HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY (1981)

I make massive attempts to not be a gatekeeper when it comes to horror. I am almost definitively a live and let live guy. Manos The Hand of Fate is the best horror film ever? Ok, sure thing pal. There’s nothing scarier than an Annabelle film? No worries, junior.

There is a caveat and that is Italian horror: you don’t like it, I doubt your horror cred, sorry, that’s just the way it is. Is it because I’m an arsehole? Maybe. Is it generational? Definitely.

For those who don’t know, let this Gen X dinosaur explain who Lucio Fulci was. Lucio Fulci was an Italian movie director who made his first film, a comedy, in 1959 and was in the middle of making the movie The Wax Mask in 1997 when he tragically passed away, a film eventually finished by Sergio Stivaletti.

Fulci is best know for his horror and giallo films of the 70s and 80s. Such films as the thrillers Lizard in a Woman’s Skin and Don’t Torture a Duckling, the slasher New York Ripper and what most horror films of a particular generation know him for, three unrelated in story but tonally equivalent City of the Living Dead, The Beyond and this one, The House By The Cemetery.

The House by the Cemetery tells of Dr Norman Boyle (Paolo Malco), his wife Lucy (Catriona MacColl, though listed in the credits as ‘Katherine’) and son, Bob (Giovanni Frezza) are moving to a strange house in New Whittby, Massachusetts so Norman can continue the work of his ex-colleague Dr. Peterson, a man who murdered his partner and then himself.

Strangely, Bob has been having strange visions of a girl named Mae Freudstein (Sylvia Collatina) who has been consistently warning him away from going to the house, something a child obviously has no control over.

Odd things keep happening though as Norman is recognised by several locals even though he claims to have never been there before, and the basement of the house is locked and boarded up… well, it was until babysitter Ann (Anita Pieroni) inexplicably removes the boards one night, but what is down there?

What is going on in the house? What do Bob’s visions have to do with it all? Is there someone else living in the house, or maybe someTHING is dwelling in the basement…

Honestly, I can’t tell you what the hell is going on in this film. There is so much stuff that’s unexplained like characters looking knowingly at each other like co-conspirators, but there time travel involved, are these ghosts… so many questions, so few answers.

I feel like Fulci was trying to make Norman some kind of enigmatic character like Jack from The Shining. All of the recognition from the locals is quite obvious and yet it is not even slightly explored. I kept expecting the film to end with a photo of the house from the 1800s with him standing out the front. It’s never exploited outside of the strange side-eyes and ‘have you been here before?’

There is a lot of fun gore though, and the dubbing of some characters, particularly Bob, is so laughable that it makes the movie even more fun to watch, and between those two things, all that confusion with the script washes away and it just become dumb entertainment.

Whilst this certainly isn’t top level Fulci, it IS infinitely rewatchable: I don’t know why, but it is! Yet another thing I don’t understand about this film!

Disc: There’s 4 interviews and a featurette on this disc.

Back to the Cellar is an interview with Giovanni Frezza aka Bob.

Cemetery Woman is a decent interview with Catriona MacColl. Lots of memories of Fulci here.

Finishing the Final Fulci is an interview with Sergio Stivaletti and him taking over the directorial role of Fulci’s final film, The Wax Mask, after he passed away.

Freudstein’s Follies is an interview with Gianetto De Rossi, the special effects man for the film.

Ladies of Horror is a look at various Italian horror movie stars.

These are all High Riding Productions shorts which are all directed by Calum Waddell whom usually works for Arrow Video with these shorts so I am assuming they have been purchased by Cinema Cult for this disc.

All interesting but of varying lengths. There is probably a really good solid singular feature about Fulci in here somewhere, but these shorts have some great anecdotes in them.

Film: 6/10

Extras: 8/10

Rewatchability: 10/10

This Australian Bluray was purchased from JB Hifi.