This is the story of a girl who inherits a hotel in Louisiana where years before all of the guests suddenly disappeared not long after a wizard was killed in the basement. The woman begins renovations and in the process unleashes a terrible evil and one of the seven doors to hell.
As many of people have said about Lucio Fulci, he never let plot get in the way of him making a movie. This is the best example of that, it has almost no plot. Basically a series of set pieces arranged in order to have a loose dream logic this is a movie that makes no sense whats so ever. What ever happens happens to get us to the next thing. The warlock from the start warns the people who lynch him that he's the only one keeping them safe. He is, in effect, the good guy keeping the gate closed. Later his resurrected corpse proves to be the villain killing everyone off and raising the rest of the dead. It makes no real sense, then again very little, including the carnivorous spiders in the library, makes any sense.
I'm one of those people who wonder at the horror fans who LOVE Fulci's work. Don't get me wrong I do think he was a good director, I like his westerns, however I wonder why, outside of his set pieces, people rave about his horror films. Yes, I'm a fan of Zombie and I like City of the Living Dead, but many of his other horror films, this one included leave me shaking my head (and hitting the fast forward button). No doubt he was one of the movers and shakers in the Italian horror cycle of the early 1980's but it was because of his splatter and not because of his genius at crafting a horror story. I do accept that there is often a dream logic that carries things along, but at the same time Fulci often abandons it to the next eye gouge opportunity. While his over all output as a director argues against it, his horror output, for the most part,sees him in hack territory. Genius of the gross out set piece? Absolutely. Director of scary horror films? Not really.
This is not a good movie. And even if you could convince me it was I'll never say its a great one. Certainly it has some really cool scenes-most of the deaths are intriguing to look at, but thats about all. The plot as I said is close to non existent and uses a good number of standard Italian horror ploys, gate ways to hell, zombies, gore, weird women, electronic music...oh do I have to go on? This film is a turkey. Its for gore-hounds alone.
(For those looking for the full uncut version: I could be wrong but I think the Diamond Entertainment release under the name Seven Doors of Death is the complete film. Its run time of just over 84 minutes is less than the full running time, but longer than the cut US version of the same name, certainly all the gore seems intact. If this was sourced from a PAL original the film would be complete.)
As many of people have said about Lucio Fulci, he never let plot get in the way of him making a movie. This is the best example of that, it has almost no plot. Basically a series of set pieces arranged in order to have a loose dream logic this is a movie that makes no sense whats so ever. What ever happens happens to get us to the next thing. The warlock from the start warns the people who lynch him that he's the only one keeping them safe. He is, in effect, the good guy keeping the gate closed. Later his resurrected corpse proves to be the villain killing everyone off and raising the rest of the dead. It makes no real sense, then again very little, including the carnivorous spiders in the library, makes any sense.
I'm one of those people who wonder at the horror fans who LOVE Fulci's work. Don't get me wrong I do think he was a good director, I like his westerns, however I wonder why, outside of his set pieces, people rave about his horror films. Yes, I'm a fan of Zombie and I like City of the Living Dead, but many of his other horror films, this one included leave me shaking my head (and hitting the fast forward button). No doubt he was one of the movers and shakers in the Italian horror cycle of the early 1980's but it was because of his splatter and not because of his genius at crafting a horror story. I do accept that there is often a dream logic that carries things along, but at the same time Fulci often abandons it to the next eye gouge opportunity. While his over all output as a director argues against it, his horror output, for the most part,sees him in hack territory. Genius of the gross out set piece? Absolutely. Director of scary horror films? Not really.
This is not a good movie. And even if you could convince me it was I'll never say its a great one. Certainly it has some really cool scenes-most of the deaths are intriguing to look at, but thats about all. The plot as I said is close to non existent and uses a good number of standard Italian horror ploys, gate ways to hell, zombies, gore, weird women, electronic music...oh do I have to go on? This film is a turkey. Its for gore-hounds alone.
(For those looking for the full uncut version: I could be wrong but I think the Diamond Entertainment release under the name Seven Doors of Death is the complete film. Its run time of just over 84 minutes is less than the full running time, but longer than the cut US version of the same name, certainly all the gore seems intact. If this was sourced from a PAL original the film would be complete.)