Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The House by the Cemetery/Quella Villa accanto al Cimitero (1981)

1/29/2022

The House by the Cemetery/Quella Villa accanto al Cimitero (1981) - Underwhelming Fulci horror

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Darkness and bestiality looms on this grim-looking poster for Lucio Fulci's The House by the Cemetery

A New York couple move to a former scientist's house in Boston, where the man is to finish up some research and make an extra buck. But a strange curse rests over the house and their babysitter!

The House by the Cemetery is written by Dardano Sacchetti (Demons/Dèmoni (1985)), Giorgio Mariuzzo (Doppio Misto (1985, TV movie)) and co-writer/director Lucio Fulci (I Ladri (1959)), with Elisa Briganti (Manhattan Baby (1982)) contributing story elements.

Aside from incredibly bloody effects, this horror hit is something of a bomb in Fulci's body of work. It is technically bad, with a confusing twist about 'children as monsters' (underscored by a Henry James quote in the end), but it falls flat due to lousy child performances. The House by the Cemetery isn't all you'd hope it would be.

Related posts:

Lucio Fulci: The Beyond (1981) - Fulci's ultimate vision of surreal horror

City of the Living Dead/Paura Nella Città Dei Morti Viventi/The Gates of Hell (1980) - New England town turns to a gory hell in Fulci's slow shocker favorite

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 600 mil. lire

Box office: 1.4 Bil. lire (Italy alone)

= Uncertain - but almost certainly at least a box office success (returned 2.33 times its cost in Italy alone)

[The House by the Cemetery was released 14 August (Italy) and runs 86 minutes. Shooting took place from March - May 1981 in Massachusetts, including in Boston, New York and in Rome. The film was released almost uncut in Italy, where it reportedly was Fulci's most successful horror of the 1980s. In the UK the film was released with 2 minutes cut out, a release that was put on the 'video nasties' list in 1984. It was video released again in 1988 with 4 minutes now missing, and was not released uncut in the UK until 2009. There are regrettably no available information about the film's box office performances in its several other markets. Fulci returned with The New York Ripper/Lo Squartatore di New York (1982). Catriona MacColl (Saint Ange (2004)) returned in Les Amours des Années Grises (1981, TV-series)) and theatrically in Les Diplômés du dernier Rang (1982); Paolo Malco (Turbo (2001, TV-series)) in The New York Ripper. The House by the Cemetery is rotten at 45 % with a 4.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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1/29/2022

The House by the Cemetery/Quella Villa accanto al Cimitero (1981) - Underwhelming Fulci horror

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