 F.  pretty warm for this time of year.  not all that unusual.  we average a few spring-like days in february.  but the temperature set a record.  warm sunny day.  lovely warm blue night.  when the weather turns from grey mist to gold warmth i think of movies.  really bad movies.  and this flick, directed by lucio fulci, suits me just fine.

i don't know what the hell the plot is about.  something like the suicide of a priest opens the gates of hell in a small new england town.  it is up to a pair to try to close the gates before it is too late.  but you don't watch a fulci flick for narrative cogency or decent acting.  you watch because fulci achieves a dream-like state, a cheap surrealism, that delights the eye and ear and tells the mind to go fuck itself.

for this movie fulci worked with his best crew, screenwriter dardano sacchetti, fx genius gino de rossi, and cinematographer sergio salvati.  it doesn't get much better than that for large-sized servings of spaghetti splatter.

what more?  fulci lifted the idea for this story from h.p. lovecraft.  the pic starts christopher george and catriona maccoll.  the grue is awesome.  the photography is spooky.  and fulci's direction is, um, an acquired taste.  fulci's films of this period are similar i think to joseph cornell's boxes.  a shitload of detritus arranged in beauty.  may not be your kind of thing but if you watch and make it to the end of this pic you will have endured much pain and a great beauty.