HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY: FULL ON FULCI

Fans of horror are well acquainted with the name Lucio Fulci. While the Italian director made movies in numerous genres it was his horror films near the end of his career that have brought him more fame than the rest. Almost everyone who has enjoyed a horror film has seen ZOMBIE, but his other films didn’t get near the attention until the video boom.

I was fortunate enough to see his CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD/GATES OF HELL when it played in theaters. But finding the rest never seemed to happen. With video I was able to catch a few more but still, not most. It wasn’t until his films began popping up on disc that they were more accessible and more affordable. One of those titles was HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY. I still hadn’t seen it until this release but Blue Underground has gone above and beyond to make adding this one to your collection a must have.

The film has a quick opening of a young couple having just had sex in an abandoned old house. When the girl goes looking for her boyfriend she finds his body mutilated and is killed herself, a knife shoved through her head from behind. As her body is dragged off we change scenes.

Young Bob (Giovanni Frezza) in New York City is looking at a picture of that same old house, talking to a girl named Mae (Silvia Collatina) who he sees in the window. He tells his mother Lucy Boyle (Catriona MacColl) who sees nothing and tells him to get ready. Along with his father Norman (Paolo Malco) they are moving to New Whitby, Massachusetts. They’re moving into the house once owned by Norman’s mentor, Dr. Peterson, who murdered his mistress and then committed suicide there.

The realtor Mrs. Gittleson (Dagmar Lassander) refers to the place as Old Mansion while her employee calls it the “Freudstein house”. She finds the keys and takes the family there, leaving as they begin to unpack. She also sends along a young woman named Anna (Ania Pieroni) to help as a baby sitter. One night Norman finds Anna opening the locked door to the basement.

While his parents were inside the realtors earlier, Bob saw the girl he found in the picture and talked to her. She warned him again not to go to the house but he has no way of stopping it from happening. She also watched as a mannequin had its head severed, a mannequin that looked much like Anna.

Strange things begin to happen in the house. A rather large bat attacks Lucy and bites Norman. Sounds come out of nowhere. Shadows appear and disappear. Murders take place without the family being aware. And eventually Norman discovers new evidence of what transpired in the house, an evil no one suspected and experiments that were not discussed before. Whether or not the family can survive in the house isn’t revealed until the final moments of the film.

Many view Fulci’s works as nothing more than gore fest fueled by the effects people in demand at the time his films were made. Granted they do include the gore that horror films of the period required but they also offer much more. His films also told stories, created new horrific worlds or toppled old concepts on their heads to make something original. This film alone takes the haunted house concept and alters it into something different and yet familiar at the same time.

Fulci was also known not to be all that friendly with his actors and yet he pulls some great performances out of those involved here including the two children, Frezza and Collatina, who could have brought down the entire film. Much has been said about the dubbing of Frezza’s voice over the years but that doesn’t harm the film. Both make their characters believable as does the rest of the cast. This was the last film MacColl did with Fulci and she gives him exactly what her part needed.

Back to the gore effects here for some they seem crude but I wonder if that doesn’t involve looking at the film from the time period it was made in. In recent years we’ve seen a crippling use of CGI blood in films that looks as fake as you would expect. This was a time when practical effects were still in use. It was also a team that while good lacked a certain amount of authenticity in films that I have seen but at the same time did make those effects believable enough. And some of them here can be fairly gruesome to those who aren’t used to them in Italian horror films.

So the next question is why bother buying this new edition? I mean by now you probably own a copy of the film so what makes this one worth investing in? There are many reasons so let’s start with the biggest one. The presentation here. Blue Underground is offering the film for the first time ever in a new 4K Restoration from the uncensored original camera negative. What that means is that the film looks like it never has before with a spectacular sharper image that alone makes this worth picking up.

But they’ve done a lot more with tons of extras to enjoy. There is a new audio commentary track by Troy Howarth (author of “Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulci and His Films”), deleted scenes, theatrical trailers, TV spots, poster & still galleries, “Meet the Boyles” interviews with Catriona MacColl and Paolo Malco, “Children of the Night” interviews with Giovanni Frezza and Silvia Collatina, “Tales of Laura Gittleson” and interview with Dagmar Lassander, “My Time With Terror” an interview with star Carlo De Mejo, “A Haunted House Story” interviews with co-writer Dardano Sacchetti and Elisa Briganti, “To Build a Better Death Trap” interviews with cinematographer Sergio Salvati, special make-up effects artist Maurizio Trani, special effects artist Gino De Rossi and actor Giovanni De Nava, “House Quake” a new interview with co-writer Giorgio Mariuzzo, a Q&A session with Catriona MacColl that’s new, “Calling Dr. Freudstein” a new interview with Stephen Thrower (author of “Beyond Terror The Films of Lucio Fulci”) and a collectable booklet with a new essay by Michael Gingold.

As the sales pitch goes “wait, there’s more!” This release also includes the original motion picture soundtrack on CD by Walter Rizzati. That alone makes up for the costs of buying this new edition of the film.

If you love the films of Fulci, if you love collecting soundtracks to the horror films of Italy, if you’re a horror fan in general then you’ll want to pick up this new edition of the film. Or perhaps like me you never got the chance to see it before. Then by all means pick this one up and add it to your collection. It’s worth the investment. Sell off the old copy and keep this one on your shelf. 

Click here to order.