Quella villa accanto al cimitero

In New York, Dr. Norman Boyle (Paolo Malco) assumes the research about Dr. Freudstein of his colleague Dr. Petersen, who committed suicide after killing his mistress. Norman heads to Boston with his wife Lucy Boyle (Katherine MacColl) and their son Bobby (Giovanni Frezza) to live in an isolated house in the woods that belonged to Dr. Petersen. Bob befriends the girl Mae (Silvia Collatina) that only he can see and she warns him to leave the house. Soon his parents hire the mysterious babysitter Ann (Ania Pieroni) and creepy things happen in the house, When Bobby goes to the basement, his parents discover the secret of the house.

"Quella villa accanto al cimitero", a.k.a. "The House by the Cemetery", is a sinister horror movie by Lucio Fulci. The screenplay is confused with poor development of the characters, but the supernatural atmosphere is creepy and the camera-work is great. The metaphoric conclusion, with the soul of Bob following Mae and her mother, is excellent. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Casa do Cemitério" ("The House by the Cemetery")

Note: On 23 March 2016, I saw this movie again on DVD with the original language (Italian) and subtitles in Portuguese.

In some ways, you get a sense Fulci was trying hard to make this more "respectable" than some of his other movies. The camerawork is careful, creating atmosphere as well as a sense of polish. The makeup and gore effects (except for the ridiculous bat scene) are also well-crafted, and the Dr. Freudstein character is fairly creepy to see. Also, there are fewer splatter scenes, and they come more out of the story than any gratuitous attempts to add gore. However, the story (which has shades of THE SHINING) is pretty slow-moving, so after a while you wish Fulci *would* throw in some gratuitous splatter! And like many of Fulci's other movies, a lot of things are simply not explained. (I will admit I got a good laugh at the sudden burst of "explanation" by one character at the end, which comes out of nowhere!) Quite frankly, viewers who have heard about Fulci but not seen any of his other movies will be wondering at the end of the movie why he's received so much fuss. So only for Fulci fans, or people with more than a passing interest in Italian horror movies.

By this point in his career Lucio Fulci was cranking out gorefest after gorefest. This film is no different. With a great opening involving two lovers in an abandoned house we are introduced to the great score by Walter Rizzati that plays through out the film. After the credit sequence we are introduced to the Boyle family. Mother Lucy (Catriona MacColl in I believe her third Fulci film after THE CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD and THE BEYOND), father Norman (Paulo Malco) and son Bob (Giovanni Frezza) are going to be moving to a new home with New England. Only problem is the previous owner murdered his mistress and then committed suicide.

The first half of the movie is good and quite restrained if you will for Fulci. It is introducing characters, infusing creepiness and at times visually impressive while not exactly going for the gore. But, to me it is the second half where it does amp up the gore, bring on the great, gruesome kills and really the tension at times is almost chaotic in the basement (especially when Bob goes down there) of their new house that brings this film up on the rating scale for me. I mean that is what I am expecting from a Fulci movie.

If gobs of gore isn't your thing you should probably stay away, but if you are a fan of Fulci or like a mix of gore and tension in your films I recommend this 1981 horror flick for you.

Two final notes: Mr. Fulci himself portrays Dr. Mueller and whomever did the voice over work for Bob does in fact have a slightly annoying whiny voice. So just be prepared for that.

Here is an effort from the infamous director Luci Fulci, who is probably best known for his ultra-violent zombie movies. This is one of them, although strictly speaking it is a haunted house/zombie combination. The story has a family move into a new home where it turns out a zombie called Dr Freudstein (yes, really) lives in the cellar. And from this premise much bloody mayhem does ensue. The highlight of the movie overall is the practical effects work from Giannetto De Rossi which kick into gear during the various scenes of over-the-top bloody violence. It's a fairly run-of-the-mill film aside from this really but it is also notable for having a very effective, intense ending. Last and by all means least is the child actor playing the character called Bob - he has been dubbed with the most ridiculous and inane voice that you would be forgiven for hoping he will wind up being torn apart by the resident zombie. But will he?

For an hour i was thinking to myself 'this kid has one of the worst dubs in the history of cinema'. And then that scream happened. Now it's official. It's the worst voice dubbing in movie history. Why on earth someone thought it wise that when a boy of 7/8 screams he sounds like a prime scream queen i'll never know, truly one of the most ridiculous and startling things i've come across.

As for the rest of the movie, there are 3 brutally bloody scenes (one in particular towards the end is rather gross out) which explains why it was a video nasty in it's day. The story tries to set up a little mystery with possible suspects including the nanny and the dad but the choppy editing and scene placement make it hard to believe anything other than the supernatural. Not one of Fulci's best, it's still got enough good moments to warrant at least one viewing.