Claudio Fragasso

Claudio Fragasso (born 2 October 1951) is a film director and screenwriter. Fragasso started in the Italian film industry in the mid-1970s working as a screenwriter and first attempted to make art films in the early 1970s. Fragasso met with director Bruno Mattei which led to partnership of about 15 years with the two working together on films, with Fragasso often going uncredited. Fragasso would also make his own films in the 1980s including Monster Dog with rock musician Alice Cooper and After Death. Fragasso would make the film Troll 2 in 1989 which later went on to become popular enough to have a documentary Best Worst Movie follow the making and cult fandom of the film.

Claudio Fragasso was born on October 2, 1951. Prior to directing, Claudio Fragasso worked as a screenwriter since the mid-1970s. Fragasso originally planned to make art films, and first shot films on Super8 such as Passaggi (1977) and its follow-up Difendimi dalla Notte with Fragasso noting that "In Italy, to be considered important, you must shoot something like that."

1980s

Fragasso met Bruno Mattei when he was an assistant editor and found that he immediately got along with Mattei as they both enjoyed genre films. Fragasso stated that their meeting led to about 15 years worth of collaborations with Mattei having more experience than him leading him to take the directing credit for the films they worked on together as Fragasso was not sure if he wanted to focus on genre films as a future career.Fragasso has stated he is specifically a fan of splatter movies, noting that they were "very important to me. The Italian spirit compels us to exaggerate."

Fragasso stated his first film with Mattei was on The True Story of the Nun of Monza and The Other Hell.The two directed the films in a convent and exchanged actors to allow themselves to shoot two films simultaneously. While the two films were being processed in film labs, Mattei and Fragasso got the proposal to finish the film Perverse Sex, Violent World which was completed in two weeks using stock footage. Their next film Hell of the Living Dead was written by Fragasso and his wife Rosella Drudi.Fragasso also co-directed the film. Mattei maintained that on all the films Fragasso claims to have co-directed that he was just an assistant director.

Following Hell of the Living Dead producers suggested another two film deal which led to Women's Prison Massacre and Violence in a Women's Prison which both starred Laura Gemser. Violence in a Women's Prison was written by Frgasso and Drudi. Fragasso spoke positively on working Gemser, stating that "compared to the starlets to today, was virtually a nun, the absolute opposite of a porn star.". Gemser would later work producer Aristide Massaccesi's Filmirage team leading her to work as a costume designer for Fragasso's film Troll 2. Producer Roberto Di Girolamo would next request a post-apocalyptic film from Fragasso and Mattei which led to Rats: Night of Terror. Fragasso would also collaborate on Mattei's two Westerns he made in the 1980s: Scalps and Bianco Apache.

Following this film Fragasso made a film without Mattei titled Monster Dog for producer Eduard Sarlui with musician Alice Cooper in the lead. Fragasso also wrote follow-up Zombi 2 with Drudi and director Lucio Fulci titled Zombi 3. Fulci had to leave the set on the film leading to Drudi and Fragasso to re-write the script in a day and have the film completed by Mattei who was in the Philippines at the time. Fragasso took a flight the next day to assist in filming. After making several zombie films, Fragasso made another zombie film After Death written by Drudi and himself which he described as "a small movie I did with half the budget of the "official" movie, which was shot in the same location in the Philippines." for Filmirage. The film was shot at night as the next morning Fragasso would be shooting Zombi 3 with Mattei. Fragasso would also shoot La Casa 5 for Filmirage. Fragasso has made claims that Drudi and himself wrote the original story for Killing Birds for Filmirage which they wrote under the title Artigli, a claim dismissed by Italian film critic and historian Roberto Curti who noted that the film s treatment written by Claudio Lattanzi and Bruna Antonucci was very similar to the finished film.

Fragasso would later make Troll 2 under the request from Massaccesi to make a horror film without any blood in it. The film was shot in mid 1989 in Morgan, Utah. Rosella met the producer Sarlui he had a mask from the film Troll which Fragasso had not seen. Fragasso stated their film was originally titled Goblins and was written with Drudi as a more family-oriented horror film with humor about a goblins who hated carnivorous humans as they were vegetarians. Fragasso is credited as Drako Floyd, a name created by Drudi from the Dragon sign in the Chinese zodiac and for her love of the band Pink Floyd.

1990s and 2000s

In the mid-1990s, a few films had some critics suggest that there was a resurrection of crime cinema in Italy after the release of the film The Escort. These films included Fragasso's Palermo - Milan One Way which found enough box office success in Italy that it led to follow-ups such as Coppia omicida and the television film Operazione Odissea. Fragasso continued to make several films for theatrical and television release until making a sequel to Palermo - Milan One Way in 2007 titled Milano Palermo - il ritorno.

Note: The films listed as N/A are not necessarily chronological.