hail from 1988 and touch of death be probably the most frustrating fulci film i have see to date and prompt me to join the chorus of horror fan who generalise that his film get bad a you get later into his career . consider the plot synopsis and i be expect some bloody bad natured fun with this one and but for all it bizarre flourish and it feel tedious even at a running time of just 80 minute and and suffers from nauseatingly shabby production value and film making craft ( or lack thereof ) . el story represent a gamble addict widower wine and dines rich ( and strange ) woman he find via lonely heart column before off them in gruesome fashion sometimes eat them or feed them to animal and steal their money to keep his debtor at bay . sure and it unlikely that just one man would be the host for so much screw up pathology all at once ( addict and psycho or sociopath and cannibal ) and but this be fulci . touch be actually the cheap and sparse look fulci film i have see . there almost nobody in it and even in the background of shot out on the street and for instance . a newsreader who keep appear on the film television to warn the non existent cast about the maniac late doings operate out of the most pathetic tv studio on the planet . he never even get to look at the camera because have to read all the headline off misaligned sheet of paper . some scene just go on and on with the protagonist mutter to himself about what he do or what he about to do and but the acting be nowhere near good enough to sustain this kind of thing and so the main outcome be viewer boredom . the film also look bland and ugly in general . i have read that it be intend to be an italian telemovie ( do it ever screen in that venue . with the amount of gore involve and it seem unlikely ) and and it do reek of crappy old telemovie production value . this be also fulci first foray into outright black humour and but he just too graceless a director to make it work . sometimes conspicuously cheerful or wacky music be use to play against a gruesome scene and for instance while the hero or villain be carve up a dead body in his basement . the effect isn not really chill or funny or ironic anything that you would like it to be it mostly just hamfisted and crappy . there be of course some redeeming moment of gore ( that you will be wait for while try to stay awake ) and include the eventual murder by oven ( . ) of a woman who just would not quit life and even after her face have be totally bashed apart with a bloody great club and and a homeless guy who get a car run back and forth over him about five time . the most outrageous element of touch and however and be all the physical deformation on the widow court by the crazy guy . beard and hairy mole and messy harelip it not like he seek out woman with these feature and it just the way all lonely heart widow be and apparently . there be plenty of shot of mr crazy secretly grimace while he smooch up these woman . the black humour of such garish misogyny might have some stay power or resonance if the film wasn not so poorly execute in general . in the end and touch of death just seem like a really lazy and inarticulate mess .