Synopsis
A reporter and a promiscuous young woman try to solve a series of child killings in a remote southern Italian town rife with superstition and a distrust of outsiders.
Don't Torture a Duckling
1972 ‘Non si sevizia un paperino’ Directed by Lucio Fulci
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Alternative Titles
Fureur Meurtrière, The Long Night of Exorcism, Не тортуй каченя, O Estranho Segredo do Bosque dos Sonhos
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Horror, the undead and monster classics Intense violence and sexual transgression Thrillers and murder mysteries horror, creepy, eerie, blood or gothic cannibals, gory, gruesome, graphic or shock violence, shock, disturbing, brutal or graphic horror, gory, scary, killing or slasher scary, horror, creepy, supernatural or frighten Show All…
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A wicked rural nightmare. A child killer death spree gialli of the most depressing nature, trading bright light cityscapes for small town paranoia... complete with angry villagers, forensic journalists, witchcraft, a Donald Duck head, Barbara Bouchet, and the most brutal cemetery chain flogging ever as Fulci puts Italian traditionalism and the Catholic Church under a microscope.
This is top tier Fulci as far as I’m concerned, expertly crafted and soundwaved by a perfect Riz Ortolani score. Gets bleaker (and better) every time I watch it.
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73
Fulci paints in muted colors and decrepit landscapes on the verge of modernization, but tells a tale of the ultimate evil rooted in tradition and Catholicism. Has a death scene to rival any other in cinema history.
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Another excellent giallo from Lucio Fulci from before his gore-fest days!
This one is about an isolated village where young boys are being murdered and, because it’s a giallo, everybody’s a suspect and nobody’s safe. It had honestly been so long since I watched this that all I could remember was Barbara Bouchet’s swingin’ early 70’s pad and that insanity of an ending. Somehow, I had completely forgotten about all the intense and heavy themes this one deals with head on: small-town skepticism, rural conservatism, religious hypocrisy, pedophelia, witchcraft. All that’s here and yet I managed to only remember that glorious 70’s drenched house up on the hill. I have no idea what that says about me, but there you…
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#Giallo
A village of damnation. A dusty mountain roadside. Cars passing by, oblivious of the ancient rot of human secrets underneath. Neutral countenances on the surface, decayed pasts deep in the caves of the macabre, dancing their tango of death. A whiff of wind – the ashes of human nature blown out of the caves, the frayed particles settling on the graves of the murdered. They were only boys. The bare mountain roadside watching over the funeral ceremony, scouring the faces for any sign of its robbed dust. Church bells ringing, hands folded in prayer, faces smudged by sorrow – or fear? Fear of some other – or themselves? The wind howling on the mountain roadside, the dust of sin…
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I always wondered whether the title of this film was one of those fantastically random titles gialli were often blessed with but no, it actually makes sense, kinda! The literal translation of the Italian title, Non si sevizia un paperino, is Don't Torture Donald Duck but the international title has another level of meaning beyond the cruel beheading of a plastic toy.
For a film about child killings, Fulci is remarkably restrained. Most of the murders are tastefully done and happen off-screen, his trademark gore reserved for adult deaths - one particularly gruesome chain flaying and the ending sequence, where you can sense Fulci was thinking 'we really haven't had enough grue in this movie so far - have this!'…
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tenebrean White City haunted by black figures & the grey Cyclopean Towers of the hi-way & everything wiped over in bleached pales, like the landscape is a dirge & requiem for all the women burnt & slashed in the graveyards & all the mad who have no place but to wander those lonely green pales.
& the old Phantom: here the Patriarch who Knows What's Best For You & will make you conform to the shape of His Hand.
& fulci's shaking vitriol at the anti-human & anti-life church (note the cowled & looming dead in the dark of prayer) :::
there is sympathy, on some level, for witches & "loose" (free) women ::: made here the left hand that is the flesh to the right hand of the black glove,…
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Don't Torture a Duckling is one of the truly great Giallo films and maybe Lucio Fulci's most accomplished work. This is a confrontational and shocking film; mainly for the fact that the central plot is the murder of young boys. We focus on a small village in rural Italy. Boys are turning up dead and the police are scrambling for answers, limited by the fears and superstitions of the local people. The ensemble cast is great, with Florinda Bolkan standing out in particular. The mystery is constantly intriguing and doesn't ever fall into genre tropes. Fulci instead prefers to explore the characters, situations and themes such as innocence, religion and black magic. It's surprisingly tame in terms of gore; but…
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Daily Horror Scavenger Hunt 13 – July 2019
Day 8: Go to the February Horror scavenger hunt page ( boxd.it/2nwBe ) and choose any movie watched or even listed by any participant during the February 2019 Daily Horror Scavenger Hunt.
Ok, so I'm a little late on this review, but I spent the day in the hospital yesterday, and it's difficult to review movies when you're in so much pain that you can't think straight. I'd skip it altogether, but my OCD won't let me. So, here we go.Don't Torture a Duckling has been on my watchlist for a while now, and I'm glad I finally got around to it. It's not as gory as Fulci's later stuff, but…
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