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"New york ripper" is without a doub the most sleaziest and sadistic I have seen of his filmography so far. There is absolutely no hope in that movie and the only likeable character is a little girl at a hospital who is dying!
You're right about how unforgettable his images of violence are! Does that make him completely inept? I don't think so.
Look at " Don't torture a duckling", it's a giallo of such quality that it makes his "gore-classics" seem very overrated IMO.
I have to confess, it took a while before I appreciated his films because firstly I was more into the gore of Peter Jackson and Troma. Filled with cartoonish humour made by rascals with a camera and a bucket of fake blood. Fulci was just mean!
The other thing was of course the loose narrative. Sometimes it works for, say, "The beyond" or "City of the living dead" but other times it feels like a bad excuse for not telling a story. I felt that way the first time I saw those two but they grew on me.

What makes this film maker stand out over many other directors (at least I feel) is that his films are "in your face." For example, The New York Ripper (his most brutal and controversial) is not really that different from something like Seven. The difference, rather than show you the aftermath, he shows in full detail how the victims die. His images of violence is the kind that would go under your skin and sometimes stay there for days. I have yet to see a director put himself out the way this man has. That's just how I feel.

"I was mystified as to how something so dull and pretentious got so much good press."
Really, I'm kind of used to that; Little Miss Sunshine, Hard Candy, Kill Bill
Anyway, I thought 'Nekromantik' was ok, but nothing to write home about.

People are doing a great job at dubbing over here, I don't quite get your point. The German dubs of Italian movies are 1000 x better than their English counterparts because they are done by professionals. They don't sound like porn over here

Have you ever seen the German version of Private Ryan? It's very funny!
"What you're feeling now ain't the worst pain. The worst thing is not feeling the hurt anymore."

I have a feeling they already are. They dub pretty much everything in Germany. And no, I suppose it couldn't get any worse.

House by the Cemetary, I found to be difficult to follow mainly due to the pan and scan conversion that destroyed whatever vision LF had for the film and made him look hopelessly inept.
If anyone wants to dub Uwe Boll films into German knock yourself out. Can't be worse - can it?
A - Attention
I - Interest
D - Decision
A - Action!

I really can't see what was so wierd about House by the Cemetary, much less Zombie Flesh Eaters. As a big fan og Lynch, Cronenberg and a slew of older european filmmakers, I've sorta gotten used to movies being bizarre. Compared to Lynch, Buuel, Godard and even Bergman, Fulci is pretty straighforward. I must admit to only having seen his movies dubbed though. Btw. what would possess anyone to dub anything? It completely ruins the movie and if a movie already sucks, it's just going to suck so much harder.
Imagine one of Uwe Bolls' movies dubbed to german. Oh, the horror.

Clint Eastwood's film "Unforgiven" was also really badly cropped. One interesting thing about LF is that every film of his I saw in widescreen I liked and every one I saw in pan & scan I hated!
Dario Argento has a similiar problem - must be viewed in 2.35:1!
The same goes for John Carpenter's classic "Halloween" (only in W/S do we see Nancy Loomis getting her throat slashed, in P/S in looks like a choking)
A - Attention
I - Interest
D - Decision
A - Action!

Pan & Scan is bad, but its not as bad as the cropping that plagued older VHS releases. Ever see a close-up of the bridge of someone's nose? It was probably a shot of their eyes, but the image has been "cropped" in order to fit a TV screen. S1c84ome films lose whole characters from sequences because of this. Cropping has slaughtered many Italian giallo & horror films.
If you want details on the video formatting process, check out this link: http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/

I've always wondering if the conversion to pan & scan destroying any concepts that LF might have for. House by the Cemetary is very muddled in pan & scan, Suspiria had a similiar problem.
Stage Fright did have a crap ending (I think it was for a quick sell to the Yanks)
A - Attention
I - Interest
D - Decision
A - Action!

While I have a soft spot for Fulci, I find his films hit or miss. I'm sympathetic to his final years, where his obstinance was greatly exacerbated by his poor health. I don't hold those against him to a great degree. Taking his canon of horror films together, the crap-films greatly outnumber the watchable ones.
The Beyond is probably his "purest" film. The worldview is downbeat and cynical, like Fulci's. It's not just a horror film with a fashionably grim ending. The movie IS confusing in that events occur outside of a solid timeframe(especially the final third), but this was intentional in order to keep the viewer off balance, and to make the narrative more like a sinister dream.
The Beyond works well, for the most part. Not everything clicks, though. Hence, the absolutely ludicrous, show-stopping-for-all-the-wrong-reasons spider attack. Talk about a mood breaking scene. Ouch, Maestro.
And, yes, Fulci has suffered at the hands of indiffere16d0nt video distributors. Mostly the early VHS releases. The Beyond was edited and released as Seven Doors of Death (I can only imagine, with footage missing, how much more jumbled this film would seem). Hell, the Vestron VHS of House by the Cemetery had scenes IN THE WRONG ORDER. Add to that the usual Pan and Scan, full-frame abuse that so many imported horror flicks suffered through, and it's no surprise most people think Fulci is a complete hack. He wasn't a hack. An inconsistent filmmaker, but no hack.
I'm not too keen on Nekromantik, myself. I've rarely encountered a film so pathetic that tries so hard to shock. I saw it on video around 1990 after reading about it from Chas. Balun and his Deep Red cronies. After watching it, I was mystified as to how something so dull and pretentious got so much good press. I just found the movie BORING. I assume that Nekromantik looked great most of the Yankee crowd in 1989-90 because our own horror films had degenerated into "thrillomedies" and other bloodless, spineless dreck. The ending is a kick, though. I suppose a lousy film with a great denoument looks better overall than a decent movie with a crappy ending (Deliria aka Stagefright, I'm looking at YOU).

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Yes, i do think most of them are ignorant, because a lot of them are not willing to even try to absorb his films. They often "make up" conclusions of his films that's not even correct.
So to think of him as inept, is mostly done by people who don't understand, and are not willing to understand his craft.

The Nth degree. It means like "the highest amount."
It just seemed like you snapped at everyone who said something negative about Lucio Fulci. I can understand why most people don't like Fulci.
I think his films are an acquired taste. The first Fulci film I saw was Sombie Flesh Eaters, which is the most mainstream and accessible of his work. I still enjoy his zombie films the most, but I love his other horror and giallo films too(I'm still working towards the other genres). The more I watched them and read about them, the more I understood them and liked them.
The people who think that Fulci is inept or crude aren't ignorant, they just haven't had the chance to completely absorb everything about his films and ideas.

What does Nth meada0n?
I'm not angry. I just think it's amazing that people think of him as inept. Mostly, the people who say this, have no clue about italian cinema and what the director's try to express. A lot of them don't even care, and that says something.

I'm not sure if you guys are gonna check this, but I have a quote from Mr. Fulci that perfectly explains the intention of the incoherent nature of his plots:
" . . . my idea was to make an absolute film . . . there's no logic to it, just a succession of images. The Sea of Darkness (from the final scene in The Beyond), for instance, is an absolute world, an immobile world where every horizon is similar . . . Both films [here Fulci is comparing the Beyond with Inferno] have no structure. We tried in Italy to make films based on pure themes, without a plot, and The Beyond, like Inferno, refuses conventions and traditional structures . . . People who blame The Beyond for its lack of story have no understood that it's a film of images, which must be received without reflection . . ."
The same can be said for House by the Cemetery and most other Fulci films from this period. I hope this helps someone.
Oh, and Nerdofhorror, you're angry and obsessed to the Nth. Please, please get a grip.

How about City of the Living Deadwhat the heck was up with the ending? The kid runs towards the two survivorsthe woman starts screamingand it just ENDS. Now THAT is a huge plot hole
To the very toes he is terrified, because the ground gives way under him, And the dream begins

The Cat People
The Beyond
It's Alive
Freaks
Puppet Master
Society
Deep Red
I Walked With a Zombie
Werewolf of London

you have to look at his earlier movies.Dont torture a duckling or Lizard in a womans skinclassics!

I haven't seen House of the Dead yet. I don't really watch a lot of new horrormainstream. I like the old stuff. Well, here's 10 great horrorfilms (and i won't count any Fulci-films in it, because you probably know what i think of his films):

• Night of the Demon (1980)
• Cannibal Man
• Nekromantik
• Nekromantik 2
• Schramm
• Der Todesking
• Santa Sangre
• Nightmare City
• The Gore-Gore Girls
• Combat Shock (not really a horrorfilm, but still such a fine piece of art)

Clear your mind and think of say, 10 titles that spring to mind. As one horror movie fan to another I would recommend:
GINGER SNAPS
HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES
SUSPIRIA
NIGHT OF THE DEMON (1958)
BLACK CHRISTMAS
SILVER BULLET
THE PROPHECY (1995-ish)
RE-ANIMATOR
EVIL DEAD 2: DEAD BY DAWN
RABID
My girlfriend is endlessly throwing this kind of question at me, now I'm asking people all over the place it as well, only with her it's more like 10 films with Tom Cruise. Groan!
Did you see Uwe Boll's "House of the Dead"? I saw it a few months back and reviewed it. I felt that it borrowed heavily from House by the Cemetary and Zombie Flesh Eaters. Only badly.
"Groovy."