Redundant and unnecessary.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Best movie ever!

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It's impossible for me to be objective. The House by the Cemetery is one of my favorite films ever. I cannot defend it's lack of story, the fact that it's influences are pinned to its sleeve or that it makes little to no sense. The first time I watched it - at a drive-in marathon that also included Zombi 2 - was an experience that burned the film into my brain.The beginning will grab you in seconds, as a woman searches for her boyfriend in an abandoned house. She finds him dead, stabbed with scissors. Just then, she's stabbed in the back of the head and the blade of the knife comes out of her mouth! We see her dragged away as the movie begins.Meanwhile in New York City, Bob Boyle (Giovanni Frezza, Warriors of the Wasteland, Manhattan Baby, Demons) and his folks, Norman (Paolo Malco, The New York Ripper, Escape from the Bronx) and Lucy (Katherine MacColl, City of the Living Dead, The Beyond) are moving to the abandoned house we saw in the beginning of the film. Sure, Norman's friend Dr. Peterson killed his mistress and committed suicide there, but why would that be a problem?In one of the eeriest scenes in the film, Bob looks at a photo of the house and notices a young girl moving from room to room. This is the most subtle of all frights, a small moment where reality is not as it should be, and far more potent than even the goriest of grue that Fulci will soon serve up with glee. Only Bob can see this vision, which warns him to stay away.As his parents get the keys to the house, Bob sees the girl again. Inside the rental office, Mrs. Gittleson (Dagmar Lassander, Hatchet for the Honeymoon) is upset that the couple has the Freudstein keys to Oak Mansion, but she promises to find a babysitter from Bob.The mansion is a mess. Yet when the babysitter (Ania Pieroni, Inferno) comes, she enters the previously locked and nailed shut cellar door. Strangeness follows, like a librarian recognizing Norman despite never meeting him, the discovery of a tomb inside the house and a bat attack.The Boyles demand a new house as Norman goes to the hospital. Mrs. Gittleson comes to tell them that she's found a new property, but the Freudstein tombstone in the ground holds her while a figure stabs her in the neck. The next morning, Ann the babysitter cleans up the blood and avoids questions.While the Boyles are at the hospital to treat Norman's injuries from the bat, Mrs. Gittleson arrives at the house to tell them of a new property. Letting herself in, she stands over the Freudstein tombstone, which cracks apart, pinning her ankle. A figure emerges, stabs her in the neck with a fireplace poker, and drags her into the cellar.The next morning, Lucy finds Ann cleaning a bloodstain on the kitchen floor while eluding Lucy's questions about the stain. As they drink their morning coffee, Norman tells Lucy that the house was once home to Dr. Fruedstein, who conducted horrific experiments in the basement. He decides to go to New York City to learn more and on the way, he finds out that Freudstein killed his old friend Peterson's family.Ann can't find Bob, so she goes to the basement where Freudstein slashes her throat and decapitates her. Bob finds her head and screams, but his mother refuses to believe the story. Bob goes back to the cellar but gets locked in. His mother tries to open the door, which can't be unlocked. Norman returns and they make their way down to see Freudstein's hands holding Bob. One axe slash later and the hand is cut off as the monster goes away to recover.Inside the basement, Norman and Lucy find mutilated bodies, surgical equipment and a slab. Turns out that Freudstein is 150 years old and has learned to escape death. He returns and attacks Norman, who returns the favor by stabbing him. The twisted doctor replies by ripping out Norman's throat. Lucy and Bon try to escape, but Freudstein drags her down to the basement where he rams her head into the floor until she dies.Finally, the doctor grabs Bob, who is rescued by Mar and her mother, Mary Fredustein. Mary tells them that it's time to leave as she leads Mae and Bob down to a world of gloom and ghosts.House by the Cemetery is a mash-up of Frankenstein, The Amityville Horror and The Shining. And it's another in the series of classics that Dardano Sacchetti (working with Giorgio Mariuzzo here) wrote for Fulci. If you think it's nonsensical, imagine how early American audiences felt when the original VHS copies released in the U.S. had several of the reels out of order!Seriously, this movie makes no sense whatsoever. There aren't plot holes because there's not even a plot. And sure, some say there's too much gore. Yes, I've heard these complaints and I say no to all of them! Look, you're either going to become an evangelist for this film (if you need me in person, there's a good chance I'll have on a t-shirt with this film's logo, I wear the shirt all the time) and you'll think it's the biggest piece of garbage ever made.

THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY is part of Lucio Fulci's infamous 7 Gates Trilogy next to THE BEYOND and CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD. Of the three parts I found this to be the weakest entry as it succumbs to be more or less a simple slasher film. By far the worst part of the film are the two child actors (Giovanni Frezza and Silvia Collatina), both butt-ugly, creepy and annoying at the same time. Both could have easily been edited out completely without hurting the "story" (or better, plot) at all, instead they are given way too much screen time. The character of Dr. Freudstein is creepy and well done, the murders are bloody and should satisfy gore hounds out there, although the effects are really dated. Honestly, some editing would have done this film some good, the ending is good, the atmosphere is really good (Fulci is a master in that field), but as I said, those kids should have gone.

Dr. Norman Boyle takes over the research of colleague Dr. Petersen, who committed suicide after killing his mistress. Norman heads to Boston with his wife Lucy and son Bob, to live in an isolated house in the woods that belonged to Dr. Petersen. Bob befriends a girl called Mae that only he can see, and she warns him that the house is sinister. His parents hire babysitter Ann and strange things begin to happen in the house.Any horror film from the eighties that had the word House in the title, more or less consisted of the same thing.And now while this film isn't anything new or original, Fulci has crafted a little gem of a movie, full of wondrous images and a strange sense of dread throughout the film.But underneath all the imagery and atmosphere, it is just a video nasty, chock full of gore and blood spattering.The acting is poor, but you don't really watch these films for performances, you watch them because its a piece of exploitation, and for what it is, its successful.Just nothing out of the ordinary.

The House by the Cemetery is directed by famed splatter meister Lucio Fulci, and it pretty much reverts to Lucio's type. Which of course is often enough for fan's of Fulci's work. Plot is irrelevant, but basically a family moves into a creepy house in New England and discover a flesh eating ghoul is in residence down in the basement. The ghoul needs to continue its bizarre medical habits to remain, well, a ghoul! Cue screams, serious bloody gore, bad dubbing and incoherent narrative.Visually, as you would expect from Fulci and cinematographer Sergio Salvati, it has inspired moments, the whole irreverence of it draped in Grand Guignol textures. The ghouls lair is a place of nightmares, while the appearance of a scary bat and doll further add to the weirdness. Yet it undoubtedly is a hack job by Fulci, where he clutches from some famous American horror movies and just inserts a bloody killing at regular intervals. The whole film serves only to shed some blood for the gore hounds delight, regardless of if it actually matters to what was left on the writing table.Its reputation, certainly in Britain in the 1980s when it was ridiculously banned during the even more ridiculous Video Nasty craze, is that of a blood thirsty cult movie unfairly held from interested eyes. The banner proudly proclaiming that the work of an Italian horror visionary was being stymied, that's unfair for anyone looking at it now because it's more funny than scary. Had I saw it as a early teenager back then? I'm sure I would have felt disturbed to my guts, though I do believe that even then I could spot a messy hack job when I saw one! This has some skills, but it's not great and really only for Fulci and pulp splatter completists only. 5/10