Frizzi 2 Fulci

The final years of the life of the Italian horror film director Lucio Fulci were exceptionally miserable. His last few films failed disastrously, and financial troubles forced him to move out of his house into a cramped apartment. What's more, complications relating to hepatitis and diabetes had made him so sickly that even Dario Argento, another Italian horror director who, like Fulci, was famed for his use of gore, was horrified to see him. But a few months before he died, Fulci was to receive a surprise that would no doubt convince him that his career was not, as he considered it to be, a failure. At the January 1996 Fangoria Horror Convention in New York, the ailing director was fêted like royalty, with thousands of fans braving snowstorms to meet him. Unbeknownst to him, his overseas fan base was enormous, and it has been growing ever since.
On Halloween this year, the Barbican are launching a celebration of his work, and in particular his long term collaboration with the composer Fabio Frizzi. The event, Frizzi 2 Fulci, which will be held in the Barbican Hall, will screen clips from some of his most celebrated films, which include Zombi 2 and The Beyond, whilst a live orchestra reprises scores written by Frizzi. A similar event was held last year at Islington's Union Chapel, and was described by James Whittington of The Horror Channel as 'one of the most rousing and incredible spectacles seen in London throughout all of 2013'.
Lucio Fulci's films were famous for their dreamlike surrealism as well as their heavy use of gore. Frizzi's scores, which made extensive and innovative use of synthesisers, were in equal measures ethereal and disturbing. The pairing between these two masters of the Horror genre helped produce some of the most important cult Horror films, and influenced filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. This event promises to be a remarkable spectacle and is a wonderful way to experience the fruits of this great collaboration.