Overview: The penultimate film from writer/director Lucio Fulci – in ill health and likely knowing the end was near – is “the highlight of his twilight era” (Mondo Digital), “a classic return to the formula that made his earlier work so incredible” (Blood Sucking Geek) and presented in UHD for the first time ever: When the scion of a wealthy family dies under shocking circumstances, every heir has a motive for murder. But will the restless spirit of the deceased now seek vengeance from beyond the grave?

Karina Huff (THE BLACK CAT), Pascal Persiano (PAGANINI HORROR) and Lorenzo Flaherty (Private Crimes) star – with a juicy cameo by the maestro himself – in “the movie that shows Fulci could still do it” (Horror Cult Films), co-written by Piero Regnoli (BURIAL GROUND) from a short story by Fulci with gore effects by Pino Ferranti (CANNIBAL FEROX, HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD) and a score by Stelvio Cipriani (A BAY OF BLOOD), newly scanned in 4K from the original camera negative with over an hour of Special Features and a Bonus Soundtrack CD.

Blu-ray Verdict: When a family man is poisoned to death, it’s covered up as a stomach hemorrhage, and his spirit returns to aid his daughter in finding his killers.

This is one of the last films Fulci directed and you can tell. As this is a decent film it is not a horror movie. It’s more of a mystery with very little of what made Fulci a great horror/gore director. It really does stray from the norm for Fulci as this story is more on the story and characters than it is on gore.

It starts with a woman having a nightmare in which her sex partner gets out of bed, goes into the room of her crying child, and kills it. She wakes up. Then, that man is dying in a hospital, spitting up blood. His estranged daughter arrives, and he manages to contact her through her dreams (I think), and he wants her to find out who killed him before his body entirely decomposes in its grave.

There’s not too much mystery about who did it, or even how; most viewers will have figured that out long before it is revealed. And I’m not too sure the way he was killed would really have worked.

Anyway, the horror elements are pretty decent throughout: a gory autopsy, the recurring dream of the man killing the boy, a nightmare in which a plate of eggs turn into eyes which are then cut, and several shots of the decomposing man both in nightmares and actually in his grave and so forth.

The big problem with this movie is the gore. There is very little gore. The gore that is in the movie doesn’t even go on par with his work in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Though, there was one funny scene at the beginning of the movie involving a crying child and his crazed father threatening to stab him with a knife.

In closing, I was also a little surprised to see a dedication in the end by Fulci to Clive Barker! Interesting. [C.K.]

Bonus Features:
DISC 1: 4K UHD (FILM + SPECIAL FEATURES)
• Trailer

DISC 2: BLU-RAY (FILM + SPECIAL FEATURES)
• About Death – Audio Interview With Lucio Fulci
• Beyond The Living – Interview With Actor Pascal Persiano
• A House For The Dead – Interview With Set Designer Antonello Geleng
• Like A Father – Interview With Prop Master Vincenzo Luzzi
• Lucio’s Last Wave – Interview With Stephen Thrower, Author Of Beyond Terror: The Films Of Lucio Fulci
• Trailer

DISC 3: SOUNDTRACK CD
Disc Specs:
• Runtime: 91 mins
• Audio: English Mono | Italian Stereo
• 4K Video: HDR10
• Closed Captions | English Subtitles
• 4K UHD Region Free | Blu-ray Region A
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
*All foreign-language featurettes are subtitled in English
Limited Edition Slipcover