The Film Quentin Tarantino Called “One of My Favorite Thrillers” Is Now Streaming

Explicitly or not, newfangled genre filmmakers have taken more than a few cues from Italian gore maestro Lucio Fulci. From frank (and dragged-out) eyeball trauma to zombies that look as moldering and vile as possible, much of recent horror history has the master’s hand quietly lingering over it. But no director has so explicitly sung Fulci’s praises as Quentin Tarantino. His filmography is shot through with so many blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Fulci tributes that it’s staggering, though with Kill Bill Vol. 1, he more explicitly cribbed from him. And for decades, Tarantino has even openly explored remaking one of Fulci’s lesser-known works, a 1977 giallo-meets-supernatural film called The Psychic.

Originally given the more evocative title of Sette note in nero, The Psychic is one of Fulci’s more restrained films, especially considering the Lovecraftian gore epics he’d soon deliver in the 1980s, like The Beyond and City of the Living Dead. It’s a classy, claustrophobic, genuinely eerie piece of suspense film-making that follows an upscale housewife who discovers a literal skeleton in her husband’s basement, and then uses her long-gestating psychic gift to discover the truth — even if she may not like what she finds. The Psychic features an unforgettable score by longtime Fulci composer Fabio Frizzi (one piece of which Kill Bill fans will instantly recognize), lush cinematography, a ton of surprises, and plentiful ’70s fashions — so it’s little wonder Tarantino wanted to put his own spin on it.

‘The Psychic’ Is a Psychological Thriller — Italian Style

Jennifer O’Neill as the protagonist in Lucio Fulci’s giallo classic ‘The Psychic’Image via Cinecompany

Opening with a characteristically Italian cinema scene of a woman throwing herself off a cliff (close-ups of a dummy and all), The Psychic then reveals that to be a flashback for Virginia (played by the charismatic former model Jennifer O’Neill), who’s married in the present day to powerful businessman Francesco (spaghetti Western veteran Gianni Garko). Virginia soon experiences further visions — this time, of a Cask of Amontillado-style murder of another woman, all lensed in classic, fragmented giallo fashion . . . and when she unearths a literal skeleton in the walls of her husband’s vacation home, she decides to dive in further.

Fulci films Virginia’s investigation and psychological unraveling with a remarkable sense of placid and dread, obviously echoing Hitchcock with its protagonist no one believes, but also putting his own surreal spin on things. From sudden apparitions to crash-zooms on key pieces of evidence, The Psychic always feels like an Italian suspense master at the height of his powers having a bit of a lark — and putting many others to shame. It doesn’t feature even a fraction of the graphic gore Fulci would later become known for, but it’s a crucial reminder of how versatile and generally in-command he was, no matter the genre. He even described the film as a “mechanical” exercise, according to the book Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci. But even that proved inspirational to one of our most outspoken and accomplished contemporary filmmakers.

Related

Top 20 Horror Movie Masterpieces of All Time, Ranked

Scarily good films.

Fulci-Worshipping Tarantino Planned a Remake of ‘The Psychic’

Close

• Quentin Tarantino on the set of Death ProofImage via TWC
• Quentin Tarantino on the set of Jackie BrownImage via Miramax Films
• Quentin Tarantino on set of The Hateful EightImage via TWC

Quentin Tarantino has been an outspoken Fulci advocate since the 1990s: He reintroduced the maestro’s 1981 gut-churning cult classic The Beyond to U.S. audiences under his Rolling Thunder distribution company, and says that Fulci lensed some of the “greatest moments in cinema history.” Most obviously, recent viewers of The Psychic will instantly recognize its eerie, recurring orchestral motif as the tune that plays when Beatrice Kiddo first wakes up in Kill Bill Vol. 1.

But Tarantino’s love of Fulci didn’t stop with re-releases. From the delayed ’90s on, he’s expressed a desire to remake The Psychic, the film he called “one of my favorite thrillers.” At the time, Tarantino raved about O’Neill’s performance and said, “I love everything about that movie.” For years, he intended to remake it with Jackie Brown star Bridget Fonda in the O’Neill role, but problems with copyright put the project on ice.

Still, fans of Italian horror, Tarantino, or just good old-fashioned psychological thrillers owe it to themselves to check out The Psychic. This Halloween, it’s streaming free on Tubi — and Fulci’s more infamous gore trilogy is also available to watch for free.

The Psychic

Release Date

June 12, 1980

Runtime

90 Minutes

Director

Lucio Fulci

Writers

Lucio Fulci, Roberto Gianviti, Dardano Sacchetti

• 

  Jennifer O’Neill

  Virginia Ducci

• 

  Gabriele Ferzetti

  Emilio Rospini

• 

• 

  Gianni Garko

  Francesco Ducci