Director – Simone Scafidi (Eva Braun, Zanetti Story)
Starring – Simone Scafidi, Sandro Bitetto, and Antonella Fulci (Sick-o-Pathics)
Release Date – 2019
Rating – 3/5
Tagline – “He invented great stories. Starting from his own”
Lucio Fulci is a filmmaker that has left a lasting mark on cinema specifically horror though he was not always in the business directing horror. Regardless, his contributions to our beloved genre is unmatched by other filmmakers. As much as a beloved filmmaker as he is his personal life has always been a mystery to many including his biographers.
Director and actor Simone Scafidi was cast to portray Fulci in a film and took it upon himself to do some research on Fulci to prepare for the role. This lead him to piecing everything together in his documentary Fulci for Fake. Severin recently released the film on blu and was kind enough to send a copy my way. Why not give it a spin right after watching Demonia and Aenigma?
**spoiler Alert**The film follows filmmaker and actor Simone Scafidi as he prepares for a film role in which he portrays Lucio Fulci. To prepare for his role he interviews friends and family of the late filmmaker to better understand him. Through interviews and old home footage we get a glimpse of Fulci the filmmaker and Fulci the father and husband.**Spoiler Alert**
Fulci for Fake is a great and informative documentary that sheds light on certain parts of Fucli’s life that he tried to keep out of the limelight. However, I did find myself becoming underwhelmed with some of the interviews.
The interviews we do get are informal for the most part. I really enjoyed the interview with his daughter and best friend. They told it like it was and shared a lot of insight into his personal life. However, some of the interviews from colleagues and fans did blow a lot of smoke. Sure, we all agree that Fulci was a phenomenal filmmaker and no one will ever hold a flame to his talent but hearing people go on and on about it is rather boring. Just being honest.
The approach to the topics come in chronological order and I loved how the film tied everything in to the films that he was currently working on. It helps fans put his personal life and the struggles in perspective to the films that we love. We do get some answers to questions about his personal life and why he built a such a fantastical persona about himself.
Finally, the editing in this one is smooth and works very well but most of the interviews and home video footage is cut with clips of the director listening to recordings and so on. They are painfully awkward to watch and, honestly, do nothing for the film itself. Overall, Fulci for Fake is a solid documentary about one of horror’s biggest names. There is several things I would cut out of it but it’s still full of great information. It’s well worth it for horror fans especially fans of Italian horror.
