The New Orleans Connection (2015)
**** (out of 4)
When you think of Lucio Fulci's THE BEYOND the name Larry Ray probably isn't going to come to mind but after watching this 44-minute documentary you're going to realize that he played a very important part. Ray was originally hired by the filmmakers to work as someone who could translate English into Italian but soon his job became something much more. Once the filmmakers arrives in New Orleans they needed help getting houses, locations, food, dogs and just about everything else so Ray was the man who helped get everything they needed. Along the way he was even asked to play a part in the film and he ended up playing the painter who fell from the scaffold.
When I first heard that the guy who "fell" was getting a 45-minute featurette I thought the producers of this disc must have lost their mind but once you realize everything that Ray did you realize that this here is without a doubt one of the best documents of an Italian production out there. Everyone knows about how Italian films would be made in America without the proper permits and without insurance but you never really got so many great details on how it was pulled off but Ray makes you realize everything that had to happen in order for the film to come together. Hearing these stories it's just rather amazing that anything was able to get done and you even get to hear a story about Fulci holding up a shoot because he wanted Mickey Mouse ice cream.
Fans of THE BEYOND or just Italian horror in general will need to watch this just to get a better idea of what was going on behind-the-scenes.
**** (out of 4)
When you think of Lucio Fulci's THE BEYOND the name Larry Ray probably isn't going to come to mind but after watching this 44-minute documentary you're going to realize that he played a very important part. Ray was originally hired by the filmmakers to work as someone who could translate English into Italian but soon his job became something much more. Once the filmmakers arrives in New Orleans they needed help getting houses, locations, food, dogs and just about everything else so Ray was the man who helped get everything they needed. Along the way he was even asked to play a part in the film and he ended up playing the painter who fell from the scaffold.
When I first heard that the guy who "fell" was getting a 45-minute featurette I thought the producers of this disc must have lost their mind but once you realize everything that Ray did you realize that this here is without a doubt one of the best documents of an Italian production out there. Everyone knows about how Italian films would be made in America without the proper permits and without insurance but you never really got so many great details on how it was pulled off but Ray makes you realize everything that had to happen in order for the film to come together. Hearing these stories it's just rather amazing that anything was able to get done and you even get to hear a story about Fulci holding up a shoot because he wanted Mickey Mouse ice cream.
Fans of THE BEYOND or just Italian horror in general will need to watch this just to get a better idea of what was going on behind-the-scenes.