By Stephen Thrower. 1999, Fab Press.

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I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden there were all these great books on Italian cult and horror films after years of there being nothing above the rare fanzine here or there. Then, one day I woke up and here were all of these really amazing books devoted to the cinema in which I love to indulge myself. It was like a dream come true for everything except my bank account.

Beyond Terror is a massive coffee table book, or a really big shelf book if you don't have a coffee table (it's too big to stack on the back of the toilet, unfortunately), covering the life and works of one of the most influential, and certainly one of the most controversial directors in Italian film history: Lucio Fulci.

Known to fans as the "godfather of gore," Fulci pushed the envelope of what was and was not acceptable gore and violence in a film. Movies like Zombie, The Beyond, and City of the Living Dead reveled in the grotesque, filling themselves with gut munching, eye gouging, intestine barfing, and more bloody mayhem than most people care to see in a lifetime of films.

But for people who are really fans of Fulci, something else lies beneath, and that something else is captured beautifully in this book. Fulci was a rebel, a system bucker who would intentionally go out and do the things he was told he could not do. His position as an iconoclastic renegade cost him much money and more than a few business associates and friends, but the passion is undeniable. It's great to finally read a book that deals with Fulci's work on more than a "gee whiz" gorehound level.

Beyond Terror provides the reader with a complete filmography, technical notes, and reviews of each film. It also delves deeper into many movies, exploring the surrealism, the visions and goals of what Fulci wanted to capture on and do with film. Sometimes he succeeded, other times he didn't. We tend to knock Fulci around a tad, but it's all in good fun, and despite whatever critical comments I may make about his films, the fact remains that, by and large, I love his movies.

Attention is paid to Fulci's non-horror films as well, giving a much better view of the man and his career than has previously ever been available. For people like me who are fans of some of his non-horror films, it was a real treat to get more information on them.

Stephen Thrower's book is well-written, consistently informative, and unlike many looks at cult films and cult film figures, relatively free of glaring factual errors and omissions. You can tell the man is a huge fan of Fulci films, but you can also tell that he's well-read, did his research, and intended his book to work on a professional level. It does.

As if all the info wasn't enough to keep me and people like me drooling for weeks on end, the book is illustrated with dozens upon dozens of photographs in color and black and white.

In a sentence, Beyond Terror is essential reading for Fulci fans, and should also be of great interest to fans of horror and fantasy films in general. And if you are simply looking for a good book about a true pioneering spirit in film, you might not mind it either. I thought the entire thing was superb. My only complaint is the binding: a book that is read and reread and referenced this much tends to fall apart if the binding isn't up to the task. Still, a minor flaw in what is a grand achievement.

Labels: Film Studies