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Quella Villa Accanto Al Cimitero

Quella Villa Accanto Al Cimitero

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: An Ok Fulci film but not one of his better films
Review: This was the first Fulci movie I saw that had no zombies in it. The movie was hard to follow, you never find out what the hell is going on until the end, and even then you are never given a full explaination. The basic story is a creepy old house where in the basement creepy Dr. Fruinstein lives and has to kill victums in order to regenerate his cells. Don't ask me what the hell that means cause that is one of the lines at the end of the movie to try explaining what is going on. All in all, I enjoyed it and is watchable again. It is not gory, I mean for Fulci, the gore is pretty average. Compared to some of Fulci's other films it is mild. If you want to see lots of the red stuff and and body parts, see Fulci's The Beyond. In my personal opinion, Fulci's greatest movie is Zombie. If you are a Fulci fan, House By The Cemetery is decent enough. If you are not a Fulci fan, you will not like this movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Classic (with a reservation for newbies)
Review: Another one of the vaguely Lovecraftian italian horrors from Lucio Fulci (see also Gates of Hell and The Beyond). The format has evolved from his previous outings of hordes of zombies to a spookier, phsychic-ghost story instead. In fact, it's kind of a cheap-skate version of The Shining.

To really appreciate this film (or any of Fulci's horror films) you have to be prepared to forgive a lot of cinematic badness. Dubbing, dialogue, plot coherence, the occasional dodgy special effect (not so bad in this film - no one can forgive the toy spiders in The Beyond) ... as a matter of fact, you may wonder what's so great about this film at all. Well, I'll tell you ... Fulci is a master cinematographic "painter". Scenes look gorgeous, and they really suit the feel of this gothic film. Also, Fulci has a habit of pulling something really shocking out of the hat at a moment's notice (you'll know it when you see it - let's just say in this film it involved a child's head, a door and an axe). But what really turns on the legion of Fulci fans out there is the gore. Set piece, outrageous gore scenes pop up ever fifteen to twenty minutes as minor characters walk on only to get bumped off in various splattery ways. House isn't as gory as his earlier zombie films but it's still pretty hard. (BTW - although the case says Rated: R, this is the uncut version of the film.)

Oh yeah, and Catriona MacColl is in it.

You either "get" Fulci films or you don't. If you're prepared to willfully ignore the technically bad aspects of the film, you'll be rewarded with a rich, bloody, gothic horror classic. Films like this will never be made again.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Less Gore More Talk
Review: Bon cé surement pas le meilleurs de Fulci et le pire quand meme , j'ai eu beaucoup de misere a comprendre l'histoire (Écouter en V.O) et il est un peu différent des autres , l'aspect appesant est moin mise en valeur dans ce film, nettement moin gore que les autres que j'ai vue. La fin nous laisse sur une longue réflexion comme pour frayeurs (city of the living dead). Bref a voir au moin une fois.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Crap
Review: Boring waste of time...that pretty much sums up this movie. The cover of this movie gave me the idea I could probaly get a not to bad zombie flick for just a couple of bucks. Was I ever sorry I tore the shrink wrap off the case. Stores have a no return policy on opened DVDs which closes the case on a possible refund for a big waste of money. The acting is unbelievably bad! Be warned that all the voices in the movie are dubbed over and have really corny voices that sound like voices from hooked on phonic's! The child actor in the movie is terrible, as well as the other characters. A small family moves into a house were an old doctor died and one by one they make their way to the cellar to be CHOKED, AARRGGG! The creature that inhabits the basement is so corny and fake you'll end up laughing and probaly falling out of your chair, so be careful with this one!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It's Dr Freudstein!
Review: I picked up this little gem for about 5 bucks from a local used DVD shop. I would recommend this to fans of older horror movies. True, the dubbing does suck and the acting is questionable, but the last 15 minutes of this movie almost make up for it. Dr. Freudstein is truly one of the most twisted and interesting villians I've yet seen in a horror movie and its easy to see Rob Zombie's inspiration for his Dr. Death character in House of 1000 Corpses. Not to mention, there's a few scenes near the end that push the gore envelope to the max! Love the maggot-stew gushing out of Freudsteins wounds... Truly twisted!! They don't make gore effects like this anymore, i hate CGI gore!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I will save you 82 minutes of your life
Review: I purchased this film for £5.99 from my local HMV, the other day and have just finished sitting through this so-called film.

There was no story line, just a poorly conceived concept the dubbing or voice sinc was atrocious. The actors especially the young boy was extremely annoying and the gore that normally would make a film like this, remotely watch able was non-existent.

Characters just turned up with no explanation, people disappeared and no one seemed bothered, blood seem to just vanish from the floor, need I go on.....

Anyway save yourself some time, stare at the wall for 82 minutes you will feel more satisfied!


Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What I really can't understand....
Review: is how the hell Fulci has acquired such a huge cult following when his films are just plain bad. Zombie and Beyond at least had tiny (and I mean TINY) plotlines to sort of kind of follow and some eye candy. This thing is just atrocious acting, crappy special effects, and an incomprehensible plot that, once you do latch onto a thread, it disappears. Pretty much the whole film makes no sense whatever. None of the characters are wrapped too tightly, and Bobby is just a creepy looking kid you hate from minute one. You wanna slap both parents, too for not just leaving, not to mention the babysitter who does a 180 personality change for no reason. Fulci is apparently incredibly impressed with himself as a filmaker. Well, guess someone has to be. Save your time, honestly. Anyone who proclaims this great horror entertainment has been SERIOUSLY film-deprived.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Last of Fulci's Fun Four
Review: Italian maestro/hack director Lucio Fulci made four fun and gory, over-the-top B-horror films during the late seventies/early-eighties heydays of the genre. The House by the Cemetery follows Zombies 2, City of the Living Dead, and The Beyond as the final film of this outrageous quartet.Catriona (Katherine) MacColl and Paolo Malco play a New York Couple who move to a haunted house in Boston with their young son who is warned by the ghost of a little girl to stay away. They don't, of course, and suffer the formulaic consequences. Basically, it's just a rip-off of The Shining and The Amityville Horror with the usual bad dialogue and gory make-up effects Fulci fans have come to expect and relish. The story structure seems to repeat that of The Beyond which was released the same year.Fulci's films like all the others of this genre, are an acquired taste. It's not Oscar material so if you don't take it seriously and watch it with some friends in the dark, you might have some fun with it. For Fulci fans (like myself) this is a must-see and a must-have addition to your DVD collection. All others with fragile, little minds and weak stomachs may want to reconsider.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fulci goes for creepy
Review: No figure in the horror film genre is as divisive as Lucio Fulci. After watching one or two of his films, viewers tend to move into one of two camps. One side hails Fulci as a master of terror, a man who upped the gore quotient in his films while creating wonderfully atmospheric pictures. For these people, Fulci is right up there with the likes of Dario Argento as one of the best filmmakers ever to emerge from Italy. The other camp sneers at these claims, pointing to the plodding pace of his films, the use of extreme gore to camouflage plot holes, and the director's inability to draw good performances out of his cast as evidence of mediocrity. Initially, I enjoyed Fulci's films, specifically "Zombie," "City of the Living Dead," and "The New York Ripper" because I did not know any better. When I came on the scene, you went to Fulci to feed your craving for gore. What a difference a few years exploring the genre makes! While I will not go so far as to remove Lucio from my play list altogether, I have seen enough of his films to realize he is not a cinematic genius. He is at best a competent director, at worst an abysmal one, and there are plenty of examples of bad filmmaking in this director's filmography. "Zombie" is without a doubt his best film, but "The House By The Cemetery" runs a close second along with "The Beyond" and "The Gates of Hell."

Good old Lucio amazingly foregoes his usual heavy gore quotient with "House," instead attempting to ramp up the atmospheric qualities of the film. It's the story of a house by a cemetery (!) once lived in by Dr. Freudstein, a physician who quickly earned an unsavory reputation amongst the local denizens for unspecified atrocities committed in his basement. These events occurred way back in early twentieth century, but his reputation lives on in the minds of the poor dupes who rent the house. The latest victims are the Boyle family, mother Lucy (Catriona MacColl), father Norman (Paolo Malco), and son Bob (Giovanni Frezza). The trio moves into Freudstein's old abode when Norman, a professor at a New York City university, decides to finish up a deceased colleague's research. Apparently, Dr. Peterson couldn't hack it up in Freudstein's house so it is up to Norm to finish the assignment. A few problems present a host of difficulties for the young professor. First, wife Lucy seems to have suffered a nervous breakdown at one point in her life, and continues to have issues requiring periodic hysterical fits followed by heavy doses of medication. Second, son Bob claims that he is seeing and conversing with a young, redheaded girl by the name of Mae (Silvia Collatina), a girl who warns the young boy not to go into the house. Aaah, the life of an academic, eh?

What happens once the young family moves in? Oh, the usual Fulci stuff. It turns out Freudstein's experiments were quite ghastly, that the good doctor didn't actually pass away but instead learned a few secrets that allowed him to keep up the appearance of the house. To do so, Freudstein must routinely butcher anyone who ventures across the doorstep. The key to the whole film rests on a locked door leading into the cellar. The Boyle family continually experience problems with this portal and the basement it leads to. When Norman finally opens the door and wanders inside, a cheesy looking bat that looks like it is on loan from an Ed Wood, Jr. production attacks the professor with quite bloody results. The basement will continue to dominate center stage for most of the film. In the meantime, Norm turns up a bunch of scary information at the library about Freudstein, including a taped statement from the late Peterson about the supernatural activities going on in the house. Little Mae keeps turning up to make cryptic statements about the abode, a creepy babysitter named Anne (Ania Pieroni) appears to make things interesting, and the real estate agent who rented the house to the Boyles seems to know more than she's letting on.

That ought to be enough to give you an idea about the film. The good points of the film outweigh the negatives. While you get less gore than in "Zombie" or "The Gates of Hell," you still bear witness to a gory prodding with a poker, a couple of slashed throats, an impaling, and a few other saucy surprises. Fulci even delivers a few chills. For example, there's a great scene at the beginning of the film where Bob sees Mae in a picture of the house hanging on the wall of his parents' apartment. The eventual appearance of Freudstein is unsettling and graphic. Unfortunately, we also get Fulci's trademark plot threads that go nowhere and a confusing conclusion. Worse, there's Bob. Imagine, if you will, a little kid that looks a lot like Klaus Kinski must have appeared as a child but with a dub job so bad that it peels paint off walls. Who in the heck did the voiceover for this kid? Bob is so annoying you'll miss out on significant portions of the movie while recovering from his dialogue.

The Anchor Bay treatment of Fulci's classic looks superb. The transfer is amazingly clear and the score sounds great. Extras include two trailers for the film (loved the voiceover of the guy who did those trailers!), a stills gallery, and biographies for Fulci and screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti. You don't get as many extras here as you do with "The Beyond" or "Zombie" discs, 'tis true, but I didn't miss them. Give "The House By The Cemetery" a shot if you're just getting into Fulci; you'll definitely want to check out his better known stuff first, but skipping this one would be tragic.






Rating: 4 stars
Summary: HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY
Review: This classic was directed in 1981 by Lucio Fulci and has become over the years a memorable horror movie. The film is genuinley scary at points, and slower at points, but I definitely have to admit that it was very freaky. The gore was really high in this movie, the killings were plain out crazy, which only made it freekier, thanx to the special effects which only made it more realistic. Anyway, I bought the version produced by DIAMOND ENTERTAINMENT DVD, It was 6.99, It was okay, no real extras except the director's Biography, the sound quality was week and un-restored (just like the VHS) and the image quality was pretty weak, lacking real strong colors, it seemed faded at points, definitely not restored much, but the 2.35:1 widescreen format was nice...can't wait to buy the Anchor Bay DVD of it, I heard the transfer is amazing and I heard the sound quality was better, too. Also, there is another version from EC entertainment with a nice transfer too (not as good as Anchor Bay's) but it did have a load of extras, but i'll stick with anchor bay, I'd rather have a top notch looking movie that was restored very well and you can tell it's dvd, then a decent transfer with lots of extras, plus, the Anchor Bay DVD has some extras, trailers, tv spots, bios, still gallerie...
GET THE ANCHOR BAY DVD if you like this movie, if you've never seen it, buy the 6.99 bargain shelf one first, see if you like it.


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