Door to Silence

Did You Know?

• AllMovie opined that the film lacks 'both the energy and invention of [Fulci's] more familiar work.'
• In a 1997 interview, Joe D'Amato said he did not understand why the film was a commercial failure as he believed it was very good and had invested much money in the jazz soundtrack.
• In a 1998 interview, Joe D'Amato claimed Door to Silence to be 'the best movie I ever produced.'

Plot

In New Orleans, Louisiana, Melvin Devereux attends his father's funeral. A young woman he does not recognize addresses him by name. He drives away aimlessly, ignores warning barriers, and enters a closed freeway. Police pursue him, forcing him to turn aside. His car breaks down in a dilapidated neighborhood. The woman reappears in a red sports car and suggests a nearby mechanic. She helps push the car to the garage but refuses to explain how she knows him or reveal her name. While waiting, she proposes they go to a motel, apparently for sex. After checking in, Devereux prepares in the bathroom; when he emerges, she is gone. A message written on the mirror in red lipstick reads that the time is not yet right. He retrieves his repaired car and encounters a hearse that deliberately blocks his attempts to overtake it. He takes treacherous country roads, gets stuck in mud, and barely crosses a rickety wooden bridge. At a roadside bar, he drunkenly confronts the hearse driver. A ribbon on the casket inside bears a name similar to his own. He follows the hearse to a church where an all-black congregation mourns; he disrupts the service trying to open the casket and is thrown out. At a funeral home, all corpses in open coffins are labeled 'Melvin Devereux'. He finds his doppelganger lying dead in a casket; when he tries to touch it, the corpse disappears beneath his hand.

Production

Aristide Massaccesi read a short story Lucio Fulci had written called "Porte del nulla," which had appeared in the anthology Le lune nere, and proposed turning it into the film Door to Silence. This happened after Fulci finished Voices from Beyond. Massaccesi told Fulci to shoot in New Orleans and bring his daughter along as an assistant to cut costs. When they arrived, none of the film equipment worked. The movie was filmed in Madisonville, Louisiana, over eight weeks during April and May 1991. Fulci stated it was finished in 1992.

Release

Massaccesi stated that Door to Silence 'didn't even sell a single brochure.' In Italy, it was released on videocassette and received no large-scale release outside the country, partly due to the bankruptcy of the production company Filmirage. Previews of the film were screened at showings of Sette note in nero and The Beyond in late December 1992 and early 1993. It was shown at the London Eurofest on December 11, 1994, and at the Rome Cine-club Detour screening on April 5, 1998. DVD releases include a 90-minute version by Raging Thunder and an 87-minute version by Severin Films in the United States.