Video Nasty : The House By The Cemetery (1981)

Next to Dario Argento, and Roman Polanski, Lucio Fulci is my favorite director, and this is one of his better films. Why it became a Nasty, and a banned one at that, is really out of my reach as other of his titles such as "Gates Of Hell", "The Beyond", not to mention "New York Ripper" has more of the red stuff, and the nasty stuff than..



Plot:

Lucy Boyle, and her son Bob moves into a new house, although new is an overstatement. Instead it would be correct to say it's very old, and very haunted. Bob soon finds himself a playmate in a little girl whom he saw inside a picture of the house before they moved in, alas..yes you're right..she's a ghost, but worse horrors is ahead as Lucy finds out there is a very real and very evil demon in the basement, and he wants to kill!



What's good?:

This starts off lovely with the scene from the pic right above, which might have had to do with it becoming banned as it is one of the nastier scenes, and signalises that "What do you do to make a woman stfu??..You stab her through the back of her head all the way through her mouth of course!"

This is one of Fulci's better films, and one of the about ten films he directed in his prime, that is the 70's and early 80's. The style is very Fulci which is something you'll recognize right away if you're familiar with his movies. He probably has the best and most creepy settings in Horror movie history, and was a master of extreme closeups to enhance the suspense.

The mood of the film is excitingly eerie, and yes this is definitely a haunted house flick with more than just a slight scare or two.

Excellent synth driven soundtrack by Walter Rizatti, the way only the Italians could do it.

Gore? There's plenty. The above mentioned stabbing, and the demon in the cellar offs various people in gruesome ways which Fulci of course turned into ultra bloody long sequences.



What's not?:

The film seems to drag on and get a little boring in places, and neither is it as fascinating and violent as his other early 80's ventures. The ending is also a little rushed, and could've been a lot better. I have plenty of ideas how it should've been ending, but I'll keep that to myself for now.

The Verdict:

A nice one from Fulci, quite scary, and pretty infamous back in the days for the knifing through the head scene. Still, it doesn't come close to some of his best films, and so..

Rating:

4 (out of 6)