AKA The House by the Cemetery or Zombie Hell House.The latter title slightly giving too much of the plot it would seem, although not entirely. Banned in Britain in the '80's, I saw the very well dubbed version of this Italian film. Mostly it's impossible to see, apart from that bloody kid, Bob. More about him later!
We begin with the obligatory scene of a girl putting on her top after having sex in an empty house. She is calling out for her boyfriend but he is nowhere to be seen. Then he appears, covered in blood, before a mysterious figure appears and stabs the girl through the head.
Then we meet husband and wife team Norman and Lucy. They are moving to New England with son Bob so that Norman can pick up the research of a historian who had gone nuts and killed his mistress and himself. Bob is being visited by a young girl of about 8 years old. She can speak to him from acro
ss the street and warns him not to go to the house. You should be scared for the boy but he is just so bloody annoying! This part of the film definitely has The Shining written all over it. Actually, this film has wonderful cinematography and a musical score that would not be out of place in earlier '70's horrors like the Exorcist.Back to the story and babysitter, Anna turns up. The creepiest thing about her is her giant eyebrows. She is shifty though, so I kept my eye on her. Later she is lured in to the basement and the door slams shut behind her. She calls for help but the only person around is Bob. When a kid stops to get his toy gun before even contemplating saving your life you know you're in trouble. Bloody Bob.
We are lead on wild goose chases and there are parts of the film I still don't have closure with, but that's okay. Such an amazing use of blood and people seem to take a very long time to die. First the mutilation or impailing, then the writhing around in almost silence, culminating in a violent final breath. Pornographic in its styling, with the gratuitous close ups and zoom ins on the violent mutilations are something to behold. Not seen this? What are you waiting for?
Ive just never gotten in to this flick, GATES OF HELL and THE BEYOND were so much stronger that HOUSE left much to be desired IMO
ReplyDeleteI always placed this one in fourth place, after The Beyond, City of the Living Dead and Zombie...its one of fulcis best movies, except for that whiny kid with that squeaky voice every time he yelled "Mommy! Mommy!" I wanted to blow my brains out.
ReplyDeleteThe gore and the horror are awesome and Fulci places lots of red herrings all through out, to distract ya.
Much love for The House by the Cemetery. It threatens to overtake Argento's Phenomena as my favorite Italian horror film of all time. A near perfect 80s horror film.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually going to watch this today....so if I decide to review I may (Cough) steal (Cough) the poster from your page. ;P
ReplyDeleteGo right ahead!
ReplyDeleteI stole it from someone else so what goes round comes round! ;)
I'm not sure if I've seen this but I think I may have it and own it. Is that bad?
ReplyDeleteResearching, I go. In the meantime, good review.
hi, a bit of a controversial pov here but I actually believe that this film is by far the strongest of the trilogy- the other two come across as a series of episodes that are only held together by a premise- so no more than a series of set pieces. HBTC feels like a better structured film IMHO
ReplyDeleteI watched VHS for this like mad as a kid. It just really creeped me out.
ReplyDeleteThat bit in the end, when the mix-mash of body parts reveals its self gave me nightmares.