The House By The Cemetery (1981)

House By The Cemetery

Poster

Spooky House

Lucio Fulci had directed three previous Zombie movies by the time House By The Cemetery was released, this being his last into the foray of Zombie movies. He did start but was unable to finish Zombi 3 due to ill health.

This film had been dragged through the BBFC mill since it's release. It was distributed in heavily editied form all the way until Anchor Bay released a fully intact movie. Previous releases were so heavily chopped that the film was basically unwatchable. Let's face it, it's not the most coherent movie in the first instance but the censored versions really were unintelligible. Almost all of the gore was removed even down to the fake bat attack which, although bloody, isn't very realistic.

Lots of cleaning up after Fulci, again.

The plot. Hmmmm again with Fulci it's hard to pick out a really coherent plot, but here goes. Norman Boyle is a doctor in NY with a wife Lucy and young boy, Bob. They are in the process of moving to a house in New England owned by Norman's ex work partener Dr Petersen who had murdered his mistress and committed suicide. On the way to the house Bob, the son, sees a vision of a young girl, Mae, who tells him to stay away from the house. On arrival at the house they discover Ann who is there as a baby sitter.

Norman researches Petersen's work at the local library and discovers he was investigating local geography and unexplained disapperances in the area.

After discovering a number of tombstones relating to the Freudsteins who were the original owners, Norman is attacked by a bat from the cellar. After the attack the family ask to be rehoused elsewhere (a sensible move, possibly). The estate agent arrives at the house while the Boyles are at hospital only to be attacked and murdered in gruesome fashion by something from the cellar.

The next day Lucy discovers Ann cleaning up the blood from the attack who does not explain what happened. Norman explains to Lucy that he must return to NY to research Freudstein as he was a Victorian surgeon conducting illegal experiments and was the one responsible for the deaths of his partner.

Dr Freudstein, I presume?

Bob explores the cellar and Ann the baby sitter tries to find him. She is beheaded by Freudstein and Lucy refuses to believe Bob's story but he returns to the cellar to search for Ann's body. Bob is trapped in the cellar as Lucy tries to open the door just as Norman returns. They break down the door and enter the charnel house that is in the cellar. There they find Freudstein has Bob and a fight ensuses between him and Norman. Freudstein rips the throat from Norman as Bob and Lucy try to escape up a ladder to a crack covered by one of the discovered tombs. Lucy is killed by Freudstein and Bob is rescued by the young girl Mae and appears in another time period.


This is one of may fave Fulci movies. It is slightly incoherent but the atmosphere of the house really is genuinely chilling. It's not a house you would be happy living in and knowing that a shuffling blood obsessed ghoul lives underneath really puts the frighteners on. The set design is great and the effects apart from the bat are pretty good in that cheap Italian way that was the case in the early 80's. One element that is universally panned within the movie is the voice over dubbing for the young son, Bob. It's the most irritating voice I've ever heard and a couple of times you'll be hoping Freudstein actually captures and dispatches him. Arrgggghhhh.

All said, it's a top notch horror movie and a genuine video nasty as it was banned for so long by the BBFC. It's available in a nice transfer now with all gore intact so check it out!