Brett Halsey (a Fulci regular, showing up in such films as THE DEVIL'S HONEY) plays Lester Parson, a larcenous (and murderous) schlub in search of easy money. Lester has quite a racket going in seducing lonely and wealthy widows to his grandiose home and dispatching of them and collecting their riches. With the aid of his equally lowbrow bookie and small-time criminal Randy (Al Cliver, another Fulci standby) Lester is able to keep the flood of money fresh. His seemingly bottomless well of riches is soon in danger of drying up when a series of copycat murders erupt around town, and Lester fears being fingered for the killings.

A bespectacled Halsey succinctly plays his part of a man not unwilling to spill some of the red stuff in return for the green stuff. His performance is at times both meek and coolly nonchalant, effectively counterbalancing his calculatedly over-the-top slayings. In fact, the gonzo gore (courtesy of Angelo Mattei) in A TOUCH OF DEATH is some of Fulci's most brutal and reckless of his career. Lester whistles and hums while doing his bloody handiwork, including power sawing wealthy widows and feeding the remains to his pigs, melting heads in the microwave, and clobbering craniums.

If any of this seems humorous, that's because it's supposed to be. More than any other Fulci film, A TOUCH OF DEATH capitalizes on the inherent absurdity of the director's notorious gore murders, and some truly hilarious comedy results. In one amusing scene, Lester tries (in vain) to drug a widow via a pernicious alcoholic beverage. One cannot help but feel pity for poor Lester, as he just can't get the woman to down the drink (she's either vomiting it up or refusing to drink the libation). Similarly, Lester tries desperately to prop up yet another corpse in the passenger seat of his car. The corpse seems to fall into every position other than that of the one he desires, and his resulting frustration in his farcical situation is undeniably funny. Whining and dining wealthy widows proves to be a trying source of income at best. Wincing and grimacing, Lester must pleasure one bearded, liver spotted widow in order to acquire her riches. As one might expect, Fulci doesn't make any efforts to shake any claims of his misogyny here, as nearly all (save one important counterexample) women in the film are presented as desperate, lonely victims for Lester to acquire and then usurp.

But at least the film doesn't pretend to take itself seriously. Lester is never portrayed to be anything more than a money hungry delinquent and again, the gore is played for laughs, not shocks, here. Further deflating the shocks is a chameleon-like score by Carlo Maria Cordio, which often prefers effectively zany music worthy of a loony toons cartoon. However, the scare scenes apparently exhibited enough sadism to be recycled in Fulci's subsequent gore patchwork A CAT IN THE BRAIN. Regardless there are a handful of suspenseful moments (no doubt aided by excellent tracking and POV shots by cinematographer Silvano Tessicini) further touched up by Cordio's more traditionally ominous musical passages.

Everything is all well and good until the final half-hour threatens to sink the film. Here, Fulci (who also wrote and constructed the story) seems to realize how bare his film is and feels obligated to liven things up with unnecessary plot twists. Too little, too late. Anyway, a film like A TOUCH OF DEATH thrives on a dastardly simple premise (and one might argue, predictability). When the muddled subplot of intrigue and double cross steps up, two of the film's strongest elements (the gore and giggles) take a long (and permanent) smoke break. What results is a rather severe shift of pace, and it will no doubt catch many viewers off guard. This slapdash storyboarding unfortunately punctures an otherwise excellent "splatstick" entry in Fulci's diverse filmography. But that's not to say the film is a total failure because of it, as the aforementioned components outweigh this unfortunate blunder.