The 31 Days of Horror, Day Ten- Fulci x 2!

The Book of Eibon, the Book of Enoch. A prolonged intestine vomiting scene and one of the best head-shots of all time. A creepy priest swinging from a tree, a creepy blind chick spitting prophecy. Catriona MacColl. These are just some of the things that make these two movies so damned great.

The Beyond might be the benchmark of Italian zombie flicks. This movie is so surreal, over the top, nonsensical, gory and just crazy, that you can't help but sit in awe of its sheer brilliance. Don't get me wrong, as a film, it's not that great; as a true horror experience though, it's fantastic.

The haunting score, the slow moving zombie horde, the girl with the creepy eyes, the dog, and one of the best head-shots of all time, The Beyond is one awesome visual after another, and is thick with atmosphere.

Boom, headshot!

Some call Fulci a hack, and say that his horror films are garbage, but I don't understand their thought processes at all. Italian horror movies are more often than not illogical, badly dubbed messes full of cheesy dialogue and plot points that couldn't be coherent if they tried... but... they are almost always engaging, gripping, visually and aurally stunning, and creepy as hell. I'll take a movie that makes me genuinely feel something any day over a glossy, slick movie that evokes nothing in me.

This is a superb zombie flick, and should be seen by all fans of the genre.

No pasta dinners during this scene.

The Gates of Hell (aka City of the Living Dead) actually came out before The Beyond, and is considered many to be the first of Fulci's unofficial zombie "trilogy." Whatever it is or isn't, it's one of our all-time faves.

The excessive amounts of gore in GOH have stood out in our minds since the first time we saw this one way back when; the vomiting scene, the drill scene, and the hanging priest are strong images that will forever be etched into our creepy little brains.

He had it coming.

The look and feel of Gates of Hell is very similar to The Beyond, and it even boasts the same kind of "WTF?!?" ending. Honestly, the endings of most Italian horror flicks are WTF?!? material, but GOH boasts one of the craziest, nonsensical freeze frame endings of all time.

Both of these movies are seminal Halloween watching for us, and if you haven't seen them, you should definitely give them a spin.

She's in these.