Lucio Fulci: Beyond the Gates

by Chas Balun

Book by Balun, Chas

Genres: Film, Horror, Nonfiction

79 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1997

About the author

Chas Balun was without a doubt a horror fan's horror fan. Renowned for his brutally blunt and profane in-your-face wildman writing style, wholehearted and unapologetic love for hardcore gruesome horror splatter cinema, and, most of all, his trademark savagely witty, sardonic, and unconventional iconoclastic perspective, Chas was a true cult figure of horror journalism with a strong and substantial fan following. Born in 1948 in Compton, California, Balun grew up as a hippie in the 1960s in Southern California. He wrote his first book "The Connoissseur's Guide to the Contemporary Horror Film" in 1983. Chas became a regular contributing writer for "Fangoria" magazine in 1987 starting with issue # 62. He achieved his greatest enduring cult fame with his fiercely caustic, outspoken, and opinionated "Piece of Mind" column in the spin-off publication "GoreZone." This column ran from 1988 to 1991 and was one of the most popular and beloved features in the magazine. Balun was the founder of his own self-published magazine "Deep Red" and the author of the novel "Ninth and Hell Street." Among the nonfiction books Chas wrote are "The Gore Score," "More Gore Score," "Horror Holocaust," and "Beyond Horror Holocaust." Besides writing, he was also an underground cartoonist, a graphic designer (he designed the monster for the 1991 Fred Olen Ray horror comedy "Evil Toons"), and a t-shirt designer. Balun lived with his wife Pat in his home in Westminster, California. Chas died from cancer at age 61 on December 18, 2009. Although he's sadly no longer with us, Balun's fiery love and unbridled passion for the horror genre shall continue to bleed on for all eternity in his exceptionally lively, funny, and always entertaining say-it-like-you-see-it writing.

Reviews

[Alysa H. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written just after Fulci's death in the mid-1990s, this little book is a gushing tribute by a huge fan. Published now, it would probably be just a long web article, basically. I appreciate Balun's sentiments, as I appreciate any outpouring of purely fannish indulgence, but I would have liked to see some actual analysis of Fulci's work and not just a list of movies and a string of subjective praise. (Also, Fulci's daughter's foreword kind of makes him sound like an a-hole, which I doubt was the desired effect. At least a few passages later in the book help to repair the damage!)

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

A slim book that's also pretty slim on content.