I was 19 years old during the period of late '79- early 1980. And it is during that time that I wandered into a seedy, downtown Denver 'movie-house'. The only thing I knew about the movie I was about to see was the name on the marquee...
"ZOMBIE"...
I was STUNNED! This Movie Was PHENOMENAL! Up to this point, the 'goriest' movies I had ever seen would be "Night Of The Living Dead" and "The Exorcist" ... (I had not yet seen "Dawn Of The Dead" which was released the year before...) ... and some B-movie Drive-In fare like "Last House On The Left" and "The Toolbox Murders" and "Driller Killer" and "The Drive-In Massacre" and, of course, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" ...
This movie (for me, at the time) outdid them ALL! From the FANTASTIC 'comic book' story line to the AMAZING, 'in your face'', "GORE FX"! ( "excuse me, Miss... you have something in your EYE ...") , This movie was great in EVERY way! At the time, I did not even know that this was an Italian Movie! (I did not pay any attention to the credits) ... And then, about a year later, I saw another Horror Movie that just 'blew me away'... "The Gates Of Hell". I didn't have a clue at the time that both of these movies were directed by the same insane genius!
It was a couple of years later when I began reading about Lucio Fulci in FANGORIA and GOREZONE and then I started collecting his movies! I have about 14 so far and they are ALL good! It seems that Mr. Fulci liked to include at least one really messy 'gore-scene' in each and every movie! (NOT that there is anything WRONG with that!) ... It is also at this time that I learned of OTHER Italian Horror Movie Directors! I will not go into all of them here because my dinner is ready! But, here are some names to ponder... D'Amato, Lenzi, Bava, Argento...