Don't Torture a Duckling (1972)
To most horror fans, the name Lucio Fulci means one thing: gore, and buckets of it. The splatter operas of his later career earned him the "Godfather of Gore" billing that still defines his reputation, and if you want to see what that looks like in full swing, I covered City of the Living Dead on here not long ago. Which is exactly what makes Don't Torture a Duckling a mild surprise. Made back in 1972, this is Fulci in a different mode entirely, and if you only know him from the later stuff, it might genuinely catch you off guard.
It is a giallo, yes, but a comparatively grounded, grown-up one. A journalist and a young woman find themselves drawn into a murder mystery in a sleepy southern Italian village, trying to work out who is killing its children before the body count climbs any further. The genre's familiar furniture is all present: the amateur sleuths, the lurking menace, the lurid set-ups. But running underneath the whodunit is something with a bit more weight to it, a simmering anger at superstition, mob justice and the dark hypocrisies of small-town life. Fulci is plainly after something with more on its mind than the average body-count thriller, and for the most part he reaches it.
I have worked my way through a fair few giallo by now, Fulci's own and those of his great contemporary Dario Argento. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage helped lay down the template for the whole genre, and Don't Torture a Duckling sits comfortably within that tradition while nudging at its edges. It knows its genre well enough to play with it a little, and that is no small thing.
It is also, unmistakably, a film of its era, for better and worse. The soundtrack is thoroughly of its time, all lounge-y unease and woozy strings, and I rather loved it. The performances are pure giallo, broad and melodramatic and pitched some way north of subtle, and the English dub does them no favours at all, flattening whatever was livelier in the original Italian. If you have spent any time in this corner of cinema, none of that will trouble you. If you haven't, it may take some adjusting to.
Some rate this among Fulci's finest hours, and I can follow the argument. There is real craft in the atmosphere he builds, and the social anger gives the film a backbone that most genre entries simply do not bother with. But I would stop short of calling it great. The pacing wanders more than it should, and the mystery is more gripping in its mood than in its resolution. The solution, when it arrives, lands with less force than the tension that preceded it, which is a recurring problem in giallo and this one is not entirely immune.
So, an interesting, occasionally striking, slightly uneven watch. Worth seeing, particularly if you have only encountered Fulci through Zombie Flesh Eaters or his other visceral later work, because this is a genuinely different side of him. A more thoughtful, more socially conscious filmmaker than his reputation might suggest. Three stars.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 1972 | Watched: 2026-08-19
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Shudder · Arrow Video Amazon Channel · Shudder Amazon Channel · ARROW
Rent: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Philo · AMC Plus Apple TV channel · AMC+ Amazon Channel · AMC+
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.
