Quando Alice Ruppe lo Specchio (A.K.A. Touch of Death) (1988)

I wouldn't call this one of Fulci's last attempts but around this time he was certainly nearing the end of his career. This translates into the quality of the movie. It's by no means a brilliant atmospheric masterpiece like The Beyond or Zombi 2 were, but it's still a very enjoyable one for Fulci fans. Only now did I notice how many stock footage of this movie Fulci used to make ''A Cat in the Brain''. Actors who had never been on set of that movie have lead roles in it. Not the only time that happened in Italy though. Fred Williamson for example never knew about the existence of Black Cobra 4. When he found out years later that the movie existed it turned out that footage from the first three movies were used to make a fourth one (obviously without Williamson getting a penny for it).

Lester Parson is a middle aged guy who dates women, only to kill them and take their valuables. He gets spooked though when a copycat seems to be interested in his work.

Brett Halsey plays the role of a murdering, and cannibalistic, maniac with a lot of gamble debts. He does a fairly decent job as well. The gore is a la Fulci again, brutal as hell. The scene where Parson smashes a broad in the face with a stick only to cook her head in an oven is absolute gold! Fulci-favorite Fabio Frizzi unfortunately was not involved with creating the music this time, which leads to a forgettable soundtrack. Even the atmosphere and camerawork have been better in many other Fulci movies. He doesn't even make use of his infamous ''zoom-in'' shots. Every now and then the movie turns painfully slapstick (including supposedly ''funny'' situations with the corpses Parson is trying to dispose).

The cast has got some familiar faces in it. Zora Kerova (Cannibal Ferox), even with hare-lip, easily is the most attractive of the bunch. She doesn't have much competition though. The other two ''female'' characters consist of a terribly annoying opera singer and a broad with a disgusting beard. Certainly some ''eye-candy'' wouldn't have hurt this movie. Another familiar face is Al Cliver, although his role is fairly small and not that memorable. The ending is very abrupt but not bad.

This certainly isn't one of Fulci's masterpieces, but that was to be expected. I still feel it's a little underrated though. It's certainly a better movie than Fulci's lazy ''A Cat in the Brain'', which strangely enough gets a higher rating on IMDB. While not a good movie, this one is still very entertaining. Not to mention the gore, which is mainly spectacular like usual. A Fulci fan should definitely NOT skip this one.