From Lucio Fulci, the godfather of gore (The Psychic, The Beyond), comes one of the most powerful and unsettling giallo thrillers ever produced: his 1972 masterpiece Don't Torture a Duckling.
When the sleepy rural village of Accendura is rocked by a series of murders of young boys, the superstitious locals are quick to apportion blame, with the suspects including the local "witch", Maciara (Florinda Bolkan, A Lizard in a Woman's Skin). With the bodies piling up and the community gripped by panic and a thirst for bloody vengeance, two outsiders - city journalist Andrea (Tomas Milian, The Four of the Apocalypse) and spoilt rich girl Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet, The Red Queen Kills Seven Times) - team up to crack the case. But before the mystery is solved, more blood will have been spilled, and not all of it belonging to innocents...
Deemed shocking at the time for its brutal violence, depiction of the Catholic Church and themes of child murder and paedophilia, Don't Torture a Duckling is widely regarded today as Fulci's greatest film, rivalling the best of his close rival Dario Argento.
1977 • Italy • Directed by Flavio Mogherini
Throughout the late 1960s and into the 70s, the Italian giallo movement transported viewers to the far corners of the globe, from swinging San Francisco to the Soviet-occupied Prague. Only one, however, brought the genre's unique brand of bloody mayhem...
An age-old family curse hits sisters Kitty and Franziska following the death of their grandfather Tobias. Every hundred years, so the legend goes, the bloodthirsty Red Queen returns and claims seven fresh victims. Was Tobias just the first... and are Kitty and Franziska next?
Loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tale “The Black Cat”, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, from director Sergio Martino (Torso), weaves the key motifs from Poe’s gothic yarn into one of the most sensual films from the Golden era of giallo. Luigi Pistilli (Milano Calibro ...
