Color, 1989, 92 mins. 36 secs.
Directed by Andrea Bianchi
Starring Gino Concari, Patrizia Falcone, Silvia Conti, Pier Maria Cecchini, Robert Egon, Maurice Poli, Danny Degli Espositi
Vinegar Syndrome (UHD & Blu-ray) (US R0 4K/HD), EC Entertainment (DVD) (Holland R0 PAL)
Around the turn of the 
1990s, genre magazines following the rapidly increasing fandom for Lucio Fulci had their work cut out for them trying to 
decipher news involving "Lucio Fulci Presents," a batch of Italian productions bearing the maestro's name but his exact involvement left very much in the air. Muddying the waters even more was the fact that Fulci himself (who had apparently lent his name to the series while needing money due to dire medical emergencies) recycled chunks of several of these films in his legendary cut-and-paste epic, A Cat in the Brain, which also tossed in plentiful bits from Fulci's own Touch of Death. One of the more prominent films in that patchwork was Massacre, directed by Andrea Bianchi very much in his Strip Nude for Your Killer mode but with the budget and ambitions of a lower grade Filmirage production. (On top of that, its Italian artwork was cribbed directly from Phantasm II for some reason with both of its stars still very recognizable.) Folks pining for the glory days of the '70s giallo weren't too amused by these cut-rate curios which also included titles like Hansel and Gretel, Bloody Psycho, The Murder Secret, and Escape from Death.
Someone in sunglasses, a hoodie, and red knitted gloves brutally murders a prostitute with an ax in broad daylight, and the cop in charge, Walter (Concari), is also spending a lot of time around the set of an occult horror movie starring his girlfriend, Jessica (Falcone). The director, Frank (Five Dolls for an August Moon's Poli), decides it would be a great idea to bring a real-life medium to the set to give some verisimilitude to the production and boost the very eccentric cast and crew, including drag-crazy Adrian (Espositi). The seance turns out to be a lot more than they bargained for as they seem to be inviting a legendary 
real-life serial killer, which ignites a string of murders among them. Though we've seen a killer at the beginning, the 
solution to the guilty party's identity might not be so simple...
If you want gore, nudity, and utter absurdity, Massacre delivers it in buckets along with a roster of trashy characters of every sexual bent you can imagine. It's wildly inappropriate and definitely not where newcomers to Italian horror should start (or specifically the giallo, though there is more of a straight-up slasher in tone), but if you know the name Andrea Bianchi you should probably have a good idea of what's in store. One of the standout factors is actually the bouncy synth score from Luigi Ceccarelli, which helps perk up the more indulgent soap opera filler moments. You can also have fun spotting Jess Franco regular Paul Muller as Walter's boss, mainly there to yell at him like any good police commissioner.
Reasonably easy to find on the gray market over the years, this one hasn't had many official releases with the best option for a long time being the Dutch DVD taken from a very dated, drab-looking old master in Italian with optional English, Finnish, French, Norwegian, Swedish, or Dutch subtitles. (No English dub was ever created, despite several of the cast members performing their lines that way.) A far superior option is the unlikely but welcome 4K UHD and Blu-ray set from Vinegar Syndrome in 2026, featuring a very colorful, crisp scan from the 16mm camera negative that looks about as impressive as this ragged production possibly could. And yes, the HDR-compatible 
Dolby Vision does bring out some nice, deep blacks and vivid reds in particular. The DTS-HD 
MA Italian 2.0 mono track sounds fine and comes with optional English subtitles, plus a new audio commentary by Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth who really come to grips with the philosophical underpinnings and subtle social commentary of the film. Well... maybe not, but they do a fine job of covering Bianchi's career to this point, the production history, its place in the Fulci-ish line, the state of the giallo in the last stretch of the '80s, and much more.
"Dr. White or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Massacre" (21m49s) with actor Pier Maria Cecchini is worth the price of the disc by itself, an absolutely hilarious chat with the actor about his gibberish-spouting female co-star, the psychic use of cotton balls, and the bemused and frustrated reactions of the cast and crew during production. Then in "The Sleepless Composer" (18m13s), Luigi Ceccarelli about his start working for Claudio Fragasso, the lessons he learned about becoming a film composer during the age of synthesizers, the musicians who influenced him, In "Family Run Horror" (19m9s), soundman Davide Magara recalls his early days in the industry, a case of sepsis that affected his career path, working with Eiprando Visconti and Liliana Cavani, and the experience of shooting in old castles and eating fettuccine. "The Remains of the Genre" (11m) features assistant director Michele De Angelis conversing about his memories of working with Fulci on a variety of projects and his opportunity to get in on the "Presents" series. Finally in "When Lucio Sold Off His Name" (26m56s), Ercolani gives a detailed overview of the peculiar history behind this series, how it came to be, and what it has to do with the maestro himself at a low ebb in his career with other filmmakers coming it at odd points in their lives as well.
Reviewed on April 6, 2026
