Hot Picks
|
|
|
Quella Villa accanto al Cimitero
House by the Cemetery
Das Haus an der Friedhofsmauer / Zomvie Hell House
Italy 1981
produced by Fabrizio De Angelis for Fulvia Film
directed by Lucio Fulci
starring Catriona MacColl, Paolo Malco, Ania Pieroni, Giovanni Frezza, Silvia Collatina, Dagmar Lassander, Giovanni De Nava, Daniela Doria, Giampaolo Saccarola, Carlo De Mejo, Kenneth A. Olsen, Elmer Johnsson, Ranieri Ferrara, Teresa Rossi Passante, Lucio Fulci
story by Elisa Briganti, screenplay by Dardano Sacchetti, Giorgio Mariuzzo, Lucio Fulci, music by Walter Rizzati, Alexander Blonksteiner, special effects by Giannetto De Rossi, cinematography by Sergio Salvati
Lucio Fulci's Gothic Trilogy
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
|
|
Norman (Paolo Malco) and Lucy (Catriona MacColl) Boyle and their young son Bob (Giovanni Frezza) move from New York to Boston, where they
stay in the house of the late professor Peterson, who a short time ago
died under mysterious circumstances, and it's part of Norman's work
to find out why he died, as well as to continue Peterson's researches.
But something seems to be not right right from the beginning, since Bob
has ghostly appearences from a girl who urges him not to enter the house,
the Boyle's new nanny Anne (Ania Pieroni) seems more than just a little
creepy, Norman's researches into the late professor's work uncover some
creepy stuff, and Lucy finds a crypt in the house's livingroom - and it is all linked together by the name Freudstein. Freudstein, as
it turns out, lived here decades ago, but could his spirit account for
the creepy noises from the cellar? As the Boyles enter the cellar one
night though, they are attacked by a blood sucking bat, and as if that
wasn't bad enough, the next day their real estate agent (Dagmar
Lassander) stops by only to be killed by a person or persons unknown. And
while Norman finds out more and more about Peterson's weird and creepy experiments, nanny Anne back home enters the cellar looking
for Bob, only to instead get her head cut off, and even Bob himself
enters the cellar despite his ghostly girlfriend's warnings and nearly
gets it. But seemingly he has learned very little from this experiences
because he soon sees it fit to enter the cellar again (but hey, he's a
mere child), and this time he gets locked in with what or whoever it is slowly closing in on him, while at the other side of the door to the
cellar, his parents try desperately to get the door open. Thing is, once
they have achieved that, will they be able to save their son, or only walk into
their own doom ... Admittedly, on a narrative level this movie's
nothing short of a mess - but in this instance that actually works for the
movie instead of against it: The further the plot proceeds, the less
sense it makes, but at the same time the more confusing it gets the
bigger the feeling of unease with the viewer, who before long only knows nothing
can be taken for certain anymore as common reason is replaced with the logic of a nightmare -
and since this is a horror film, I can't really think of
something nicer to say about it - now sure, director Fulci by the way used a
similar tactic in many of his movies, but only rarely to the same
fascinating results. And add to that Fulci's sometimes very blunt but
never bland direction, his predilection for the gruesome, and his refusal to
look away or let reason stand in the way of shock value, and you've got a pretty
awesome horror movie, which granted might not be as stylish a masterpiece as Suspiria,
but it's at least just as creepy, and definitely worth watching!
|
|
|