"House by the Cemetery" is one of Fulci's better horror flicks he made in the early 1980s. It comes along with two other films of his that share the same stylistic elements: "Paura nella cittą dei morti viventi" (City of the Living Dead, 1980) and "L' Aldilą" (The Beyond, 1981). Fulci's works "Il Gatto nero" (The Black Cat, 1980) and "Manhattan Baby" (1982) also share some of these stylistic elements, but I'm reluctant to add them to the other three since they are pretty boring and ungory.
Like always with horror flicks from Fulci, the plot can be described in two sentences: Lucy and Norman Boyle move with their son Bob from New York to New England, where Norman continues a scientific assignment from someone who committed suicide. The house they move into was once owned by a weird surgeon, Dr. Freudstein...
The major downside of this film are the many unnecessary flaws. Here are some of them that come directly to my mind:
- How is it possible that every time when someone goes into the cellar, the door is being locked, but nobody is upstairs who could do that? Remember that Freudstein is not a ghost!
- Why does Freudstein's left hand look like one from a young man (see last picture below), but the rest of his body like a mummified corps?
- When Norman's wife is attacked by a bat, it takes ages until he reacts
- Norman drives to New York to look for Freudstein's grave after his wife already discovered it in their own living room!
I don't count flaws like the fact that it should be easy to outrun a very slow moving killer or that victims don't just stay still when they get slaughtered, because that's the case with almost any horror flick. But one annoying thing regarding the English version of the film should be mentioned: Giovanni's dubbing is pretty bad! The voice sounds like one from a little girl or a shrill talking woman. This impression gets even amplified by the fact that the boy needs a haircut very badly!
And there remain some questions unanswered, e.g. what babysitter Ann's role is, or why Norman's assistant is acting so weird. At the end of the film Fulci cites Henry James with the sentence "No one will ever know whether children are monsters or monsters are children". The sense of this citation remains Fulci's secret since there is no evil child in this movie.
What makes it still worth watching (except for the boy, that is)? Just like with the other two films mentioned above, the following three stylistic elements are very well made: creepy atmosphere, a good score and great camera work.
A few comments on the above posters: the one to the left is the DVD-Cover from the U.S. Anchor Bay release, the one to the right is the German cinema poster. I included the latter to give you an example of how horror movie posters were manipulated especially in the 1980s to feign elements of the film that are actually not present in it, just to attract more viewers:
- The killer with the knife in one hand doesn't exist; the only killer in the movie - Freudstein - looks completely different, see the other poster
- This kind of knife is never used in the film
- No woman gets strangled; again, the killer with long hair doesn't exist
Some comments on the DVD: the anamorphic picture and the sound are very good. The soundtrack has been re-mixed for Dolby Surround 2.0. I don't own a Dolby Surround decoder (yet), but I didn't even notice any stereo effects, which makes me wonder why Anchor Bay didn't keep the original mono track. Unfortunately they didn't put the original language on the DVD, so we have no chance to listen to Giovanni's real voice. The extras are two theatrical trailers (U.S./International), a TV spot, a still gallery and two talent biographies (director/writer). The menues are nicely done. I guess this is the best edition of the film you can get.
