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A reporter and a promiscuous young woman try to solve a series of child killings in a remote southern Italian town that’s rife with superstition and distrust of outsiders.
The first film that I ever saw by Lucio Fulci was “The New York Ripper” and it will forever be etched in my mind when I think of the director. A good decade before that movie, however, there was “Don’t Torture a Duckling.” In the Fulci canon, “Don’t Torture a Duckling” plays a very important role because it is where the director began to use violent gore effects.
The plot of the film involves several young boys who are brutally murdered in a small village in Italy. A local detective begins to investigate a young priest, who censors the town’s reading material. This priest reveals himself to both want to send the children to heaven so they can remain innocent while the priest also desires the children sexually.
As I read other reviews and analysis of the films, the direction that “Don’t Torture a Duckling” heads in, about questioning the Catholic Church, was actually representative of many Giallo movies at the time. For that matter, “Don’t Torture a Duckling” is highly representative of Giallo films.
Most people who are familiar with this film know the scene at the of the film in which the townspeople brutally attack a woman even though she has been cleared of suspicion. It’s a trick that reminds me of something Paul Schrader would later try to do. It’s a remarkably hard and violent scene to watch. Is the viewer of the violent film also violent in nature for wanting to watch this scene?
“Don’t Torture a Duckling” is a very well composed and slick (for the times) film. That said, it moves a bit slowly. A search for the murderer does not occur until all of the murders in the movie have happened. Because the film has all the commonalities of a Giallo without feeling like or being similar to any other Giallos, that the film is such a substantial success. Fulci really did reinvent the genre here, which is something that you hear said a lot but actually rarely ever happens.
If only for its pure inventiveness while still staying within the confines of the genre, this might be my favorite Giallo. I’d recommend watching this if you like Italian horror. If you are going to watch this film, there’s simply no better than to do it than with Arrow’s recent remastered edition.
Now available on a 2-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray from Arrow Video
