Claudio Fragasso

Claudio Fragasso
Born	2 October 1951 (1951-10-02) (age 60) Rome, Italy
Occupation	Film director, Writer

Claudio Fragasso (born 2 October 1951) is an Italian screenwriter and film director of mostly low-budget exploitation films.

Filmmaking history

Fragasso has co-written (with his wife Rossella Drudi) the scripts for many horror movies that were directed by the infamous Bruno Mattei, including Zombie 3, The Other Hell, Rats Night of Terror, Hell of the Living Dead, RoboWar, The True Story of the Nun of Monza, Women's Prison Massacre, and Shocking Dark, among others. Fragasso also co-directed a few of Mattei's films with him, including The Seven Magnificent Gladiators, Hell of the Living Dead and Rats Night of Terror. (Fragasso even essayed a few minor acting roles in some of Mattei's films; i.e. he played a soldier in a crematorium in Zombie 3.)

In 1984 Fragasso directed his debut feature, Monster Dog, starring Alice Cooper as a rock-star werewolf.^[1]

In 1988, Fragasso and Mattei were called in by the producer of Zombie 3 (Franco Gaudenzi) to finish shooting the film when the director Lucio Fulci took ill and was forced to abandon the project halfway through. The two were whisked to the Philippines where filming had been under way, and finished the shooting in a few days, while Fulci was recuperating in a hospital in Rome. Fulci was furious that the producer had finished the film without him, and tried unsuccessfully to have his name removed from the credits.

After helping to complete Zombie 3, Fragasso was given funding by producer Gaudenzi to write and direct another low-budget zombie film, Zombie 4: After Death, in an attempt to recoup some of the money he had lost on Zombie 3. Fragasso's wife, Rossella Drudi, knocked out the script and he directed it on a shoestring budget, on the same sets they had used for Zombie 3.

After this Fragasso directed another horror film entitled Nightkiller,^[2] that was never released in the United States and has since become a rare movie to locate.^[3]

With financial backing from famed Italian porn producer Joe D'Amato, Fragasso wrote and directed two infamous cult films on his own, La Casa 5: Beyond Darkness and Troll 2 - under the pseudonym Drake Floyd - (although Joe D'Amato claimed he co-directed some scenes in "Troll 2"). After this period of low-budget directing, Fragasso went on to direct bigger-budget films, such as the highly successful Palermo Milano Sola Andata (1994). He now works in Italian television.

Cult following

In 2007 Michael Stephenson, (who, as a child, played "Joshua Waits" in Fragasso's cult horror film Troll 2), along with George Hardy (who played Joshua's father "Michael"), flew to Rome to inform Fragasso about the large number of Troll 2 fans in America, and of the many people who show up at the Troll 2 screenings. Claudio (and his wife Rossella Drudi who wrote the film) flew to America, and have attended a few Troll 2 screenings. Claudio also took part in a documentary titled Best Worst Movie which was directed by Michael Stephenson. In addition, he and his wife toured the original locations of Troll 2 in Utah, with their fans.

References

1. ^ http://juntajuleil.blogspot.com/2010/10/film-review-monster-dog-1984-claudio.html
2. ^ http://www.alexvisani.com/rec_sobad/nonapritefragasso.htm
3. ^ http://euro-fever.blogspot.com/2008/02/night-killernon-aprite-quella-porta-3.html?zx=e5036c02f9e5ce03

External links

• Claudio Fragasso at the Internet Movie Database
• Claudio Fragasso at AllRovi

Persondata
Name	Fragasso, Claudio
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	2 October 1951
Place of birth	Rome, Italy
Date of death
Place of death