House by the Cemetery

Rating:
Summary: underated
Review: This is a very underated film. When i first saw it i thought it was stupid and pointless. But then i saw it again a few years later and changed my mind.The story is ok and the acting is average and like most Lucio Fulci films is there is plenty of gore. If you are looking for a good horror film, this would be a good choice.

Rating:
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:
Summary: Boring
Review: Why is it that Fulci fans are so die hard and fail to admit that the director didn't even make a decent horror film? After hearing so much about his films when i was a teen, and seeing all his gory make up on Fangoria magazines, i decided to finally rent some of his stuff. Was i ever disappointed, this film is ludicrous, mainly because it doesn't even resemble a horror film. Most of the time is wasted on back drop information that leads up to a banal climax.


Rating:
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:
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:
Summary: Um.
Review: This movie is alright, but I wouldn't pay $17.98 for it. It's confusing and the acting is bad, which is somewhat on par for a Fulci film. Unforunately, there isn't enough gore to offset these factors.

I got it in the Horror Rises from the Grave set w/ 3 other movies for $7.

It's worth seeing, but the only really memorable scene is the ver first one.

Rating:
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:
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.