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How did you get into Italian Horror

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  • How did you get into Italian Horror

    I remember back when I was twelve (and this was back in 1999) when I was looking on the internet for horror sites and movies and shit. I started watching horror movies when I was six and by the age of twelve I had seen Return of the Living Dead trilogy and Romero's Dead trilogy and Peter Jackson's Dead/Alive. I was mostly into Zombie and Slasher films around this time. So, I stumbled across a review of Fulci's Zombie and it sounded awesome. So I went to the local Video King near me that had a copy but it mysteriously vanished. It's a weird thing that I noticed where I would look up a movie on the internet and I'd go to Video King to rent a copy and the tape would disappear either before I rented it or shortly rented it. And I don't mean disappear in that someone had already rented it, I mean it was gone, off the shelf completely. This happened with Zombie, I Spit on Your Grave, Silent Night Deadly Night part 1, Cannibal! The Musical, Orgazmo (The Trey Parker comedy), and Demons and Beyond the Door 1 and 2 (AKA Mario Bava's Shock) I managed to rent and then the tapes just disappeared.

    I have a theory that maybe there was another kid in town discovering these movies and stole these tapes and/or made boots of them and somehow fucked up the tape. Either that or a gremlin was working against me.

    A little later I discovered that Anchor Bay had released Zombie on VHS. I remember being a little confused that it was an Italian movie and I thought maybe it was in Italian with English subtitles. But I thought that the movie sounded so awesome I didn't care about subtitles and just wanted to watch it. So on my birthday I got $20 and I was driven to the mall and went to the FYE and lo and behold Fulci's Zombie was there. Bought the tape and went back home and probably watched it twice in a row. I had seen gory flicks before but there was something to the gore of Fulci's film that made it stand out. It became my favorite zombie movie and it still is. This memory just came back to me but I remember taking the tape to school with me. Why I can't remember but I just kept idolizing the cover and reading the brief synopsis on the back.

    I was very saddened when I realized that Fulci had passed a few years prior and wanted to see more movies by him. So I started looking up Fulci and came across The Beyond. The Beyond sounded even more amazing than Zombie and I had joined a horror message board at the time and asked if there was a way I could buy a copy. This is a ways before the Grindhouse DVD. So a dude who I haven't been in contact with for a while PM'd me and said he could send me a tape of the movie for free. My parents were worried and thought maybe potential pedo right there so I was forced to give the guy a P.O. Box instead and a while later I got the tape and had my mind melted.

    And that was my gateway movie, because of The Beyond and Zombie I had gotten into Italian Horror and I wanted to see more and discovered European cinema, Art house films, experimental films, etc. Without Fulci I would never had known Werner Herzog and would have regarded Kubrick as just the director of The Shining. And because Fulci name dropped the playwright/poet/artist/madman Artaud in an interview, I became interested in him and read The Theater and It's Double. And it just spiraled form there and completely independent of school work I started reading poetry and philosophy and all that.

    An Italian gore film altered the course of my life.
    "Ah! By god's balls what licentiousness!"

    Marquis de Sade, The 120 Days of Sodom.

  • #2
    I'd guess the germ of it was the UK VHS releases of Fulci's zombie films - particularly THE BEYOND - and others such as NIGHTS OF TERROR, CONTAMINATION, Mario Bava's SHOCK and THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (in the early 1980s) when I was about 5 or 6. My grandfather was a horror film fan and owned the tapes, and I used to watch them at my grandparents' house. All of this was consolidated a number of years later, when I was a teenager, by the BBC's screening of Bava's cut of LISA AND THE DEVIL, the Moviedrome screening of THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH, ITV's series of European films called 'Le Continental' and then a few years after that by Redemption and the 'reborn' Vipco's slew of VHS releases of Italian (and other European) horror films on VHS.

    So I suppose you'd say they've been a part of my life for as far back as my memory stretches.
    Paul L
    Scholar of Sleaze
    Last edited by Paul L; 09-14-2015, 01:48 AM.
    'You know, I'd almost forgotten what your eyes looked like. Still the same. Pissholes in the snow'

    http://www.paul-a-j-lewis.com (my photography website)
    'All explaining in movies can be thrown out, I think': Elmore Leonard

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    • #3
      For me it was Fulci's Zombie or Argento's Suspiria. And it wasn't even all that long ago, when the Anchor Bay DVDs came out. Maybe 12 years ago? And with all the Italian films ive watched since none really come close to these masterpieces.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Paul L View Post
        I'd guess the germ of it was the UK VHS releases of Fulci's zombie films - particularly THE BEYOND - and others such as NIGHTS OF TERROR, CONTAMINATION, Mario Bava's SHOCK and THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (in the early 1980s) when I was about 5 or 6. My grandfather was a horror film fan and owned the tapes, and I used to watch them at my grandparents' house. All of this was consolidated a number of years later, when I was a teenager, by the BBC's screening of Bava's cut of LISA AND THE DEVIL, the Moviedrome screening of THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH, ITV's series of European films called 'Le Continental' and then a few years after that by Redemption and the 'reborn' Vipco's slew of VHS releases of Italian (and other European) horror films on VHS.

        So I suppose you'd say they've been a part of my life for as far back as my memory stretches.
        Its funny, I used to watch Moviedrome, but I don't recall seeing those films being shown. Other than that Italian horror was pretty much banned in Uk or cut to the extent of not worth watching. At least until the DVD era.

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        • #5
          Mostly by its hype. Magazine articles and people "in the know" mentioning the titles all the time. So when I found any of em, like the NY Ripper or Suspiria or whichever, I rented them on cut to shit VHS releases, and liked them while feeling that I needed to see more, and uncut versions. So I began a quest of sorts. Collecting slowly. Liking some, disliking some. Then as time moved on and internet shopping opened its doors, I begun hunting for em on DVD. Simple as that really.
          "No presh from the Dresh!"

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Bogart View Post
            Its funny, I used to watch Moviedrome, but I don't recall seeing those films being shown. Other than that Italian horror was pretty much banned in Uk or cut to the extent of not worth watching. At least until the DVD era.
            LONG HAIR OF DEATH was shown as part of the first or second series of Moviedrome, as I recall, in 1988. As a matter of fact, the intro is up on Youtube:



            LISA AND THE DEVIL was shown about a year later, I think, on a Saturday night. I remember watching it on a black-and-white portable television set, and for a number of years - till the Redemption tape was released - I thought it was a monochrome film

            I guess I was lucky inasmuch as my family had a good stock of pre-VRA tapes of the 'big' Italian horror titles (the zombie films, mostly), and of those we didn't own at home (eg, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST), I could usually find a copy at a friend's house or acquire a bootleg copy at my local comic book shop. I remember a friend going to America on his holidays and coming back with a copy of Argento's OPERA - which was cut, but it's still a fond memory regardless of that.
            'You know, I'd almost forgotten what your eyes looked like. Still the same. Pissholes in the snow'

            http://www.paul-a-j-lewis.com (my photography website)
            'All explaining in movies can be thrown out, I think': Elmore Leonard

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            • #7
              I discovered Italian horror by watching Fulci and Argento. About 15 years ago, I saw "Zombie 2", "Inferno", "Phenomena" and "The Beyond" on Belgian TV. There was one commercial station that asked Jan Verheyen, a Belgian director, to curate their Friday evening. He always focused on unknown/weird/horror films.

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              • #8
                Rented Fulci's CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD one day when there was nothing else in the rental store..was heavily into Asian movies by then....and the movie had such a weird vibe that I immediately set out to watch all Fulcis movies...and followed them up with anyyhing else Italian that was available back then...

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                • #9
                  For me it was seeing a couple of the wilder zombie films when they played in theaters - BURIAL GROUND and DR. BUTCHER, M.D. (aka ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST) - and realizing immediately that these films were completely different in style and tone from something like Romero's zombie films. It was love at first sight for sure. Fangoria was the first magazine that I saw that gave lots of coverage to these types of films, though I had seen the occasional mention of Italian films in Famous Monsters. The VHS explosion certainly helped me track down many more of them - I made a point of hunting down and renting REVENGE OF THE DEAD (aka ZEDER) and all of Fulci's stuff - though I don't believe THE BEYOND was among those back then I never saw that one on the shelves, even under the SEVEN DOORS OF DEATH title.

                  The very first Italian horror film I ever saw though would probably be ATOM AGE VAMPIRE, which played on a local horror host show (Thriller) on several occasions. That one made a big impression as well, though this would have been in the mid-1970s when I was 10 or 11 and not really aware that I was seeing something from Italy.
                  I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons.

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                  • #10
                    I vaguely remember renting New York Ripper on VHS from a Video Library when I was 12-13. I didn't know that was Italian though, a few years later around the late 90's I find a website called houseofhorrors.com and they're praising Fulci, Zombie, The Beyond, etc. So I call my local Suncoast and get a VHS of Zombie, then the Beyond, Gates of Hell, then I found Argento, and it just never stopped.
                    EuroCultAV Reviews

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                    • #11
                      Oh my. Right after the dinosaurs died and the earth cooled I caught a little flick called CASTLE OF BLOOD on tv (1968 or 1969). Just loved it but had no idea it was Italian (I was 9 or 10 at the time). Early 70's brought tv viewings of films like ATOM AGE VAMPIRE and BLACK SABBATH.

                      When I got my drivers license it opened up a whole new world of film experiences (namely the drive in).It was there that I saw films like TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE, DEEP RED ,TORSO and much later ZOMBIE.

                      In the 80's vhs rentals opened up even more avenues with the above films and other delights like GATES OF HELL, HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, BURIAL GROUND etc.
                      "The popcorn you're eating has been pissed in. Film at 11".

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                      • #12
                        In high school a friend of mine called me and said 'you need to come over tomorrow and check out this movie I rented called Suspiria.' So I did. It was unlike anything I'd seen, which was mostly zombie movies and slasher movies or Hammer/AIP/Universal stuff - and it kind of blew my mind. After that I decided to try and see other movies from this Argento guy, and from there it was down the rabbit hole in a big way.

                        When Zombie came out on DVD for the first time and I watched it then? I realized I'd seen it before when I was probably 13 or 14, but I didn't know at that time that it was an Italian movie or what a Fulci was. So I'd say Zombie was probably how I got into Italian horror without realizing it, while Suspiria was a more concious introduction, if that makes sense.
                        Rock! Shock! Pop!

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                        • #13
                          For me, it was seeing Wizard's beautiful VHS packaging of Fulci's ZOMBIE on a video store shelf that started me down the wormhole.

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                          • #14
                            Seven years old, circa 1967, & seeing TERROR IN THE CRYPT on a local station running the AIP TV Sci Fi 65 package of films. Very vivid memories of this and it freaked me out. BLACK SABBATH was also part of this package ( along with EVIL EYE ) and got frequent airplay. Somehow I never saw BLACK SUNDAY until much later. So the seed was planted early but full blown mania did not ensue until the VHS bootleg era kicked into high gear in the late 80's-early 90's ( sinister cinema, something weird, european trash cinema & video search of miami ).
                            https://rosalbaneri.blogspot.com/

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                            • #15
                              I remember the box for ZOMBIE being in every mom & pop video store I went to as a kid, as well as a Blockbuster or two over the year. But I'd say DEMONS was my first intro and the game-changer for me. Probably would've been junior high age (12, 13 I'd think?). The real intro I suppose was all because of Fangoria, always talking about Argento's SUSPIRIA and DEEP RED, which came next. The vhs box art for DARIO ARGENTO'S WORLD OF HORROR was also terrifying to me as a little kid, but also very intriguing. I still have my first vhs of SUSPIRIA from Kino Lorber. I'm sure I ended up seeing plenty of Euro horror as a kid and not really knowing it too - my mom would watch Svengoolie and rented plenty of horror movies (and let me watch with her).
                              bgart13
                              Senior Member
                              Last edited by bgart13; 09-14-2015, 01:50 PM.

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