Frizzi 2 Fulci x 'The Beyond'
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Sat 11.1020:00 - 22:00De Vooruit, GentTHEATERZAAL
We're screening his chilling horror classic The Beyond (1981), with a live performance of the iconic soundtrack by none other than 75-year-old Fabio Frizzi — joined by a full band.
Frizzi 2 Fulci is a musical tribute to the godfather of Italian horror, and a spine-tingling must-see for any true horror fan.
Italy isn’t just the land of espresso, pasta and picturesque ruins — it’s also one of the birthplaces of blood-soaked horror and shameless exploitation cinema from the ‘70s and ‘80s. And in that landscape, director Lucio Fulci (1927–1996) carved out a space all his own — and soaked it in gore.
Where contemporaries like Mario Bava and Dario Argento dazzled with baroque set design, kinetic camerawork and flamboyant color palettes, Fulci went the other way: cold brutality, blunt stylization, and above all... never looking away. Where others cut the camera just in time, Fulci zooms in. For a long time. Hard.
“Watching a Fulci film isn’t your typical cozy horror night — it’s an endurance test. Who’ll be the first to look away?”
Wouter Vanhaelemeesch – programmer
Fulci’s work — often drenched in sexually charged violence and a relentlessly nihilistic tone — was never far from controversy. In the early 1980s, several of his films landed on the UK’s notorious “Video Nasties” list. That only fueled his cult status, with a loyal following that persists to this day.
Quentin Tarantino has cited Fulci as a major influence and was responsible for bringing The Beyond back to American theaters.
Early in his career, Fulci dabbled in everything: crime thrillers, comedies, spaghetti westerns. But his name will forever be tied to his infamous giallo films like Lizard in a Woman’s Skin and Don’t Torture a Duckling, where he pushed the boundaries of an already transgressive genre.
With Zombi 2 and City of the Living Dead, he found his true calling: visceral, hallucinatory horror. He crowned himself the undisputed master of Italian grand guignol. The Beyond, the second installment in his loosely connected “Gates of Hell” trilogy, is widely regarded as his ultimate masterpiece.
The plot? A young woman inherits a derelict hotel in New Orleans and travels there to renovate and reopen it. Bad idea: the building sits atop one of the seven gates to hell. Whoops. Years earlier, the previous “gatekeeper” — a young painter named Schweick — was brutally murdered. Since then, all hell has quite literally broken loose.
What truly sets The Beyond apart is its dreamlike, nightmarish atmosphere — Fulci may have come closer than anyone to filming H.P. Lovecraft. And then there’s the legendary soundtrack by Fabio Frizzi: haunting piano motifs, unhinged string arrangements, and pounding ‘80s funk laced with proggy synths. The perfect sonic backdrop to Fulci’s morbid, melancholic world.
One warning:
Fulci is not for the faint of heart. If your idea of horror is a mildly spooky Netflix binge under a blanket, you might want to sit this one out. This one’s strictly for the hardened gorehounds.
Italy isn’t just the land of espresso, pasta and picturesque ruins — it’s also one of the birthplaces of blood-soaked horror and shameless exploitation cinema from the ‘70s and ‘80s. And in that landscape, director Lucio Fulci (1927–1996) carved out a space all his own — and soaked it in gore.
Where contemporaries like Mario Bava and Dario Argento dazzled with baroque set design, kinetic camerawork and flamboyant color palettes, Fulci went the other way: cold brutality, blunt stylization, and above all... never looking away. Where others cut the camera just in time, Fulci zooms in. For a long time. Hard.
“Watching a Fulci film isn’t your typical cozy horror night — it’s an endurance test. Who’ll be the first to look away?”
Wouter Vanhaelemeesch – programmer
Fulci’s work — often drenched in sexually charged violence and a relentlessly nihilistic tone — was never far from controversy. In the early 1980s, several of his films landed on the UK’s notorious “Video Nasties” list. That only fueled his cult status, with a loyal following that persists to this day.
Quentin Tarantino has cited Fulci as a major influence and was responsible for bringing The Beyond back to American theaters.
Early in his career, Fulci dabbled in everything: crime thrillers, comedies, spaghetti westerns. But his name will forever be tied to his infamous giallo films like Lizard in a Woman’s Skin and Don’t Torture a Duckling, where he pushed the boundaries of an already transgressive genre.
With Zombi 2 and City of the Living Dead, he found his true calling: visceral, hallucinatory horror. He crowned himself the undisputed master of Italian grand guignol. The Beyond, the second installment in his loosely connected “Gates of Hell” trilogy, is widely regarded as his ultimate masterpiece.
The plot? A young woman inherits a derelict hotel in New Orleans and travels there to renovate and reopen it. Bad idea: the building sits atop one of the seven gates to hell. Whoops. Years earlier, the previous “gatekeeper” — a young painter named Schweick — was brutally murdered. Since then, all hell has quite literally broken loose.
What truly sets The Beyond apart is its dreamlike, nightmarish atmosphere — Fulci may have come closer than anyone to filming H.P. Lovecraft. And then there’s the legendary soundtrack by Fabio Frizzi: haunting piano motifs, unhinged string arrangements, and pounding ‘80s funk laced with proggy synths. The perfect sonic backdrop to Fulci’s morbid, melancholic world.
One warning:
Fulci is not for the faint of heart. If your idea of horror is a mildly spooky Netflix binge under a blanket, you might want to sit this one out. This one’s strictly for the hardened gorehounds.
“Violence is Italian art!”