THE DEVIL IN THE ENTRAILS

 

                                                    THE DEVIL IN THE ENTRAILS

By RICHARD DEAN

 Arguably, or perhaps not even arguably, the two names most synonymous with legendary Italian horror cinema are Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci. Both have formidable portfolios in the cinema macabre, and both of these film maestros have their own formidable followings of fans- willing to rationalize, argue and battle over which director has made a more indelible impression upon the annals of horror. Many will rationalize that Argento's highly stylized and often innovative offerings, peppered with mind-boggling brutality, set him apart from the late Fulci and many other horror contemporaries. Others will argue that, while his style was decidedly more heavy-handed- if not outright bludgeoning- Lucio's landmark horror films better defined the true nature of horror with their overt grotesqueness and graven themes. Though their approaches differed somewhat, Dario and Lucio did find some common ground in the subject matter of their films from time to time, and in perhaps some of their greatest works. The subject matter in question is witchcraft, and that is the prevailing subject in two of the maestros' most notable films- Argento's SUSPIRIA (1977) and Fulci's THE BEYOND (1981). Let's look a little deeper into the darkness, shall we?

The evil that is at the root of both Argento's and Fulci's films is a two-fold entity- both organic and a man-made construct. In SUSPIRIA, the heroine of the film is American dance student Suzy Bannion who, unwittingly, has taken her place within a viper's nest of witches at a German dance academy that is nothing more than a thinly veiled, murderous coven. The evil deeds taking place inside the academy are being orchestrated with surreal, almost hallucinatory, cunning and witchery by one of Argento's "Three Mothers"- Mater Suspiriorum, or "The Mother of Sighs." (Argento's other Two Mothers- Mater Lachrymarum and Mater Tenebrarum would later been seen in his subsequent films in his Three Mothers trilogy, INFERNO and MOTHER OF TEARS. The evils being perpetrated by the wicked Mater Suspiriorum have also become the lurid essence of the macabre dance academy itself. The spectacularly colorful and garish hangings and shreddings of young women by shards of stained glass and tangles of razor wire within the academy's equally colorful and garishly decorated walls defies what we would expect would be unrelenting beauty radiating from such a studio. Yet somehow the splashes of blood and Argento's dramatic and almost obscenely colorful lighting schemes somehow makes it all that much more beautiful. The dance academy itself, and the unholy serpents within, have become the beautiful and seductive embodiment of the evils of black witchcraft and, as witnesses to the mayhem, we find the chaos and bloodshed orchestrated by Argento is curiously and undeniably sweet and provocative. Perhaps not as sweet, but definitely as provocative, is the apocalyptic witchery on display in Lucio Fulci's THE BEYOND. This time it is a warlock artist named Schweick who is in league with Satan, holed up in a small Louisiana hotel to create his evil masterpieces and do the devil's bidding. Problem is, the townsfolk do not take kindly to alliances with dark forces and a lynch mob is formed, with murderous intent, to pay the reclusive warlock a visit. After dragging him to the hotel basement, chaining him up crucifixion-style, relentlessly lashing his flesh, then chemically burning him to death with lye or some other caustic compound, they bury his lifeless body within the walls of the old hotel. Problem is, Schweick was one of the guardians of the seven gates of hell, and his death has opened the floodgates to damnation (a similar theme explored in Fulci's previous film, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD/THE GATES OF HELL, when a priest's suicide also opens the gates to the abyss). Decades later, in 1981, the hotel is inherited by Liza Merrill (portrayed by the always reliable and lovely Fulci regular Catriona MacColl). No sooner does she take occupancy inside the creepy hotel and begin refurbishing it, the essence of Schweik's evil begins to manifest from beyond the grave, striking down virtually all who have the misfortune of making Liza's acquaintance. All of these nefarious events center around the hotel in THE BEYOND, much as the events in SUSPIRIA center around the malevolent dance academy and the demonic hub of evil lurking within. Which is not to say evil's grasp is confined to these structures. It isn't. Like icy cold fingers reaching out from wicked hands, evil knows no bounds. Its reach is both demanding and insistent. And in THE BEYOND, at the film's end the reaches of evil become truly mind-shattering and apocalyptic. Both of these films share some thematic similarities, and some similarities that are even more startling. Both Argento and Fulci explore a theme in their respective films (in graphic detail) of blind individuals peripherally tied to the evils in these films getting their throats torn out by their turned/possessed seeing-eye dogs. One has to wonder if Fulci was directly influenced by this scene from SUSPIRIA and wanted to pay homage? But in THE BEYOND, the theme of blindness is an important one and not so much a superficial, throwaway one like in SUSPIRIA where the scene simply plays more or less for shock value. No matter your taste in horror, whether it be for the stylized or brutalized, there is much to be admired and learned from the collective works of Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci. If you are one of the uninitiated, let SUSPIRIA and THE BEYOND be your gateway drugs to the works of these two titans of Italian cinema. But don't let it be the end! There is much to explore!