saw a man walking ahead of me whose legs were reflected
vanni Masini; EP: Renato Jaboni (in the U.S.:
on the floor. I had the impression that he could have sunk,
Robert Warner); UM: Gianfranco Coduti; PSe:
like in a pool. That he could move and swim. So, I
Franco Galizi; PSeA: Alfredo Fornacini. Coun-
imagined strange pools with men immersed in that sort
of water parquet, who moved and played and sometimes
try: Italy. Filmed on location in Savannah
even stopped to converse with other men who were outside
(Georgia), New York City and at De Paolis
of the pavement pool.” The representation of enigmatic
In.Ci.R. Studios (Rome). Running time: 93 min-
characters immersed in water is a theme that was dear to
utes (m. 2497). Visa n. 7480 (8.7.980); Rating:
the Surrealist artist and one that he would come back to
repeatedly during his career.
V.M.8. Release dates: 8..980 (Italy), 9..980
8. Mark [Thompson] Ashworth, “Ombre,” Delirium
(West Germany), 2.0.980 (France), .2.980
#3, 99, p. 37.
(Spain), .7.982 (UK), 4.8.983 (USA). Distri-
9. Lou Castel, interviewed by Pierpaolo De Sanctis.
bution: Medusa Distribuzione. Domestic gross:
De Sanctis is the author of an excellent documentary on
98,238,798 lire. Also known as: Frayeurs
the actor, A pugni chiusi (206).
10. L.A. [Leonardo Autera], “Mansarda popolata di
(France), Miedo en la ciudad de los muertos
ombre,” Corriere della Sera, June 29, 980.
vivientes (Spain), Ein Zombie hing am Glock-
1980: Paura
43
enseil; Ein Toter hing am Glockenseil; Eine
Leiche hing am Glockenseil (West Germany).
In the small town of Dunwich, Reverend
William Thomas commits suicide by hanging
himself from a tree in the local cemetery. Mean-
while, during a séance in New York, a psychic
named Mary Woodhouse has a vision of Thomas’s
suicide and of its terrifying consequences. Then
Mary falls apparently dead, and the police au-
thorize the burial. But the woman is still alive,
and it is only for the providential intervention of
a journalist, Peter Bell, who heard her scream in
the coffin, that she escapes a horrible end. In Dun-
wich the dead come out of their graves and kill
the inhabitants. Mary realizes that her vision pre-
dicts the events described in the book of Enoch,
and the suicide of Father Thomas marks the be-
ginning of the invasion of the Earth by the dead.
The prophecy will come true on the night of Hal-
lowmas. She and Peter leave for Dunwich, where
they meet a young psychoanalyst, Gerry. Together,
they set out to find Father Thomas’s grave and de-
stroy it, which is the only way to stop the dead.
They penetrate the cemetery crypt, but find them-
selves in a dungeon populated with living corpses…
The commercial success of his first horror
film, Zombi 2—a project he had been entrusted
with after Enzo G. Castellari had backed out,
which grossed over a billion and a half lire at the
Italian box- office—revived Lucio Fulci’s career
and injected him with much- needed enthusiasm
Italian locandina for Paura nella città dei morti
after the difficult phase of the late 970s, char-
viventi (1980), Lucio Fulci’s first Gothic film of
acterized by professional and personal issues.
the 1980s.
The director was determined to seize the mo-
ment, sticking to the horror genre, and soon he
cept the risk. Horror had never been (and would
started working on a new script with Dardano
never be) a genre much loved by Italian produc-
Sacchetti. “After Zombi 2 turned out a big box-
ers. Eventually Fulci managed to convince his
office hit, Fulci called me and said, ‘A Sacché,
friend Renato Jaboni of Medusa Distribuzione,
you’ll see, they’ll stand in line at our door… !’
who accepted rather reluctantly and got on
But for six months nothing happened, and
board Luciano Martino and Mino Loy’s com-
we had our story ready in the drawer,” the
pany Dania and National Cinematografica (with
scriptwriter recalled. If Zombi 2, a script Fulci
a 40 percent and 2 percent quote, respectively).
hadn’t anything to do with, tried to insert some
The project was greenlit while Fulci was
elements of the Gothic tradition into the story—
still shooting his grim action movie Luca il con-
most notably, the ghost ship entering New York
trabbandiere (980), and he went to work on the
city à la Nosferatu, and the character of the mad
film—tentatively titled La paura—right away,
doctor played by Richard Johnson—the new
leaving his a.d. Roberto Giandalia in Naples to
story would delve deep into the genre.
put the finishing touches to Luca il contrab-
Involving a producer was not an easy task.
bandiere.2 The tentative cast—which featured
Fulci didn’t want to work with Zombi 2’s Fabrizio
Tisa Farrow as Mary, Fiamma Maglione as San-
De Angelis, whom he called “The Cobra” (in the
dra, Monica Scattini as Rose, Aldo Barberito as
meantime, De Angelis was busy concocting an-
Father Thomas and Robert Kerman as Ross—
other zombie movie, Zombi Holocaust, directed
was mostly dropped in favor of more commer-
by Marino Girolami), but nobody wanted to ac-
cially palatable names, such as the American
44 1980: Paura Christopher George and the French Janet Agren.
The movie was eventually released in Au-
George’s performance as the nosy cigar- chomping
gust 980 as Paura nella città dei morti viventi
reporter Peter Bell had the acid- tongued director
to cash in on the zombie cycle. Yet, even though
nickname him “the dog with the cigar” on set,3
it dealt again with zombies, the story moved in
and the relationship between the two was always
quite a different direction from other films of
turbulent during filming. Giovanni Lombardo
the period, such as Zombi Holocaust and Bruno
Radice was cast at the expense of Michele Soavi
Mattei and Claudio Fragasso’s Virus. Girolami’s
as Bob, a role he was initially supposed to play
film—released in the States in 983 in a re- edited
with a fake hump. Soavi, who hanged around on
version as Doctor Butcher, M.D., with additional
the set, in production designer Massimo An-
footage from an unfinished anthology film titled
tonello Geleng’s words, as “half-actor, half-
Tales to Rip Your Heart Out—was a slapdash
under assistant,”4 was finally cast as Tommy. The
reread of Zombi 2, with added elements from
female lead was a 26-year-old British actress,
the controversial cannibal subgenre, proving the
Catriona MacColl, a former dancer who had had
makers’ attempt to have it both ways. On its part,
her first important role in Jacques Demy’s film
Virus (known overseas as Hell of the Living
version of Lady Oscar (979); she would become
Dead) kept pedantically close to the Romero
Fulci’s own version of Hitchcock’s trademark
blueprint, to the point of featuring a quartet of
“blonde in peril” character for this and two sub-
gun- crazy SWAT members and recycling ex-
sequent horror films, …E tu vivrai nel terrore!
cerpts from Goblin’s score. While also bowing
L’aldilà and Quella villa accanto al cimitero. The
to the cannibal subgenre—via stock footage
director himself appeared in one of his trade-
from the Japanese documentary Zankoku hitokui
mark cameos, as a coroner in one of the early
tairiku, released in Italy in 974 as Nuova Guinea,
scenes. Weird- looking character actor Luciano
l’isola dei cannibali—Mattei and Fragasso even
Rossi can be seen in the same scene, in one of
squeezed in a clumsy political message between
his last screen appearances, as a cop.
a gory scene and the next: Fragasso’s story en-
Shooting started in April 980 and went on
visioned a secret operation to solve overpopu-
for eight weeks, with six weeks of exteriors filmed
lation in Third World countries by having
on location in Savannah, Georgia, and two weeks
people prey on each other via a lethal chemical
in Rome at the De Paolis studios for the special
(a nod to Romero’s The Crazies) which turns
effects scenes. The choice of Savannah—a quiet,
them into cannibal zombies. The plan goes hor-
happy- looking and decidedly un–Gothic town—
ribly wrong after a leak contaminates the staff
was dictated by economic reasons (there would
of workers in a secret chemical research facility,
be no issues with unions regarding shooting with
turning them into flesh- hungry living dead, and
foreign cast and crew members). But Fulci and
the plague quickly spreads throughout the world.
d.o.p. Sergio Salvati turned the place into a ghost
Both Zombi Holocaust and Virus are utterly
town of sorts, with plenty of eerie lights and dry
devoid of supernatural elements, and seemingly
ice as well as many scenes shot at night. The De
uninterested in exploring the zombie angle other
Paolis shooting involved the infamous sequence
than for its shock value. Fulci and Sacchetti, on
in which the protagonists are attacked by a
the other hand, aim at a visionary, apocalyptic
swarm of maggots, filmed with two wind ma-
fresco rooted in the Gothic tradition, which fo-
chines and 0 kilograms of living fly larvae. The
cuses on the theme of the “return of the past”
scene caused a notorious incident on the set:
and centers on the character of an evil revenant,
someone from the crew, exasperated by the
a Catholic priest called Father Thomas. The film
smell, played a nasty joke on Fulci, putting a
even includes references to the Gothic literary
handful of maggots in his sack of pipe tobacco.
and film tradition, including the work of Edgar
Unaware of this, the director charged his pipe
Allan Poe, reprising the theme of premature
and only after several puffs did he realize what
burial which was already at the core of Sette note
he was smoking, which led to a tantrum on the
in nero (977), and H.P. Lovecraft. Such is the
set. In later years, Fulci even ironically hypoth-
name of the town where the horrific events took
esized that his subsequent illness might have
place, Dunwich, a nod to Lovecraft’s celebrated
been caused by this episode6: in late 98, he un-
short story The Dunwich Horror. “Fulci had just
derwent heart surgery after suffering a ventric-
reread Lovecraft; he wanted to make a movie
ular aneurysm, and contracted viral hepatitis
with that very atmosphere. He was taking his
which degenerated into cirrhosis of the liver.
first steps in the horror genre and felt more se-
1980: Paura 4
cure within the comfortable walls of classic lit-
several important differences from the finished
erature,”7 Sacchetti pointed out.
film, which hint at radical last- minute changes.
However, the name Dunwich does not ap-
For a film characterized by abundant blood
pear in Sacchetti’s original 34-page story. La
and graphic violence, Paura nella città dei morti
paura8—incidentally, the same tentative title as
viventi immediately strikes for its gloomy, oth-
Mario Bava’s horror trilogy which eventually be-
erworldly mood, another element which links
came I tre volti della paura (a.k.a. Black Sabbath,
it to the Gothic tradition. Fulci is at his best
963)—is set in a village called Salem and is sen-
when he suggests the atmosphere of dread and
sibly different from the finished film. The first
decay that pervades the damned city of Dun-
part includes the suicide of Father Thomas, the
wich—incidentally, despite claims in the film
séance, Mary Woodhouse’s apparent death and
that Dunwich is located in the East Coast, the
vegetation looks typically Southern. The choice
Bell teaming up; but the story features a different
of the setting marks a neat departure from the
ending set in a cemetery and then in a church
standard look and mood of Italian Gothic, char-
where Father Thomas hanged himself. La paura
acterized by the use of Italian villas and manors
features some different characters as well: Gerry
such as Castle Piccolomini in Balsorano, which
the psychoanalyst teams up with a writer named
resulted in a recurring, familiar microcosm. In
Mike, who is nowhere to be found in the film
fact, Fulci’s Gothic films aim at an international
(where it is basically replaced by Sandra, a new
look without coming off as awkward; in the
character absent in the story); a homeless man
meantime, they redesign the coordinates of the
named Woody turns up only to be devoured by
genre’s imagery.
cats and reappear later as a zombie. Moreover,
This approach is immediately evident in
Sacchetti’s early concept explores more convinc-
the opening scene, which depicts Father Thomas’
ingly the homicidal madness of the villagers: in
(Fabrizio Jovine) blasphemous suicidal act with
a scene, John- John’s parents kill each other with
an uncommon visual force, as the camera
a knife and an iron before their little son’s eyes,
follows him wandering in the ceme
tery via a
and later they will turn up as zombies. The orig-
somewhat shaky, insecure long take which nev-
inal story also introduces the recurring presence
ertheless conveys a powerful sense of disorien-
of swarms of flies as an embodiment of evil in
tation and dread. Then Fulci cuts to the New
the places where evil manifests itself, another
York séance, depicted in elegant camera move-
bow to the Gothic tradition which in the film is
ments that wrap around the participants from
substituted by the “maggot rain” scene, in a nod
behind semi- transparent curtains. The juxtapo-
to Suspiria.
sition not only hints at a link between the two
Some interesting ideas in La paura were ei-
events, but immediately sabotages the notions
ther dropped or just fleetingly mentioned in the
of time and space by showing a deep and un-
movie. Namely, the notion that Father Thomas
fathomable connection between the living and
was “the last descendant of one of the 9 women
the dead.
put on trial for witchcraft in 692 in Salem,” and
A damned soul who returns to take his re-
the suggestion that the village where the story
venge on the living, staring at his soon- to-be
takes place may have been founded on the ruins
victims and thus “passing” the curse onto them
of old Salem, and therefore shall be punished
(Fulci’s fixation with close- ups of eyes is in evi-
for its sins. Likewise, mention of a “Book of
dence here), the undead Father Thomas is one
Enoch” (a non- canonical Jewish religious work
of many revenant figures in Italian Gothic, but
going back to 4000 BC) is passingly made in the
significantly one of the few male ones: think of
film in the post- séance scene but then forgotten,
Iavutich in La maschera del demonio, Dr. Hauff
whereas Sacchetti’s story came full circle with a
in 5 tombe per un medium (96, Massimo
final surprise twist which mentioned Enoch.
Pupillo), Uriah in Contronatura (969, Antonio
These ideas appear to have already been dis-
Margheriti). Moreover, he is a priest who hanged
carded in the 223-page draft of the script de-
himself: a nod to Judas Iscariot’s demise which
posited at Rome’s Centro Sperimentale di Cin-
introduces a subtle anti–Catholic element, thus
ematografia (CSC) on February , 980, and at