Umberto Lenzi (born August 6, 1931), is an Italian film director who was very active in low budget crime films, peplums, spaghetti westerns, war movies, cannibal films and giallo mysteries (in addition to writing many of the screenplays himself).
Lenzi was born in Massa Marittima, southern Tuscany. He is the writer/director of two highly controversial exploitation films: Mangiati vivi (1980) and Cannibal Ferox (1981) as well as the director of th...
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Umberto Lenzi (born August 6, 1931), is an Italian film director who was very active in low budget crime films, peplums, spaghetti westerns, war movies, cannibal films and giallo mysteries (in addition to writing many of the screenplays himself).
Lenzi was born in Massa Marittima, southern Tuscany. He is the writer/director of two highly controversial exploitation films: Mangiati vivi (1980) and Cannibal Ferox (1981) as well as the director of the film adaptation of the Italian comic book Kriminal (1966). He was one of the first Italian directors to get involved in the Giallo film craze (along with Mario Bava and Dario Argento), and his "Man From Deep River" is credited as being the film that started the "Italian cannibal film" genre later popularized by Ruggero Deodato, Jess Franco and others. In spite of his moments of ground-breaking originality, however, Lenzi wasn't above "cloning" popular hit movies such as "Conan The Barbarian" (with his 1982 "Ironmaster") and "Dawn of the Dead...
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