The House by the Cemetery

If I have to be objective, I would say that I can understand why some people criticize "The House by the Cemetery" for being a film that lacks of logical explanations all the way through. As a matter of fact, regardless of how much I love this film and how biased I can be, I admit that it is overflowing with nonsensical and misleading sequences that only add a little bit of confusion. This is not the only occasion in which Mr. Fulci is accused of being ambiguous and practically senile for developing such random and unsystematic states of affairs in one his films. However, it is not the only time in which the results are unquestionably effective and unforgettable either. I think we ought to accept by now that several Italian horror movies, let alone the ones directed by Mr. Fulci, are not exactly to be praised because of their plot and exceedingly appropriate logic. The high point in "The House by the Cemetery", along with many other films directed by Lucio Fulci, is without doubt the atmosphere and pleasant demonstration of fear-provoking imagery.

In "The House by the Cemetery", Dr. Boyle moves to the countryside in New England with his wife, Lucy and his obnoxious little son, Bobby. His purpose is to continue an unfinished research and finding out what happened to his colleague, who killed himself and slaughtered his mistress for no apparent reason. Dr. Boyle, who is pretty excited about the research and the fact that he's going to earn five thousand dollars extra, tries to cope with the constant ranting coming from his wife and little Bob, who claims he sees a little girl who says they shouldn't go to the house. Despite the consequences, Dr. Boyle prepares for his research, without even considering that Bobby's so-called hallucinations and lies should be taken seriously. In the cellar of the house, there's something waiting for them. Something that is beyond anyone's nightmare and the Boyles are about to find out what it is.

Like I said before, it seems that...

Not a big fan of Lucio Fulci but I did enjoy Zombie. However, The House by the Cemetery is a mess of a horror film with mysterious elements, like how Professor Norman had been to this town before, goes nowhere (not to mention the mystery surrounding Ann, the babysitter) and despite a short running time, feels really tedious. Beyond that, in Fulci form, and most Italian horror, the dubbing is pretty bad and characters make dumb decisions.

On the positive side, at least the gore effects weren't bad and there were a few creepy moments, even Fraudstein's prosthetics effects weren't bad, but everything else supersedes anything good. 2.0/5