The Four of the Apocalypse

Famed Italian horror director Lucio Fulci had two distinct periods of success in the moviemaking industry that were, unfortunately, followed each by periods of terrible films. Between the first and second waves of greatness, he decided to make a little money doing westerns, which were enourmously popular and profitable in Europe of the early 70’s. He made three spaghetti westerns and this was the second of the two, which was made in 1974. I like Fulci, and I love spaghetti westerns, but I have always skipped Fulci’s westerns because they are so generally seen as cinematic junk food. After watching what most agree is his best of the three, I wish I would’ve skipped it again.

This movie is not typical spaghetti western, outside of the fact that it was shot in Spain with Italian actors but the story takes place in Utah, and is more like a typical late 60’s/early 70’s movie. They do drugs and the filmmaker shoots it through trippy lenses. They ride through the fields to kitchy pop songs about riding through the fields. Though set a century ago, they uses phrases like “dude,” “man,” and “don’t try to jive me daddy.” The writing sucks and the performances are caricatures. Put it all together and it’s nothing but a flick you’d see late at night on some non-mainstream cable channel. Go see a Fulci movie, just don’t go see this one.

SA