Claudio Fragasso

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Claudio Fragasso, born on October 2, 1951, is an Italian film director and screenwriter. He started making screenplays in the mid-1970s and also created some early Super 8 art films. He met Bruno Mattei, and the two worked closely together from 1980 to 1990 on many genre movies, often with Fragasso’s role not fully credited. His wife, Rossella Drudi, also wrote many of their projects.

In the 1980s, Fragasso began directing his own movies. He made Monster Dog (starring Alice Cooper) and he co-wrote and directed Troll 2 (1989), which later became famous as a “so bad it’s good” cult film and the subject of the documentary Best Worst Movie. Troll 2 was originally planned under a different title, and Fragasso is sometimes credited under the pen name Drako Floyd, a name created by his wife Drudi.

Fragasso worked on Zombi 3 and directed After Death, both produced in the Philippines, with Drudi helping write the scripts. He also directed Beyond Darkness and collaborated on other films with Mattei, including some crime thrillers and Westerns. In the 1990s and 2000s, Fragasso continued making films such as Palermo - Milan One Way and its sequel Milano Palermo - il ritorno. He is known for liking splatter-style cinema and for his belief in exaggeration as part of Italian film culture.