Touch of Death

Touch of Death (1988)

Quando Alice ruppe lo specchio

The financially strained and increasingly desperate, Lester Parsons concocts a brilliant get-rich-quick scheme; cruise the lonely hearts ads for rich women to fleece. Too bad then, that Lester’s also a psychotic cannibal who enjoys mutilating these lovelorn souls, via his trusty chainsaw, and using their flesh for his dinner. When a copycat killer threatens to bring him down, Lester must do all he can to prevent this new killer’s sloppy work from ruining them both.

Date of release
1988-06-22
TMDB
5.4 / 10 (88)
Runtime
1h 26m
Genres
Horror, Comedy
Director
Lucio Fulci

Casting

Interesting facts

Touch of Death is a direct-to-video Italian horror film directed by Lucio Fulci. The film was developed as part of a series for direct-to video and television films titled I maestri del thriller which had eight other films in the series. Fulci was invited to join the project originally as a supervisor, but brought in his own story for Touch of Death which began filming on 22 June 1988. The films were later released to home video under the heading of "Lucio Fulci presenta" by Formula Home Video, but were sued by the producer Carlo Alberto Alfieri who owned the home video rights. The films in the series were later released by Avo Film on VHS and DVD.

Production

By the second half of the 1980s, Italian cinema was finding it more difficult to get theatrical distribution. As films released to home video did not need to be sent to the rating board for a theatrical screening certificate, some productions including Touch of Death saved money by releasing films direct-to-video. The film was part of a series titled I maestri del thriller that was aimed directly at television and home video release.

Cinematographer Silvano Tessicini got director Lucio Fulci involved in the series. Fulci had just returned from the Philippines after shooting Zombi 3 and was ill. Tessicini initially suggested Fulci to be part of the production as a supervisor, but Fulci submitted his own story, Touch of Death.

The other films in the series included Giovanni Simonelli's Hansel e Gretel, Leandro Lucchetti's Bloody Psycho, Andrea Bianchi's Massacre, Enzo Milioni's Luna di sangue, Mario Bianchi's Non avere paura della zia Marta, Umberto Lenzi's Le porte dell'inferno and Fulci's Sodoma's Ghost.

Filming for Touch of Death began on 22 June 1988, shortly after Fulci finished filming Sodoma's Ghost. The film was shot around Rome and Vides Studios. Fulci later spoke negatively about both films stating that there were so many shots in the film to get the minimum running time of the films complete. Fucli also argued with the producers on set while the producers were unhappy with him as Fulci was continuously behind schedule.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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