"The House by The Cemetery" (or, in italian, "Quella villa al cimitero") is directed by Lucio Fulci. To me, at first, it said a lot. So, by pure curiosity, I bought a copy of this film, because I started being really interested in gore cinema, and I knew that the name of Lucio Fulci was a big one, in this cinematic genre. I was hesitant between buying "The house By the Cemetery" or "The Beyond". Now I know I should have bought "The Beyond". I'll explain why.
I bought this almost one year ago. My interest for gore movies was rising, especially when I saw (and bought) George A. Romero's "Dawn of The Dead", Peter Jackson's "Braindead" and "Bad Taste", and many more. So, I went to the "Record Runner" music and movie store, with the idea that it was time for me to see a Lucio Fulci. I didn't know which one I'd prefer, because I was sort of a beginner in gore movies. So I made the wrong choice, I guess. I like zombie movies, and I thought "The House By The Cemetery" was another extremely gory, full of zombies film. Actually, that idea came to my head because I saw this title on the U.K.'s nasties list. And I have to mention that i don't really understand why it has its place in that list...really, there's nothing very shocking in this film. Yes, there are a couple of gory sequences, but they are nothing compared to what you can see in "Braindead", for example. (SPOILERS) I'll tell you the gory content, so, read this if you want to buy this movie for the gore it contains, you'll see it doesn't deserve to be bought for the gore. There is a scene where a young boy imagines a woman getting her head cut off (it's not gruesome at all), a scene where a man has his hand bitten by a bat and stabs the bat with scissors, a scene where a woman is killed with a long pick, she's stabbed in the body and neck, and there's lots of blood, a scene where you see many pieces of bodies and organs on an operation table, another scene where a woman has her throat slit and later on her head cut off, a scene where a woman is stabbed in the head (the classic knife through skull scene, not gruesome at all), a scene where a zombie is stabbed (there is a view of the maggots and blood spurting from the wound), a scene where a man has the skin on his neck torn, letting us see shortly the inside of his neck and the flowing blood). When you read this, it may sound like there's enough gore, but really, there isn't. But, considering the 87 minutes runtime, you'll just be waiting for something interesting to happen.
But, in the horror factor, this film is not bad. It has a certain scary atmosphere, some GREAT music, and a very nice ending. But there are so many things taken from Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining", it's funny. You can often relate to scenes of Kubrick's masterpiece. It's like a mix of "The Shining", "The Haunting", and "The Relic". But it has that typical Italian style that is very obvious and cheesy. Fulci's directing is full of zoom ins, focuses on eyes (every character in this film has BLUE eyes!), in other words, many things that make the film look more amateurish, and others that try to give it a symbolic and bizarre aspect, for no reason. It's not the directing that gives the shivers in this film, it's the places where it was filmed.
The acting, especially from the boy who plays Bob, Giovanni Frezza, is awful. He's a total rip-off of Danny Torrance, in "The Shining". He has visions, same haircut, and the same behavior. And, by the way, if you see the english version, he has a voice that is absolutely intolerable voice. It's atrocious, he sounds like a girl, and says some really stupid lines. The rest of the cast is not as bad as Frezza, but they are just below average actors.
It's the only Lucio Fulci film I've seen, but I'll probably purchase "Zombie" or "The Beyond" or maybe "City of The Living Dead", but I'd like to know if they worth it, because I'm a huge gore fan, and I like a film with many scenes of gore, not two or three, a LOT! And I don't know if Lucio Fulci did that in one of his movies, but if he did, I'd like to know, so if anyone reads this review and can answer my questions, message me please.
So, overall, this is a movie that has a usual 80's horror movie scenario, some gore, a creepy atmosphere, and a bad actors. We really feel the Italian touch, especially in the end, with the very interesting quote :"We'll never know wether children are monsters or monsters are children." That's the brilliant point of the movie...the ending. Not one of the worst movies I've seen, but not at all one of the best, and especially not for the gore.
I give it 5/10.
I bought this almost one year ago. My interest for gore movies was rising, especially when I saw (and bought) George A. Romero's "Dawn of The Dead", Peter Jackson's "Braindead" and "Bad Taste", and many more. So, I went to the "Record Runner" music and movie store, with the idea that it was time for me to see a Lucio Fulci. I didn't know which one I'd prefer, because I was sort of a beginner in gore movies. So I made the wrong choice, I guess. I like zombie movies, and I thought "The House By The Cemetery" was another extremely gory, full of zombies film. Actually, that idea came to my head because I saw this title on the U.K.'s nasties list. And I have to mention that i don't really understand why it has its place in that list...really, there's nothing very shocking in this film. Yes, there are a couple of gory sequences, but they are nothing compared to what you can see in "Braindead", for example. (SPOILERS) I'll tell you the gory content, so, read this if you want to buy this movie for the gore it contains, you'll see it doesn't deserve to be bought for the gore. There is a scene where a young boy imagines a woman getting her head cut off (it's not gruesome at all), a scene where a man has his hand bitten by a bat and stabs the bat with scissors, a scene where a woman is killed with a long pick, she's stabbed in the body and neck, and there's lots of blood, a scene where you see many pieces of bodies and organs on an operation table, another scene where a woman has her throat slit and later on her head cut off, a scene where a woman is stabbed in the head (the classic knife through skull scene, not gruesome at all), a scene where a zombie is stabbed (there is a view of the maggots and blood spurting from the wound), a scene where a man has the skin on his neck torn, letting us see shortly the inside of his neck and the flowing blood). When you read this, it may sound like there's enough gore, but really, there isn't. But, considering the 87 minutes runtime, you'll just be waiting for something interesting to happen.
But, in the horror factor, this film is not bad. It has a certain scary atmosphere, some GREAT music, and a very nice ending. But there are so many things taken from Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining", it's funny. You can often relate to scenes of Kubrick's masterpiece. It's like a mix of "The Shining", "The Haunting", and "The Relic". But it has that typical Italian style that is very obvious and cheesy. Fulci's directing is full of zoom ins, focuses on eyes (every character in this film has BLUE eyes!), in other words, many things that make the film look more amateurish, and others that try to give it a symbolic and bizarre aspect, for no reason. It's not the directing that gives the shivers in this film, it's the places where it was filmed.
The acting, especially from the boy who plays Bob, Giovanni Frezza, is awful. He's a total rip-off of Danny Torrance, in "The Shining". He has visions, same haircut, and the same behavior. And, by the way, if you see the english version, he has a voice that is absolutely intolerable voice. It's atrocious, he sounds like a girl, and says some really stupid lines. The rest of the cast is not as bad as Frezza, but they are just below average actors.
It's the only Lucio Fulci film I've seen, but I'll probably purchase "Zombie" or "The Beyond" or maybe "City of The Living Dead", but I'd like to know if they worth it, because I'm a huge gore fan, and I like a film with many scenes of gore, not two or three, a LOT! And I don't know if Lucio Fulci did that in one of his movies, but if he did, I'd like to know, so if anyone reads this review and can answer my questions, message me please.
So, overall, this is a movie that has a usual 80's horror movie scenario, some gore, a creepy atmosphere, and a bad actors. We really feel the Italian touch, especially in the end, with the very interesting quote :"We'll never know wether children are monsters or monsters are children." That's the brilliant point of the movie...the ending. Not one of the worst movies I've seen, but not at all one of the best, and especially not for the gore.
I give it 5/10.