Cat in the Brain, A / Un gatto nel cervello (1990)

Even the most uncritical of Lucio Fulci's fans would probably acknowledge that the later works of the Godfather of Gore were of a declining quality. This late period for the director not only saw declining health but also a man who was struggling to find relevance in the declining years of the once prolific Italian film industry. Films such as the supernatural nunsploitation Demonia or the supernatural nazisploiation Sodoma's Ghost were little more than spectres of an earlier and long deceased golden age of Italian exploitation cinema.


If anyone were to doubt that dear Lucio could hit the spot when he wished they should consider Nightmare Concert as a reminder that he could occasionally create moments of uncompromising excess. Nightmare Concert is a clipshow that not only delivers what fans of horror period Fulci craved but also answered his censors and critics by taking them to task on the idea that film violence damages minds. Fulci mocks this point of view.


During the 1980s Fulci put his name to a number of films by other directors under the title Lucio Fulci Presents. One of the series, Andrea Bianchi's dreadful Massacre, provides a giallo framework for A Cat In The Brain which plays through clips from a number of features, most notably Fulci's own darkly misogynistic comedy Touch Of Death. The results are interesting to say the least.

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