Door into Silence (1991)

Ah, dear Lucio really likes to fuck with our minds and expectations. Door into silence is not a horror movie. I won't even consider it a thriller. It's more of a black comedy dressed like an episode of Twilight Zone. By the way, do you remember the time when everyone hated Murder Rock and loathed Cat in the Brain? It was that time when even Argentos Stendahl Syndrome was a fiasco, a bad movie. Now it's been more than a few years and people start to understand that these aren't bad. I'm not sure that Door into silence will get the same treatment, but more people will understand it and see that it's not that bad that some "experts" claims it to be.

John Savage, a bit chubby and with curly blonde locks, plays Melvin Deveraux. He's in a hurry... to his own funeral, but he just dosen't know it yet. A strange woman shows up from time to time, teases him... flirts with him and acting mysteriusly. But the worst thing is the hearse, a fast-speeding car with a crazy driver who tries to get Melvin off the road several times.

Slowly Melvin understands that there's something wrong with the situation. Some people just dosen't seem to notice him, and is it his body that's laying in the hearse? And why dosen't the hot sun ever set?

It's not much to talk about concerning the storyline. It's just John Savage going around in his car, chasing the hearse or being chased by it. Sometimes there's flashes to stuff that's already happen and he's getting more and more irritated on the sun. But you know, I kinda liked it. It's a slow movie, but ninty minutes went quite fast after all. The directing is most of the time excellent and Fulci knows how to tell a story. It has a cheap tv-look, but the cinematography is very good and quite moody.

I can understand why not many typical Fulci-fans like this movie. There's no gore for example. But the atmosphere is good, and a good jazz soundtrack (some stuff taken from New York Ripper if I didn't hear wrong) makes everything much more enjoyable. The ending, with the music choice, is ironic and and sudden. But it fits the movie. This is more of a typical dream, much more than his other experiments in the genre: It's slow and repetitive, and has a hopeless feeling of that there's no way to change destiny. For Melvin, life is fucked. And I wonder if he dosen't deserve it?