Italian horror fans can look forward to new flicks from Lamberto Bava, Umberto Lenzi and Sergio Martino!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I love me a good Italian horror flick. I love giallos and crime films as well, but there's something about a great Dario Argento or Lucio Fulci flick that just does it for me. It might be the colors Argento uses (or his music, for that matter) or it could be the intense gore someone like Fulci brings to his films. Whatever reason, those two filmmakers made me fall in love with Italian horror.

The state film entity called Istituto Luce is trying to jump start the long floundering Italian slasher genre with what is called a "four-pic Masters of Italian Horror package" done by directors like Lamberto Bava, Umberto Lenzi, Sergio Martino and newcomer Nicola Rondolino. I hope they mean 4 different films being sold as a package for international distribution, not four short films jammed together.

Umberto Lenzi did some really balls-out work, including the at times hard to watch MAKE THEM DIE... SLOWLY (aka CANNIBAL FEROX) and THE MAN FROM DEEP RIVER, both cannibal flicks that'll turn your skin. He also did a film called NIGHTMARE CITY that I quite like, although it is much less intense.

I'm quite a fan of Lamberto Bava's work. Yes, he's the son of Mario Bava, but his style is more like a melding of Argento's flair for the artistic and Fulci's eye for fun gore, with a bit of Sam Raimi-type camp thrown in for good measure. DEMONS and DEMONS 2 rock so hard. Lesser known, A BLADE IN THE DARK is also a favorite of mine.

I must confess to being fairly ignorant of Sergio Martino's work. I've seen TORSO, which he directed in the '70s and apart from having a great trailer and about 20 great minutes in the entire film I didn't take to it too much.

Here's specific information on their films. All sound really interesting, and some down-right fucked up (Umberto and Nicola, I'm looking at you):

Lenzi's "Horror Baby," about a 15-year-old paraplegic girl who becomes a serial killer after viewing sex from her window.

Lamberto Bava's "Murder House," set in a musician's villa where multiple murders occur. Bava, son of the late horror maestro Mario Bava, is the helmer of Dario Argento-produced "Demons," among many other pics.

Sergio Martino's "The Corners of the Night," tale of a young woman who moves into her deceased grandmother's house where nocturnal mayhem ensues. Martino's more than 60 helming credits include recently restored Barbara Bach starrer "Screamers," a cult title set on a mad Caribbean island.

Young Italo helmer Nicola Rondolino will helm "Brotherhood," in which three Romanian boys abducted by a child sex ring take revenge as ghosts.

This gathering of Italian horror icons was inspired by the Showtime MASTERS OF HORROR series. I just hope these guys put out some better work than we got in that series. It certainly seems like they're pushing the limits much more... I mean, that ghosts of raped and murdered children getting their revenge on the perverts who killed them sounds as fucked up as anything I've heard this year. I'd love to see some more great thrillers from these guys. What about you?