Nick Duguay
I was actually very pleasantly surprised. I didn't go into this expecting much as i've never been a huge Fulci fan, but I do enjoy him, and as far as Fulci this probably had tighter editing and a more straightforward storyline than anything else I've seen by him. The 'twist' was obvious the entire time but it didn't make the film any less enjoyable and there were no plot holes- maybe a first for him?
This film was less surreal than most and mainly focused on dark comedy and a simple crime tale, not much in the way of sets or cinematography, but it did what it set out to do, and with less stumbling than I've come to expect from the 'godfather of gore'.
All in all a worthy watch if you can get your hands on the BluRay edition.
Bezenby
Dutch are Deaf is Fulci's attempt at combining black comedy, slapstick and extreme gore into a bundle of low budget headscratching late eighties nonsense that raises loads of questions but doesn't bother answering any, just like Fulci's Sweet House of Horrors and basically any other film he made after 1987.This time, Brett Halsey of naked harpoon wielding ghost nun film Demonia and Demons 6 plays Lester Parson, whom we first see cooking himself a nice steak and watching a video of a less-aesthetically pleasing woman prancing around. Turns out the steak was once part of this woman's thigh and we get to see Lester graphically chainsaw the rest of her corpse and feed it to his cat and pigs. All this is done rather humorously, if you're Lucio Fulci.Lester's constantly in debt to gangster type/book keeper Al Cliver (from Demonia, Zombie Flesh Eaters, New Gladiators, The Beyond and House of Clocks – basically, he's Fulci's go to guy for supporting actors), and in order to get cash, he constantly tracks down, seduces and murders rich widows, all of whom are disfigured for reasons that are beyond my six or seven functioning brain cells. Maybe Lucio's trying to say something there, but who knows? To make things worse for Lester, he's now apparently got a copycat killer on his tail, who keeps killing people and leaving evidence at the scene, including his genetic code. "That's my DNA!" He shouts at one point. Do you know your genetic code? Things get dafter and dafter as this film goes on, and less gory too, until you're hit with Lester's wooing of Zora Kerova (of Anthropophagus and Cannibal bloody Ferox) and Lester trying to track down the other killer. Looking for a logical conclusion? Then, tough sh*t.I forgot to mention that Lester often talks to himself via a tape recorder.At least the film does have some sort of ending though, unlike other Fulci films of this era. It moves fairly quickly and is mercifully short, but if you've seen Cat in the Brain, you've seen all the gory bits. All you're missing is the Al Cliver footage and the wooing of Zora. Plus, the ending makes no sense and yet again I get the feeling that Fulci might be trying to subtly say something about something or other, but it's lost under the low budget, his vision, and my brain damage. It was worth a watch.Speaking of Brain Damage, I've decided to review as many of these late era Italian horrors. I've done a few already, but I've still to review: The Church, Red Monks, Ghosthouse, House of Clocks, Sweet House of Horrors, Demonia, Cat in the Brain, Nightmare Beach, Stagefright, Aenigma, House of Witchcraft, House of Lost Souls, Creatures from the Abyss, Troll 2, Graveyard Disturbance, and Demons 3: The Ogre. I've already reviewed Zombie 3, After Death, Maya, Dial Help, Demons 5, Demons 6, Witchouse, Spectres, Spider Labyrinth, Shocking Dark, Body Count and Cut and Run. Am I having a mid life crisis?
HumanoidOfFlesh
So I decided to rewatch Lucio Fulci's "Touch of Death" aka "When Alice Broke the Mirror".Unfortunately this gore/black comedy is one of his weakest films."The New York Ripper" was the last solid flick of the Godftaher of Gore.Anyway,Brett Halsey plays a maniac who kills rich women for their money,butchers their bodies with a chainsaw and fed their remains to his pigs.Sounds great,but the action drags and the characters are idiotic.There is also plenty of silly comedy that seems out of place.Fans of Italian cult cinema should recognize Zora Kerova and Al Cliver in small roles.There are only four brutal gore scenes in "Touch of Death" including chainsaw dismemberment,running over with a car and finally there is a pretty nasty sequence,which has a woman bludgeoned with a wooden pole and then shoved into an oven.6 out of 10 and that's being kind.
AS-69
Caution: Spoilers!With "When Alice broke the mirror", Fulci tried to deliver a black comedy for Italian TV. The result is an extremely mean-spirited and - in the first half - gory movie, even for a Fulci product.The story itself about a serial killer copied and betrayed by his own shadow is not without potential, but what Fulci makes out of it is a rather over-cynical and disgusting film - and it starts right away: The movie opens with Brett Halsey as Lester Parsons eating a steak which he has cut out of his latest victim while watching a video recording of her. A few moments later, he descends to his cellar and dismembers the corpse with a chainsaw. Not enough yet, he passes the remainders through a meat grinder and feeds them to the pigs. Sick, isn't it?Lester Parsons is probably the most unappealing character Fulci has ever created. He is addicted to gambling and horse betting and, in order to finance his costly hobby, he slaughters women.In the first half, Fulci inserts a lot of extreme gore. The effects vary from bad to acceptable.Fulci devised the movie as a black comedy, probably a) to make up for the cheap special effects and b) to disarm it a little bit (recall that it was intended for TV).The result remains problematic because Parsons' victims are mostly women with physical defects and Parsons explicitly mocks about them. Such a premise is simply repulsive and makes the whole movie extremely ugly. Fulci doesn't possess the necessary black humor to treat such material with taste.Most surprisingly, this gory movie was shot for TV - and shown, though only "late at night" as Fulci once declared. These Italians!
