Logic has never been a driving force behind any of Lucio Fulci's work, but I can say without uncertainty that House by the Cemetery is an incoherent mess even by his standards. The acting, dubbing and all round quality of this film is atrocious, but in a campy way. I honestly can't take House by the Cemetery seriously in any way whatsoever, and I don't think Mr Fulci did either.
The "plot" is basically irrelevant, as it makes little sense and doesn't go out of its way to make any sense. Norman (no idea what he does for a living) moves to the house by the cemetery with his dim wife Lucy and his son Bob the brat (or spawn of Satan) to discover what made his colleague flip his lid and hang himself. What follows is basically bad filler material, broken up by people occasionally getting graphically murdered and the showdown in the basement. What Fulci does very well is gore. What he's not such a deft hand with is dialogue, coherency, character and story development. Take the introduction of the foxy babysitter Ann, for instance. Ann simply walks into the house and exclaims that she is the babysitter. For all Lucy and Norman know, she's just walked in off the street and has never babysat in her life. But they decide she's good enough and let her do the job. Welcome to lack of logic and development!
Another example of this is that more than once it is strongly alluded to that Ann is aware of the killings and is possibly involved. Norman awakes one night to loud bangs coming from somewhere in the house. He finds Ann in a room pulling bricks out of the wall, and satisfied that it's not something more sinister, leaves her to it. Bear in mind that she was hired only yesterday and they have never met her before.After the estate agent is killed very bloodily, Lucy finds Ann cleaning the blood off the floor. By now we're certain that Ann knew there was a murder. Otherwise why would she be getting rid of the evidence before anyone else is awake? She's only the babysitter, after all. But even with this interesting subplot going on, Fulci takes it absolutely nowhere. Ann is killed in a brilliant scene that will have gore-hounds cheering.
I know it may seem like I'm just picking at the inconsistencies but the flaws are what made it bearable for me. House by the Cemetery is extremely amusing. Every scene the little girl appeared in, had me rolling with laughter. What was WITH her sudden switch from an American accent to really bad Italian? Then we have Doctor Freudstein, the fiend in the basement who looks like Jason Voorhees on a bad day. He also walks with the speed of an old guy with severe arthritis who just drank thirty beers. On the plus side for old Freudstein, I wouldn't want to bump into him in a dark alley.
Onto what I did think was very well done...the gore, of course. The murders are brutal and protracted in pure Fulci style. In conclusion, House by the Cemetery is everything that casual horror viewers will detest, but Italian horror and Fulci fans will devour it. Then there's slightly jaded fans like myself, who will see the humour in this and know that a really bad horror film is still anything but.
The "plot" is basically irrelevant, as it makes little sense and doesn't go out of its way to make any sense. Norman (no idea what he does for a living) moves to the house by the cemetery with his dim wife Lucy and his son Bob the brat (or spawn of Satan) to discover what made his colleague flip his lid and hang himself. What follows is basically bad filler material, broken up by people occasionally getting graphically murdered and the showdown in the basement. What Fulci does very well is gore. What he's not such a deft hand with is dialogue, coherency, character and story development. Take the introduction of the foxy babysitter Ann, for instance. Ann simply walks into the house and exclaims that she is the babysitter. For all Lucy and Norman know, she's just walked in off the street and has never babysat in her life. But they decide she's good enough and let her do the job. Welcome to lack of logic and development!
Another example of this is that more than once it is strongly alluded to that Ann is aware of the killings and is possibly involved. Norman awakes one night to loud bangs coming from somewhere in the house. He finds Ann in a room pulling bricks out of the wall, and satisfied that it's not something more sinister, leaves her to it. Bear in mind that she was hired only yesterday and they have never met her before.After the estate agent is killed very bloodily, Lucy finds Ann cleaning the blood off the floor. By now we're certain that Ann knew there was a murder. Otherwise why would she be getting rid of the evidence before anyone else is awake? She's only the babysitter, after all. But even with this interesting subplot going on, Fulci takes it absolutely nowhere. Ann is killed in a brilliant scene that will have gore-hounds cheering.
I know it may seem like I'm just picking at the inconsistencies but the flaws are what made it bearable for me. House by the Cemetery is extremely amusing. Every scene the little girl appeared in, had me rolling with laughter. What was WITH her sudden switch from an American accent to really bad Italian? Then we have Doctor Freudstein, the fiend in the basement who looks like Jason Voorhees on a bad day. He also walks with the speed of an old guy with severe arthritis who just drank thirty beers. On the plus side for old Freudstein, I wouldn't want to bump into him in a dark alley.
Onto what I did think was very well done...the gore, of course. The murders are brutal and protracted in pure Fulci style. In conclusion, House by the Cemetery is everything that casual horror viewers will detest, but Italian horror and Fulci fans will devour it. Then there's slightly jaded fans like myself, who will see the humour in this and know that a really bad horror film is still anything but.