Don't Torture a Duckling

Einer der Filme, die klar beweisen, dass Lucio Fulci nicht nur ein Trashmaker, sondern auch ein geschickter Regisseur war. Ein Thriller-Drama, dem man im Hinblick auf die Filmemacher-Seite wahrscheinlich nur die übertriebene Laufzeit vorwerfen kann. Es ist ein Thriller mit einer konventionellen Handlung über die Fahndung eines Mörders, der sich in einem unkonventionellen Milieu abspielt. In dem Film findet man natürlich Fulcis fetischistische Aufnahmen von Details, die durch eine seltsam funktionierende Musik begleitet werden. Der Film hat praktisch keine Hauptfigur. Er konzentriert sich auf mehrere Akteure, die er abwechselnd als unschuldig oder verdächtig zeigt. Ich habe mich über die provokative sexuelle Spannung einer der markantesten Figuren gefreut, die von der schönen Barbara Bouchet dargestellt wurde. (23.06.2003)

The best of Fulci’s Giallo. Horror movie of the Year. (31.12.2010)

Don't Torture a Ducklingis a film that stands out within the giallo genre. It does so by taking place more in the countryside rather than a big city, evoking a different atmosphere that hints at a somewhat different approach. And that is really happening. Moreover, Fulci has a gift for incredibly powerful scenes. In this case, it's a scene where a woman is beaten and then at the last moment hopes for rescue. But it doesn’t come. People just drive past her. This simply has to give you chills. (12.04.2014)

According to the reviews here, this slightly morbid giallo film is quite OK. Well, I don’t really think so because other than the scene involving the naked Italian actress who was trying to seduce a 10-year-old boy, I only enjoyed one other scene that I had to wait for until the very end. An average course of investigation that looked like a combination of French crime movies and Italian naughty movies reached a conclusion that literally took my breath away. You see, the final fight was like an absolutely brutal Italian Fight Club. Brutal, illogical and in the end also bloody. I had to watch the scene twice because I haven’t seen something this funny in a movie for a long time. Thank you, Mr. Fulci, you kept low-key during the entire movie but you sure had a lot of fun with the ending. (27.02.2017)

Although Lucio Fulci is a well-known horror veteran and became famous mainly for his decent gore scenes, this film has none, so there is not the slightest enthusiasm and Fulci disappointed me. I quite like the giallo sub-genre, it is almost identical to the slasher sub-genre, which is all about entertainment, this film is unfortunately quite boring, slow and without blood and without exposed women, the only shocking thing here is that young boys die, even the twist itself I didn't find very shocking, so for me a very average detective story that doesn't deserve to carry the label horror. 50% (19.04.2015)