Lucio Fulci Archives - Shameless Films

Contraband Blu-Ray

admin — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 11:42:32 +0000

CONTRABAND BLU-RAY

Renowned as the “Godfather of Gore” for legendary cult horror films like “The Beyond” , Lucio Fulci delivers the suspense of noir with the punch of a horror film in his unapologetically brutal crime masterpiece, CONTRABAND – creating a raw, uncompromisingly visceral vision of organised crime with horror-style set-pieces – including one of the most notorious scenes in Italian crime cinema, the “melting face” torture sequence.

Fulci lays bare the raw – and completely unromanticised – brutality of the Camorra in one of his most hard-hitting and unrelenting films, merging crime thriller with Horror’s shocking aesthetics. “It got so real that the local underworld got involved in the actual making of the film”, explains star Fabio Testi in an exclusive interview for this release.

CONTRABAND stars the ever-charismatic tough-guy Fabio Testi (‘Revolver’) who delivers a powerful, career-defining performance as Luca – a tough-as-nails cigarette smuggler whose world explodes when his brother is murdered and his wife abducted. This ignites a ferocious mob war, with a ruthless newcomer hell-bent on replacing the old cigarette contraband with deadly narcotics. What follows isn’t just revenge – it’s a one-man war against a ruthless drug lord portrayed with unhinged intensity by Marcel Bozzuffi. His performance is so disturbingly sadistic, it makes his assassin role in “The French Connection” look tame. Here, Bozzuffi’s cool menace curdles into something purely psychopathic.

Fulci spares no one in the ensuing bloodbath, turning the sun-drenched Bay of Naples into a blood-soaked battleground. Brace yourself for a visceral assault on the senses as Fulci unleashes his signature gut-churning gore and eye-popping graphic cruelty.

This definitive edition is presented fully uncut, restored from 4K vault negative with additional colour correction and upgraded sound – exclusive to this version. It also uniquely features two optional seamless colour-version openings. Presented in FullHD 1080p Encode, it features both the English and the original Italian audio (with newly translated English subtitles), plus several extras including a unique new interview with star Fabio Testi.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Exclusive all-revealing new interview with star Fabio Testi on how the real underworld got involved in the making of the film!
Exclusive definitive video essay by Stephen Thrower Fulci specialist and author of world-renowned Fulci bible “Beyond Terror”
Interview with Antonella Fulci, candid revelations about her father Lucio Fulci
New English subtitles and SDH

O-card and reversible sleeve featuring new exclusively commissioned artwork and original poster.

ALL REGION

The post Contraband Blu-Ray appeared first on Shameless Films.

The Beyond Blu-Ray

admin — Fri, 27 May 2022 15:15:33 +0000

One of the most iconic and seminal Horror cum-slasher film to come out of Italy. THE BEYOND is by fan-favourite director Lucio Fulci. Always at the top of imdb rating, it is acknowledged as Fulci’s most famous and important film.

When jaded New Yorker (Catriona MacColl) inherits a New Orleans hotel, she calls on unflappable local doctor (David Warbeck) to contain the inexplicable, and increasingly gory surreal accidents that are plaguing the old building and its grounds. But soon the ‘Gates of Hell’ themselves open under the hotel, rendering their fight futile and their flight impossible as the Living Dead emerge to walk the earth.

Presented for first-time ever from source materials restored in 2K, this Shameless Blu-ray edition is a unique world-first as it presents 4 different prologue versions of the iconic film-opening, which seamlessly branch into the rest of the film without interruption, thereby enabling the viewer to select a different version of the film-opening:

For this edition, Shameless produced 4 versions showing (1) the standard sepia (2) the B&W version from which was made the aforementioned standard sepia seen on other releases. Also, here, (3) the original colour camera footage, from which, uniquely, (4) a new golden tone version is proffered – with reference to considerations from Director Lucio Fulci and cinematographer Salvati themselves.

These considerations by Director Lucio Fulci and cinematographer Salvati can be heard in one of the many extras featured on the Blu-ray where we hear “we removed the colour from the torches to create atmosphere… opted for the soft yellow, almost golden filter to enhance the lights… discarded the usual sepia.”

It is the 1^st time that this type of toning of the opening prequel is shown where the resulting visuals are far more vivid, where the reds of the gore are strikingly visible and the lights are more luminous.

The post The Beyond Blu-Ray appeared first on Shameless Films.

The Psychic Blu-Ray

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2021 12:14:08 +0000

THE PSYCHIC aka MURDER TO THE TUNE OF THE 7 BLACK NOTES

Director Lucio Fulci is widely regarded as the ‘Godfather of Gore’. But being famous for his gore-artistry is – somewhat unfairly – to the detriment of the magistral filmmaker that he was. Fulci is revered by Tarantino (who borrowed the tune of The Psychic in his Kill Bill) and other Hollywood mavericks as their avowed influence. This new edition of THE PSYCHIC is exclusive as it has been extensively further restored from new 2K-scanned materials to show Fulci’s gem like never before; for the 1st time truly doing justice to the Maestro’s original vision -making this the definitive world-exclusive version of the film deservedly described by Stephen Thrower in his reference-work on the director: ‘THE PSYCHIC deserves careful consideration as one of Fulci’s best films’ .

Crafted with intense attention to details, scripted and delivered in a flawless, almost mathematical, linear fluidity, Fulci builds with each scene a new layer of increasing suspense like no other of his films. This is a Hitchcockian whodunit thriller seen through Fulci’s vision of disjointed universes where reality and dreams, the dead and the living, the past and present are all interconnected.

Jennifer O’Neill fresh from Visconti’s last film ‘The Innocent’, plays Virginia who has had psychic powers since childhood, starting with the trauma of having sensed, from a great distance, the very moment of her mother’s suicide… Now newly-married and rich, Virginia becomes plagued by waking visions of bloody deaths and meaningless images which torment her. With the aid of her parapsychologist friend (Marc Porel) who carries a torch for her, they try to elucidate the meaning of these horrific unwanted visions only to slowly discover that these are premonitions of future deaths…

Extras:

‘TOUCHING FATE’ – A new exclusive interview of Antonella Fulci about ‘The Psychic’
‘DADDY DEAREST’ – An interview with Antonella Fulci about her father Lucio Fulci
Restoration process for the Psychic – showing different stages
‘ESCAPE FROM DOOM’ – An interview with writer Dardano Sacchetti on working with Fulci
‘BEHIND THE WALL’ – An interview with Fabio Frizzi on scoring The Psychic (the music later used by Tarantino)

The post The Psychic Blu-Ray appeared first on Shameless Films.

The Beyond Blu-Ray Limited Edition

admin — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 11:19:05 +0000

Shameless proudly presents Lucio Fulci’s THE BEYOND aka ‘L’Aldila’ from 2K-scanned and restored source.
Format: a special Numbered Limited Edition, Hand-finished collectors Blu-ray (one pressing only), Region B. Also available OnLineSynopsis: When jaded New Yorker (Catriona MacColl) inherits a New Orleans hotel, she calls on composed local doctor (David Warbeck) to contain the inexplicable and increasingly gory accidents that are plaguing the building and its grounds. But soon the Gates of Hell themselves open under the hotel, rendering their fight futile as the dead emerge to walk the earth in Fulci’s masterpiece of metaphysical horror: The Beyond.SPECIAL BLURAY FEATURE: for the first time ever THE BEYOND is presented with four different versions of the Prologue, seamlessly branched, enabling the complete and uninterrupted viewing of the film, starting with:(1) The now accepted standard sepia
(2) The original colour camera footage (restored from a new 2k scan)
(3) The B&W version (also as reference to an ‘infamous’ mistake! )
(4) A new 4th-way: presented as an homage to this cult-classic from Maestros Lucio Fulci and DOP Sergio Salvati, a new alternative version is proposed using for the 1st time the colour camera footage as the base on which toning is applied – with reference to Salvati’s known thinking. It results in more vivid visuals where the reds of the gore are strikingly visible and the light of torches & car headlights are much more luminous.In a way, these four versions of the prologue show the various stages of the postproduction and grading processes: starting with the original colour camera footage we then see the prologue in B&W and finally in the standard sepia version made by the means of the time.NEW EXTRAS:
• ‘Emily’s Eyes’ – an interview with Cinzia Monreale (with English subtitles).
• ‘Arachnophobia’ – an interview with Michele Mirabella (with English subtitles).
• ‘Murder, They Wrote’ – a unique interview with scriptwriter Giorgio Mariuzzo on working with Lucio Fulci (with English subtitles).
• THE BEYOND ‘prologue four-way comparison’ showing: the Original Colour + the B&W version + the Standard Sepia + the new, fourth-way: a version of toning over colour.ARCHIVE EXTRAS:
• Sergio Salvati (Director of Photography) feature-length audio commentary dissecting the film – with new English subtitles.
• Catriona McCall and David Warbeck a wonderful lively chatty feature-length audio commentary
• Lucio Fulci banter (short conversation on a film set)THE BEYOND the metaphysics !About the 2K scan source: the delay of this release is due to the fact that the original delivery materials were inadequate and we had to wait for of a new (2K) scan and its restoration. The silver-lining there was the discovery of the original colour camera footage of the prologue which was separately scanned in 2K and restored for the 1st time ever.About the viewing experience: seamless branching technology is used here to enable the viewer to see for the first time ever the film complete and uninterrupted starting with a separate versions of the prologue.About the new additional alternative toning proposal: We do not profess that our new toning versions are the correct versions intended by director Lucio Fulci or his DOP Salvati. Nor are either the original colour or the B&W versions.We therefore also and firstly present the film with its now accepted sepia tint prologue version which we of course admire as the filmmakers’ version – made with the film processing means available at the time.Our initiative to present this alternative was brought by the fortunate discovery of the colour camera footage of the prologue and being able to revive it.It is seeing the sophisticated cinematography of the restored colour prologue – displaying rich painterly colours infused by a magnificent chiaroscuro – which prompted the wish to investigate an alternative vision which may not have been possible to achieve at the time the film was made:A toning process was applied digitally (instead of chemically) to the colour image – whilst very much keeping as fundamental reference Salvati’s desired effect of making the sequence looking like an old photograph in order to show the prologue was from the past. And also Salvati’s comments: ‘I opted for the soft yellow, almost golden filter to enhance especially the torches, car lights -and- I discarded the usual sepia, the colour of memories…’Applying the toning to a colour base creates a very different and striking depth in the visuals never seen before; making the reds of the gore more vivid as well as indeed making the golden light sources like the torches and the car headlights much more luminous. Overall we feel that the picture appears more three-dimensional and less ‘flat’ than the sepia toned version.Therefore, to sum up:
1)- The film was shot in colour
2)- The director and DOP wanted to create a special visual effect to show the decades-long gap in time between the prologue and the present time in the film
– On one hand the filmmakers wanted the film to look like an old photograph.
– On the other hand Salvati says he wanted to ‘discard the usual sepia’ and opted for ‘the soft yellow, almost golden filter to enhance especially the torches, car lights … and the burnt lime on the painter’s face’
3)- However at the time, the process was very much restricted to applying an overall chemical-bath toning to process the whole celluloid film in one go. And this is indeed what was done then.There are further more in-depth considerations below (***):

About the Unique transparent packaging of this limited numbered 1st pressing edition:

Similarly the unique packaging was informed by the metaphysical goals, which the filmmakers mention had informed their vision of The Beyond
(Salvati again: ‘What I was trying to recreate was the effect of an old, yellowed photograph, something outside time, establishing a gap between the prologue and the present day as though they were two separate films, divided by an infinite arc of time indicating the Dimension of the Afterwards. I discarded the usual sepia, the colour of memories, since there are no relationships between the characters based on memory; instead, THE BEYOND is a horror which lies outside time and space…’

The package is a hand-finished, limited edition of a transparent case with a transparent inlay printed in most parts yet allowing clear see-though view of the shiny silver surface of the Bluray disc custom-mounted inverted (shiny side up): which not only shows the resulting mirror effect of the printed parts of the transparent inlay reflected onto the disc surface but which also creates shadows onto the disc.

The resulting shadows and reflections – which move depending the viewing axis – create an overall optical effect of depth – the impression being of at least three separate gossamer layers of Hades.. (the floating images reflected on several planes through the mirror surface of the inverted disc creating an illusion of depth many times the real depth of the Bluray case.

The optical effect and the transparent images recall the other-worldly lack of boundaries, the element of water which permeates a lot of the film, and most importantly the metaphysical ’circular’ notion of the film – for example where the protagonists, fleeing the zombie invasion in the hospital, go down some stairs only to find themselves (back) in the exact same basement of the Hotel – which is geographically far from the Hospital and rationally impossible.

The packaging is also informed by – and in turn infers – the apparently ‘enclosed’, circular, yet open-scape vision of hell – of the Beyond – as seen in the final scene with its hellish twilight-grey murky tones; though here on the sleeve artwork, instead of the grey-green, we used the more striking but equally significant rusty blood colour seen in the film and reminiscent of the sepia tone as well.

On the reverse we see the iconic spider here exiting the blind ‘cataract’ eye (seen below the transparent sleeve) of its victim … a soon-to-be Zombie

Further more in-depth considerations (***): Here is the train of thought and the genesis of the new version based on the colour camera negative and the hypotheses made along the way:

– We know from the audio commentary from Salvati (featured on our new release) that the film was shot in colour as was usual practice then. [*Sergio Salvati: ‘We filmed it the usual way, in colour, as you always do, because it’s better to start with colour rather than black and white…]

– We know from the same audio commentary from Salvati that, together with Fulci, they decided to do something special at post-production: [*Sergio Salvati: ‘..Then I’d discuss it with Lucio Fulci, who was always looking for something more… it had great atmosphere but we decided to tone it. We did it to enhance the car lights, especially the torches which are in various shots, to make them look a bit unusual…”]

(*Above in Italics are from the audio commentary on the Shameless Bluray release of THE BEYOND, translated in English)

– We further glean from text attributed to Salvati which read: ‘We filmed in colour, it had great atmosphere but we decided to tint it… It was mine and Lucio’s idea… and graded by Luciano Vittori of Studio Vittori (**). It’s such a powerful opening sequence […] I opted for the soft yellow, almost golden filter to enhance especially the torches, car lights … and the burnt lime on the painter’s face. What I was trying to recreate was the effect of an old, yellowed photograph, something outside time, establishing a gap between the prologue and the present day as though they were two separate films, divided by an infinite arc of time indicating the Dimension of the Afterwards. I discarded the usual sepia, the colour of memories, since there are no relationships between the characters based on memory; instead, THE BEYOND is a horror which lies outside time and space…’

(**) We asked the original Italian lab, the above-referred Studio Vittori, but they had no records anymore of the colour grading done at the time. Unfortunately the owner and and then head, Luciano Vittori, has since passed away.

But from speaking with the lab, it is clear that at the time, it would have been incredibly difficult (if not near impossible) and very expensive to do anything else than obtain the sepia tint from an overall chemical process which is how the now accepted usual sepia tint prologue version was created.

The post The Beyond Blu-Ray Limited Edition appeared first on Shameless Films.

New York Ripper

Vicky — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 10:12:44 +0000

NYPD’s most jaded cop is taunted by a razor-slashing maniac who carves his way through sexually active young women whilst making deranged Donald Duck voice imitation…

Beyond Nasty: NEW YORK RIPPER is so subversive that it was banned outright on its first foray into UK: the print of RIPPER, due for UK censors (BBFC) inspection, was legendarily escorted back to the border by the Police, without ever being screened.

If you’ve recently revisited old video nasties only to be disappointed then this is the ultimate sex ‘n’ slash fest to test your nerve with; now rebuilt with previously missing scenes.

The post New York Ripper appeared first on Shameless Films.

Manhattan Baby

Vicky — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 10:06:51 +0000

After American Egyptologist George (Chris Connelly) defiles an unexplored Egyptian pyramid tomb, his daughter Susie becomes possessed by Evil when a mysterious blind woman gives her an amulet.
Having returned to New York, Susie (a very young Brigitta Boccoli whose shapely beauty will later fill Playboy) gains supernatural access to magic portals which whisk her and those near her into space time continuum horror..
Rushed to hospital, the surgeon (Lucio Fulci) who X-rays Susie discovers the dark shape of a cobra mark in her chest! Those who try to help her die spectacular, shocking, weird deaths – including having their eyes plucked out by demonic birds..
Fulci, Dardano Sacchetti and their shock-team have distilled all their proprietary weirdness in this, albeit less-commercial and less-known, outing which boasts stunningly-shot extraordinary horror scenes.
This highly atmospheric film dwells in a special twilight area, impossible to categorise, oft-revisited by Fulci fans after their taste for hyper gore has been sated. Stephen Thrower, author of the “Fulci bible”, Beyond Terror, calls MANHATTAN BABY a “Transcendental Nightmare”! WAKE UP LITTLE SUSIE!

The post Manhattan Baby appeared first on Shameless Films.

Fulci’s Box of Terror

Vicky — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 09:56:29 +0000

THE NEW YORK RIPPER , MANHATTAN BABY & THE BLACK CAT
Shameless proudly presents director Lucio Fulci’s trio of his US & UK based films, released together in this must-have Godfather of Gore definitive collector’s set.

Containing a booklet adapted by Stephen Thrower from his definitive, highly acclaimed book, BEYOND TERROR THE FILMS OF LUCIO FULCI
Each DVD with Reversible Sleeve featuring original artwork The artwork of this limited edition set has been exclusively created for Shameless by top British film poster artist Graham Humphreys

The post Fulci’s Box of Terror appeared first on Shameless Films.

Contraband

Vicky — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 09:15:00 +0000

“This is one my favourite films” said director Lucio Fulci – known as the Godfather of Gore for his films like Zombie Flesh Eaters… But CONTRABAND, his unique entry in the Polizieschi genre, is made all the more brutal by the lack of the surreal fantasy of his other works.

Fulci’s styled himself the “terrorist of genres”, and here he unflinchingly stages the vicious ultraviolence which permeates the Neapolitan underworld
Hard-as-nail stalwart Fabio Testi (Revolver) stars as Luca, a cigarette smuggler who triggers an eye-popping ferocious mob war when his brother is shot and his wife kidnapped by a rival gang, headed by a totally depraved sadist played by Marcel Bozzufi (the French cop in FRENCH CONNECTION).

Fulci unleashes his trade-mark gut-splattering, brain-exploding, flesh-frying scenes of unimaginable cruelty and depicts the carnage which will turn the otherwise post-card perfect bay of Naples red!

This definitive Shameless limited numbered edition is released now uncut for the 1st time ever – over 5 minutes longer – and, uniquely, features both its English and original Italian audio with English subtitles and collectable lenticular.

The post Contraband appeared first on Shameless Films.

New York Ripper Blu-ray

Vicky — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 09:10:20 +0000

NYPD’s most jaded cop is taunted by a razor-slashing maniac who carves his way through sexually active young women whilst making deranged Donald Duck voice imitation…

If you’ve recently revisited old video nasties only to be disappointed then this is the ultimate sex ‘n’ slash fest to test your nerve with; now rebuilt with previously missing scenes.

The post New York Ripper Blu-ray appeared first on Shameless Films.