Touch of Death (1988)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Running over the tramp was great. The character speaking to someone/or to self by way of tape recorder was interesting. Cinematography was great. Decent acting. Good music. The story was OK, not great. Better if they left out the comedy. The ending sucked. Very watchable.Running over the tramp was great. The character speaking to someone/or to self by way of tape recorder was interesting. Cinematography was great. Decent acting. Good music. The story was OK, not great. Better if they left out the comedy. The ending sucked. Very watchable.

Lucio Fulci, a director not exactly renowned for his subtlety, ill-advisedly tries his hand at black humour in Touch of Death, a made for TV movie about Lester Parsons (Brett Halsey), a psycho who seduces and murders rich widows in order to pay his gambling debts.Starting off with a wonderfully gory scene in which the lethal lothario disposes of his latest victim via chainsaw, mincing machine and hungry hogs, Touch of Death starts promisingly enough, but Fulci soon loses control of proceedings, introducing a weird sub-plot involving a mysterious copycat killer and some heavy handed 'comedic' scenes. There are several more graphic murders which, in true Fulci fashion, are extremely violent and gruesome, but even the high level of bloodletting doesn't stop this from being one of Fulci's poorer efforts.As I have found with many of his other movies, a comprehensible storyline is not exactly high on the agenda when Lucio is behind the camera. This film has many peculiarities which left me more than little perplexed: why didn't Lester dispose all of his victims using the dismemberment method seen at the beginning? Why are all of his victims either hairy or disfigured? What the hell is that ending all about?Fulci is considered by many to be one of the 'greats' of horror cinema; I don't understand his popularity, finding the majority of the films of his that I have seen so far to be generally lacking both decent narratives and technical proficiency. Touch of Death certainly does nothing to change my opinion.

Quando Alice ruppe lo specchio is not Fulci s best. Its far from his "golden era" but its still a good movie, at least a funny and with some good gore elements. Lester is a psycho playboy who needs to seduce and kill rich women to steal their money and keeps his status quo. Also, he is a lost gambler, and he always lose money...so, ugly rich women is his salvation...always. Some good gore (mostly at the beginning of the movie), good funny moments (the mustached lady part is amazing), also some reminiscences to "American Psycho". Its a horror thriller with gore and black comedy. Off course, if you compare this to other Fulci movies (L Aldilla, Paura, etc) this will looks tame and crappy. But, you don't need to compare, and its a good Fulci movie. 7/10

This films shows all the characteristics that have made Fulci a clearly-recognizable filmmaker: no logic, no plot, very bad actors on one hand ; but on the other, lots of fun and an incredible sense for splatter which has turned him into a world-wide acclaimed king of the genre. This film in particular offers gruesome and spectacular representations of deaths and murders , very well expressed by incredibly-low-budget but proper special effects : Fulci here is disgusting probably as never before, but if you like the kind it's an experience to be made...