The House by the Cemetery is a 1981 Italian horror film, better known to the horror community as a Giallo film, directed by Lucio Fulci and starring Catriona MacColl, Paolo Malco, Giovanni Frezza, Silvia Collatina, and Ania Pieroni. This was basically my introduction to Giallo horror, I’ve heard of some of the greats of the subgenre in the past like Argento and Fulci himself, and been interested in seeing multiple of their classic works like Tenebrae, Suspiria, Zombi, etc. so I figured you have to start somewhere, right? Why not start here, with Fulci’s ’81 masterpiece ‘The House by the Cemetery’. Okay, maybe “masterpiece” is a bit of a stretch, I honestly didn’t know what to make of this film the majority of the run time and felt like I left more dumbfounded and scratching my head than satisfied if I’m being completely honest, so let’s get into it. I don’t like to tear apart old classic horror that much if I can help it, but sometimes I just can’t help myself and I pride myself on my honesty when reviewing films, so I think it’s fair to say I didn’t really dig this one that much? I haven’t even had to see any of the rest of Fulci’s work to know that this wasn’t one of his very best, and I’m sure most Giallo fan boys and girls out there wouldn’t be quick to argue that point either. This film just made no sense!
So, the story follows a family in New York that has to move out to a sleepy town in Massachusetts so the husband (Howard) can continue his research partner’s work over suicide after his partner murdered his mistress before taking his own life. Already a kinda wacky premise in itself and it just gets further off the rails from there. We don’t really follow up much with Howard’s research, sure it’s an aspect of the film and at one point he goes on a wild goose chase to locate a burial site and follow up where his partner left off, but nothing ever really comes from that, and we never really even find out what he’s researching! It was all just a set up to get our main family into a creepy haunted house by a cemetery. I also couldn’t really tell you what this movie is necessarily trying to be. It’s like part haunted house film with the kid Bob’s story, part slasher for the creepy Freudstein man living in the basement and killing people for blood, part mystery as Howard unravels a trail to nowhere in his research, and ALL all over the place. Bob too, oh Bob. I feel like the redubbing of this film to English did nothing but hurt the film’s quality in the long run, especially when it comes to the child in the film, Bob. It wasn’t uncommon for Giallo films to redub their original movies to English and cast English speaking actors to dub over the original lines to appeal more to American audiences, they knew where the cash and mainstream appeal lied and did their best to win over Americans as well. But, if you’ve ever seen old Bruce Lee films redubbed picture that, the dubbing itself was probably higher quality than those old martial arts films were, but the actors and actresses’ voices did not line up with the characters we were seeing on screen that well all the time, and Bob was the worst example of this. I am assuming he was dubbed by a middle-aged woman using a “baby voice” and it was so weird and off putting and made me hate Bob more every time I saw his stupid little face on screen.
Now that I’ve torn this movie apart beyond saving, I’ll attempt to gain some credibility back with the Fulci and Giallo sympathizers out there and tell you some things I did happen to enjoy about this one, a much shorter list indeed. Firstly, the violence was brutal and well shot. I think that was a big attraction to these Italian horror films in the 70s and 80s, they were able to get away with a lot more on-screen violence than the English films of the time because they didn’t have the MPAA breathing down their neck with every move they made. They realized the want and need that the bloodthirsty American horror fans so desperately craved and capitalized on it. The kills were well done and overall, probably the best and most gripping moments of the film even if I never fully realized why and for what reason these people were being killed by the mysterious man in the cellar. I think he was a reanimated corpse that needed blood to stay alive, but that was never really explained that well either. Big surprise. Also, credit to Fulci here for the way this movie was shot and the cinematography in itself was wacky and well done. The zoom in on the eyes, the panning shots, the uncomfortable holding shots on the knife as it stabbed into skin and the blood that followed. He shot this movie pretty well and artful overall. The victims didn’t ever fight back enough though, they just kinda stood there and took it as they were stabbed in the chest and had their throats slit and that was a little ridiculous to me and such an easy fix. Fulci or someone should’ve just said “Hey put your hands up or flail around a little more or something. Look like you’re trying to stop from being killed for God’s sake” and ta-dah! So yeah, I wasn’t the biggest fan of this one but am still interested in seeing more Giallo films in the near future and hopefully much better ones. This movie just seemed like it traded in character building and compelling storytelling and just delivered the on-screen violence that horror fans in 1981 might’ve craved and been happy with, but it did nothing to help it hold up in the modern day. But, that’s just my opinion and you may have a different one so if you’re brave enough to tough this one out or you’d just like to tell me I’m wrong then watch it for yourself! Streaming now on Tubi for free or on AMC+ and Shudder with a subscription!
