Fulci does giallo—badly!

BA_Harrison

I've tried to like cult director Lucio Fulci's films, I really have. I've seen his 80s gore 'classics' (House By The Cemetery, The Beyond, Zombi 2, City of the Living Dead, The New York Ripper), his later splatter films (Cat In The Brain, Touch of Death) and his one brief foray into crime thriller territory (Contraband); none of them have really impressed me. Now I'm giving his giallos a go; they're supposed to be good, aren't they?

Lizard in a Woman's Skin is a trippy hippy early-70s thriller which sees a woman accused of murdering her promiscuous neighbour. In typical giallo fashion, nothing is quite as it seems, until the final scene when the truth is divulged. Once again I believe that I am destined never to be a Fulci fan, finding the film rather dull and extremely dated.

With only a couple of murders, which take place off-screen. and plenty of scenes depicting boring police procedure, Lizard in a Woman's Skin is yet another disappointment from the Italian 'godfather of gore'.

In true Fulci fashion, the film manages to shock (most notably with a scene featuring several dissected, but still living, dogs; with their bloody organs and guts on display, these whining canines are very effective and are the highlight of the film), but it also bores.

And even when Fulci manages to occasionally impress, his hard work is blown with some truly awful moments. For example, during a chase scene in which a woman is pursued through a church by a knife wielding maniac, the tension so carefully built up by the director is quickly dissipated when the woman reveals her momentary hiding place—by resting on a switch which activates a huge church organ. And not much later she gives herself away again by screaming at the body of a dead bat. Duh!

I'm going to give Lucio one last chance at impressing me with Don't torture A Duckling, another of his giallos. I'm not expecting it to be great though!

score 4/10

BA_Harrison 12 April 2007

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1636094/