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The House By The Cemetery

The House By The Cemetery

List Price: $19.98
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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Down There
Review: Norman Boyle, his wife Lucy, and his young son Bob take a 6-month lease on a house in New Whitby, a Boston suburb. Norman is a researcher, continuing the work of his predecessor, Dr. Peterson, who had been working in the same house before committing suicide under mysterious circumstances.

The Boyles arrive at their new home, a large, secluded structure in the woods near an old graveyard. A local girl named Anne comes to work with them as a housekeeper and babysitter. Norman is gone for long periods of time, working at his office in town, leaving the family at the house. Lucy begins to hear strange sounds in the building.

Mrs. Gilson, the real estate agent who arranged for the lease, stops by to visit the Boyles, but finds the house empty. She thinks she hears movement in the basement, and goes to investigate. A shadowy form emerges from the darkness and kills her. Later, Anne is also murdered in the basement.

Norman discovers some notes by Dr. Peterson concerning the original occupant of the house, a certain Dr. Freudstein. Freudstein had lived in the house a century before, and had been disbarred as a physician for conducting strange and unorthodox experiments. Peterson had reached the conclusion that Freudstein was still alive, somehow extracting cellular material from others to perpetuate his zombie-like existence.

Norman rushes home, to find Bob trapped in the basement, threatened by the grotesque figure of Freudstein. Both Norman and Lucy try to save Bob. Freudstein kills both of them, but in the confusion of the struggle, Bob manages to escape. The house is deserted once more-except for Freudstein. . . .

Directed by Lucio Fulci, The House By The Cemetery is an adequate if unimpressive Gothic exercise, fairly restrained by Fulci's standards, and rather slow-paced. If the ranking system permitted, my rating for this would really be two-and-a-half stars.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: At first...it all seems scary and intriguing...
Review: but...

Ok. There is this house, a house by a cemetary, and all these deaths occur there. Someone killed here, someone killed there.

1st) the movie itself is called House by the Cemetary. Yet, really, the cemetary is rarely acknowledged and explored. Ohhh maybe less that 3 or so minutes given to it the whole time of the movie? A title is, IMO, suppose to give a hint, an allegation, toward what the viewers are to expect (such as...Aliens, Re-Animator, Pieces...and other such quaint titles)....

2nd) ok. come on. How many people out there is going to buy a house, and not explore the whole thing???? I've moved how many times in my life? And while exploring on the first visit, I would IMAGINE that you and I and most of the rest of the people in this world would REALIZE there is a undead creature living in the celler....and a whole bunch of hacked up bodies here and there...

3) Is it just me or did the director have to get the most annoying whinning kid on the face of the earth? I mean really. The father and the mother were believeable, so was the babysitter and most of the other characters. But man. I hate to say this, but you just wanted to put duct tape on the kid's mouth.

4) At the end there is a quote about children are monsters or monsters are children. What the devil did this have to do with the whole movie? The children weren't the cause of the evil, the monster, well he was fully explained but again...the quote had nothing to do with the movie...

On the other hand...this is a good film to put in your DVD when you want something playing in the background and to focus upon in the good killing scenes...which there are several nicely done scenes (if you could call killing nice). Buy the DVD you will probably enjoy it, just dont try to think too heavily on it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great creepy atmoshphere, and lots of good gore.
Review: I was lucky enough to find this gem at my local video store and I was not dissapointed. The opening scene is great. It took me a little while to find this title, but it was worth it. Its right up there with the other Fulci greats such as Zombie, Gates Of Hell (city of the living dead), and The Beyond. Although it isnt technically a zombie movie, i loved in nonetheless. Dr.Freudstien is a crazed Zombie-like creature living in the cellar of a large, mansion like house and hungers for human flesh and sets out to devour the houses new inhabitants. I like it. If youre a fan of low-budget gory creepy movies, eurohorror, or youre a Fulci fan who still hasnt seen this one, I reccomend it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My Favourite Fulci
Review: House By The Cemetery is easily one of Fulci's most accomplished and impressive films. It just drips with atmosphere and features many wonderful set-pieces. The plot involves a family moving into a creepy house, which, unbeknown to them, contains a hideous and deadly secret. There's no need to know any more than this, and as a matter of fact, the plot is so full of huge gaping holes that you will have to forget about logic completely most of the time! But once you do this, you are in for some terrific entertainment. The film starts slowly, buliding a sense of foreboding about the house by introducing a ghostly little girl who communicates with the young son of the family. These scenes are delicate and appealing, and they contrast superbly with the scenes if gory horror that soon proliferate as the monster hiding within the house begins to claim his victims. While quite restrained when compared to "The Beyond" or "Zombi", the murder scenes on display are still pretty shocking, especially the death of one victim whose foot is trapped in a cracked floor; she is stabbed to death slowly and repeatedly, with the camera closing in on every blood spurt! There's also a real jolt in a scene when the young son is trapped behind the cellar door and his father tries to break it down with an axe...watch out for it! This then leads to the real surprise, which is the last twenty minutes of the film when the family face the monster in the cellar, and have to take it in turns fight for their lives...the suspense is superb, and Fulci has never equalled it since.
Beautifully shot in widescreen, the sets and locations look stunning, and the monster, when finally seen, is truly repulsive! I wholeheartedly recommend this to all horror fans

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Dr. Freudstein and a Boy Named Bob.
Review: A young professor, his Barbie-doll wife, and their young son go on a sabbatical. They move into an old house by an ancient cemetery, and bloody death ensues. After a steady diet of classic horror flicks and '50s style sci-fi schlock, come along as we venture into '80s stylized violence. Talk about culture shock! Vampires, werewolves, and radioactive dinosaurs seem mild compared to a deranged killer that sprays blood around in glorious color. Horrible death notwithstanding, the scariest thing in this movie is the whiny little kid named Bob. (Why pick on guys named Bob?). Bob gets our vote for the Donnie Dunagan award. Little Dunagan played the cutesy and annoying tyke in "Son of Frankenstein." Bob sees dead people, of course. Mainly a little girl dressed in 19th century garb. Also, he can't stay out of the basement. The house is haunted by the undead remnant of Dr. Freudstein. We assume that the Freud and Frankenstein family lines crossed at some point in the distant past. Freudstein needs plentiful amounts of human blood to keep going. The script has difficulty focusing between a slasher flick and a ghost story. The plot is both suspenseful and silly. At times, it even gets confusing. Who, for example, is the enigmatic baby-sitter that has strange ties to a store-window mannequin? The story doesn't conclude, it just stops after 80+ minutes. Maybe they were setting up a sequel. The killing is gory, but limited in scope. There is not a new victim every five minutes. Italian director Lucio Fulci enjoys a loyal following among genre fans and cult enthusiasts. For collectors, this gem is worth the price. ;-)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Creepy, Bloody, Dark, Beautiful!!
Review: "The House by the Cemetary", is probably, in my opinion, Lucio Fulci's second best work. Well maybe it's tied with "The Beyond". Anyway, this movie definitly ranks right up there with the all time scariest movies I've seen! Of coarse the actors aren't good, the voice overs aren't good, but I'll tell you now, that Euro Horror, just scares the crap out of me. It's dark, sadistic and wonderful! If you are afraid of basements, dark rooms, cemetarys, or gore, you will definitly become scared many, many times during this masterpiece created by the miestro: Lucio Fulci!!! Great movie, buy it on DVD, the transfer was pretty good.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Gory Horror Form the Italian Master
Review: House by the Cemetary. Lucio Fulci has been one of my favorite horror directors since I first watched the genre masterpiece. This film, in true Lcio fashion, offers up all the gore and all the horror as is expected from this great director. However, at times it moves rather slowly, and the gore is no where near sufficient for the die hard Lucio fan. Strong elements of the film however, include tense atmosphere and a sense of lurking danger. For the most part however, I would resommend the film Zombie for a true taste of Lucio's genius. I give this film two stars.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Eerie, unsettling, exciting and beautifully photographed
Review: Anchor Bay are to be commended for releasing classics by directors like Fulci and Argento, even more so for presenting clean transfers (not counting ZOMBIE), in the fullest uncut versions, AND IN THE ORIGINAL ASPECT RATIO.

HOUSE's transfer really shows off Fulci's ability to create a magnificent atmosphere, and is evident of his mastery of composition in the 'scope format.

The film is one of Fulci's best. It isn't as volcanic as THE BEYOND, but it's probably just as brilliant. It forsakes the Surrealist logic of the former film, it doesn't jump abstractly from one seemingly unconnected moment to the next, and is far more linear in its story telling. But that is not to say that HOUSE shirks the weird nightmare qualities: it just builds up to them a little mre slowly. By the end you'll still feel as though you've been taken into another strange world. The story itself isn't anything special; it plays on certain archetypes of the haunted house flick and the zombie in the cellar set piece. But what elevates this film above such popular classics as NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, the slightly overrated LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE and others is Fulci's total command of the formal aspects of cinema. The visuals and sounds are unlike anything else.

Almost every image in the film is beautiful and melancholy. At times the film has the oneiric quality of dreams and nightmares. Fulci composes his images as a painter would. The link between Fulci's cinema and painting is heightened by the motif of the ghosts in the painting, as the line between the corporeal (the physical world) and the ethereal (the world of ghosts associated with the painting)is blurred until it is obliterated in the haunting finish. Many people will find the atmosphere too depressing, but it enhances the film's power.

I must also comment on the music. It perfectly complemented the imagery, and is truly eerie. The acting is good, too, especially Ania Peroni as a weirdo babysitter. The close ups of her eyes are unsettling.

Overall, I would highly recommend this for people interested in Euro horror, because this is one of the finest examples. Also, people interested in formalism and poetic cinema combined with horror will also be impressed. It is not for all tastes. It won't satisfy gore hounds because there are only three or four scenes of pure horror. But it's still great.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good, but not Fulci's best...
Review: This movie was as incoherent as most of Fulci's films, and the script was pretty typical of his work as well. The gore was good, but a little fake looking. In fact, with the plot and acting the way they were, there was just barely enough gore to hold my attention.
THbtC is definately worth watching, and for those of you who are Fulci/Foreign/Horror movie fans (as I am), this is one that's worth owning. Just don't expect to be blown away by it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: the master fucio fulci returns with the bloods film.
Review: The house by the sementary is anather of the best horror movie
the i have seen .you must see this one it gots lots of guts blood .and the story of the film is the best. i recomend zombie,
the black cat, demonia, manahtatan baby. by henry May 23,2002.
dont wath none of this movies if you get stomaths upsets you while
your eating.#1 you got to see the body parts and head cut of is
the best.


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