Don't Torture a Duckling -- Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci is my favorite of the major Italian genre filmmakers. Like his contemporaries, he's made his share of clunkers, but when he's on, he offers some of the best terror and gore you're likely to find anywhere. His movies are inventive and often trippy as hell (watch A Cat in the Brain of The Beyond). Argento my have a better eye for a shot, but Fulci's films have better momentum.
Don't Torture a Duckling is relatively early Fulci and firmly in the Giallo genre. It's a mystery without much gore but a pretty compelling story about a town where someone is murdering children. The movie is kind of sprawling in terms of characters at the sacrifice of character development. We're really just rooting for the crime to get solved. Fulci does a good job of keeping the audience guessing, though if you pay any attention to run times, it's always evident when you're coming to a dead end. Sometimes I think I should put a piece of tape over that time timer...
Many view this as one of Fulci's best (and supposedly, he does as well). It lacks in the visceral thrills I crave from Fulci but is plenty entertaining without them.
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