Dario Argento's Fear Autobiography

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

I think you can find justifiable reasons why the other auteurs languished.

Romero was always hit and miss.

Carpenter did okay in the 90's. I think the Village of the Damned remake is okay.

Craven did amazingly well in the 90's. The 90's was very good to him. But he was inconsistent with his work.

Fulci's health was miserable at the time and the industry in Italy was collapsing.

Tobe Hooper was always a hack. I love TCM but that's really the only film of his you can point to and say it was genuinely good. TCM 2 is a fun sequel.

Argento fanboys just hand wave the criticism even though Argento was still working with relatively lavish budgets.

[Matt H. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Matt H.]

Craven did amazingly well in the 90's. The 90's was very good to him. But he was inconsistent with his work.

True he was successful, but, c'mon, VAMPIRE IN BROOKLYN? SCREAM 2? MUSIC OF THE HEART?! He sold out after NEW NIGHTMARE.

Fulci's health was miserable at the time and the industry in Italy was collapsing.

Fulci's decline started a lot earlier than Argento's, right around MURDEROCK. He was always more prolific than Argento, but you can't deny he made some downright embarrassing pictures after 1984.

Tobe Hooper was always a hack. I love TCM but that's really the only film of his you can point to and say it was genuinely good. TCM 2 is a fun sequel.

I disagree. I think both EATEN ALIVE and THE FUNHOUSE are superior to TCM. He didn't really start to lose it until after his three-picture deal with Cannon. Up to that point, he had a solid track record.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

Craven had the Scream trilogy (for better or worse), People Under the Stairs, New Nightmare, and Red Eye. That's far from a fall from grace. For every good film he made in the 80's there was at least one bad or mediocre or guilty pleasure in there.

I'm the first to say that Fulci's later output was shit. He knew it was shit and admitted it "Sometimes I have to make movies to eat!" He knew Zombi 3 was shit and took off. You're not going to find many defenders of the later period. Wax Mask is a great "what could have been great" kind of movie.

Eaten Alive is OKAY. Funhouse is OKAY. Great setting. Great Rob Bottein mask. That's about it. The Cannon movies, I don't think you'll be finding anyone defending Lifeforce as a masterpiece, bud. And TCM 2 is fun, like I said. He made some amusing B movie schlock here and there.

[Matt H. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Matt H.]

The Cannon movies, I don't think you'll be finding anyone defending Lifeforce as a masterpiece, bud. And TCM 2 is fun, like I said. He made some amusing B movie schlock here and there.

I never said it was a masterpiece, but it's far from the work of a "hack".

[Matt H. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Matt H.]

Craven had the Scream trilogy (for better or worse), People Under the Stairs, New Nightmare, and Red Eye. That's far from a fall from grace. For every good film he made in the 80's there was at least one bad or mediocre or guilty pleasure in there.

It's nice to see you mention RED EYE; it's one of Craven's most overlooked films.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

Argento fanboys just hand wave the criticism even though Argento was still working with relatively lavish budgets.

He was one of the very few that could still get good budgets going into the 90's for theatrical films because he was an established name that was still a box office draw.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

He was one of the very few that could still get good budgets going into the 90's for theatrical films because he was an established name that was still a box office draw.

And his brother and before that his father were his producer so he didn't have to deal with producer interference.