Don't Torture A Duckling

Lucio Fulci.

Ah, the great ring that name has to it. Everybody say it with me, Lucio Fulci. It just rolls off the tongue.

I first saw a Fulci flick when I was a kid. I rented "Zombie" after having seen "Dawn Of The Dead" for the millionth time and deciding I had to have more zombie's in my life. I watched it, had no idea that the film was made by somebody who was respected as he was. At that time in my life I had no idea that the Director is the star in the Horror genre.

My first impression was that it was o.k. I didn't really like the setting. I enjoy the Urban Zombie. But as time passed I came to learn about Fulci. I also came to realize the man had a brilliant eye and could create atmosphere like nobody else. The scripts always kind of sucked, but the movies could still scare with the look. Fulci had great ideas for movies, but the scripts just didn't match the ideas. I dreamed of how great it would be if the man could put all of the pieces together.

Thanks to Anchor Bay, I now know.

"Don't Torture A Duckling" is a true masterpiece. Every aspect of this movie works in an almost magical way. The look. The acting. The FX. The script.

Here is the story. In a small village three young boys turn up dead, murdered. Why? That is one of the questions. Who did it is the other. As we start to go on in the investigation, people are questioned. The village believes they know who did the killings. A gang mentality steps in and things happen that should not. The ending is one of those surprise ending type of things. Even though you have your suspicions for about 15 minutes before the ending happens, Fulci distorts what is going on just enough so that it throws you off quite well.

With this film Fulci is very successful in bringing all of the needed things together. The camera works wonders in this movie. At times it is standard Fulci (close-ups of eyes are everywhere), and at other times it takes on a look of a much different director. The opening with the boys in the church looks nothing like Fulci.

The actors (even though it is dubbed) are much better than what is to follow in later films. They seem much more natural than anybody in any of his other films. I just watched "New York Ripper" a few days before and it is amazing to think that this is the same director, aside from the whole "duck" thing in both films.

The FX are the same ones that he would use later on in films. You can't criticise the man for the using these FX here since this came first. But it does have the chain whipping that we would later see in "The Beyond" and the fall from the cliff with the face smashing we would see in "The Psychic". Both of these work just as well (or poorly, depending on how you feel about that face into the rocks thing).

I had never seen this movie and I enjoyed it very much. As a whole this is by far Fulci's best film. Every aspect works. I am a huge Fulci fan, so much so that I enjoy his work over Argento's. I will probably buy every Fulci DVD, but I will not buy every Argento. I would not say this is my favorite of his though, that still probably gets to be a toss up between "Zombie" and "The Beyond", but this is the most all around successsful. If that makes any sense.

Though Anchor Bay is doing a wonderful job bringing these films to Fulci fans, we still are getting screwed. The Argento films are getting little fancy bells and whistles. The Fulci ones get trailers and the same damn Fulci bio slapped onto them all. To me it is a bit of an insult that this movie even comes with an Argento quote on the front. Why, I'm not to sure. It just seems a bit like Fulci is stuck in Argento's shadow.

So all in all, buy this DVD for the amazing film that is on it. The picture is great and the sound (though in mono) is clear and works just perfect. This is one of those you buy only because the movie is great. In other words, act like your are buying a video.

To give this marks I go with ****1/2. That is all for the movie, nothing for the extra's.