THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY

THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY

(A.k.a. QUELLA VILLA ACCANTO AL CIMITERO; THE HOUSE OUTSIDE THE CEMETERY; ZOMBIE HELL HOUSE)

Fulci does Gothic, in this former UK video nasty ...

Right from the start, we know there's something inherently iffy about the Freudstein house. At night, we observe past the august metal gates that lead onto the property as a teenaged couple use the empty dwelling as a place to bonk. It's a romantic setting, I must say - what with its countless cobwebs and all...

In no time at all the boyfriend has disappeared and his pretty blonde friend, complete with pert boobies, begins to nervously call out for him. When she finds him, he's stood in a doorway with his brains dripping down his face. Before the girl has a chance to flee, a zombie hand rams a blade through the back of her skull and pushes it out of her mouth. This startling opening salvo culminates with the off-screen zombie dragging the girl's lifeless corpse away.

Cripes. If only we could yell into the television screen and let the innocent Boyle family - dad Norman (Paolo Malco), mum Lucy (Catriona MacColl) and spunk-mopped son Bob (Giovanni Frezza) - of the house's dangers, then perhaps they wouldn't be moving there.

But move there they do, when Norman is required to relocate his family to Boston to take over the scientific research of a colleague who's recently committed suicide.

The cracks appear early. Lucy is a nervous wreck from the offset, shitting bricks at the mere sight of her new home and freaking out pathetically over the discovery of a child's doll. Bob has a tendency to see things that aren't there, and fall into trances at the drop of a hat. He's a lonely kid, bless his cotton socks, and once in Boston quickly befriends mysterious local girl Mae (Silvia Collatina). Meanwhile, Norman tries to hold things together by settling into his job and trying to make their new abode fit for living in.

He's pitching against the wind, considering all the bizarre things he has to contend with. There's the weird babysitter Anne (Ania Pieroni) to contend with, who clearly has eyes for the academic patriarch; ghostly goings-on in photographs on the wall and shop windows (a store mannequin loses it's head and gushes blood from it's neck); a tombstone in the floor that occasionally leaks blood; characters are introduced who may or may not be apparitions from the past; something or someone lurks in the cellar, with a need for fresh flesh to keep itself alive ...

Even when murder occurs and the family's kitchen is invaded by an overly frisky bat (a very amusing episode, albeit unintentionally), the family still don't realise that it's time to move out of the house.

It's only when Norman begins to research locally into his new home's history and stumbles upon a heated audio cassette prepared by his late predecessor that doubts are raised ... but will that be too little too late to save himself and his family from the marauding zombie in his cellar, Dr Freudstein (Giovanni De Nava)?!

THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY is, of course, golden-era Lucio Fulci. Along with ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD and THE BEYOND, it was responsible for first introducing many of us to prolific director Fulci's immense body of work. And now, some 28 years after it's original release, it still holds up surprisingly well.

Yes, it rips off THE SHINING and THE AMITYVILLE HORROR. It's nonsensical and riddled at times with the clumsiest of English dubbing (especially that of the child actors). Fulci continues his patience-testing habit of zooming in on characters' eyes every now and then. The pace is uneven, and the direction is characteristically mundane in-between the ethereal set-piece sequences.

But the film works on the whole due to Fulci's masterful control of ambience and tone, interposed by recurrent bouts of the maestro's trademark gore.

Littered throughout CEMETERY there is a gorgeous Gothic look and feel to it, aided tremendously by Sergio Salvati's picturesque cinematography and a melancholic charge brought into play by Fulci's delicate handling of his younger cast.

Walter Rizzati's eerie score is not to be under-estimated. It's another major facet of the film's success, pining away for the loss of childhood innocence in one breath and then cranking up the suspense as the terror closes in during the film's final third. Working alongside Fulci's acute sense of the fantastic and some sterling set design, the score assists in making CEMETERY a genuinely nightmarish experience.

And then, of course, there is Giannetto De Rossi and Maurizio Trani's FX work. CEMETERY reinforces why De Rossi is regarded as a legend of his craft. Working within the strict confines of a low budget, he produces convincing geyser upon geyser of blood for Fulci to lovingly linger his camera upon. Flesh is pierced, throats are sliced open, heads are hacked off, guts are exposed and mangled, and grue runs thick throughout this film. Arguably the grim highlight is when Fulci's lens slowly tracks across an assortment of severed bloody limbs on Freudstein's operating table. It's all very Grand Guignol - gory as fuck in a theatrical fashion, never sinking to the depths of risible torture porn.

Ending on a bleakly dreamlike note, complete with a Henry James quote, the film is undeniably flawed from a storytelling stance. However, it's so much fun that you'll not notice until afterwards.

Haunting, lyrical and righteously gory, THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY stands as one of Fulci's best realised fantasies.

Part of Arrow's extremely promising new "Masters Of Giallo" series, produced in conjunction with Cult Laboratories, CEMETERY arrives fully uncut for the first time on UK DVD. Cast your mind back to the film's first post-VRA outing on video in 1988, when it was subjected to BBFC cuts totalling 4 minutes 11 seconds ... fuck! Well, all of those have - of course - since been waived. The decidedly sexual slow-motion poker stabbing of estate agent Laura (genre fave Dagmar Lassander) that the BBFC objected to in 2001 has now also been permitted in its entirety.

The transfer is generally very nice, offering an accurate 2.35:1 anamorphic presentation. Proffering sharp detail in the main, the picture is however unquestionably soft on occasion. The opening titles have an odd pink tinge to them (which seems intentional, as it matches the hue given to the opening titles on the disc's featurette), but aside from that colours appear true throughout. Blacks are strong and natural grain is never problematic.

I did a quick comparison of the film's mid-section against the EC Ultrabit DVD release, and although the EC release had a marginally brighter quality I couldn't see anything of major difference in it regarding contrast or detail (although it's worth noting that the latter disc does have white opening titles, which is in line with all other versions of the film that I've seen). I've not seen the Blue Underground/Anchor Bay US disc transfers, so I'm afraid I can't comment on those.

The English 2.0 audio track put to use is a good, clean proposition.

The animated main menu page leads into a static scene-selection menu allowing access to the main feature via 9 chapters.

There are not an abundance of extras, but what we do get are intelligent and most welcome.

They begin with the new featurette "Fulci In The House: The Italian Master Of Splatter". Clocking in at 18 minutes, this is a well-made affair narrated by Simon Boyes and focuses chiefly on Fulci's "golden period" - 1979 through to 1981. Anthony Timpone (editor of Fangoria) has a nice anecdote about Fulci's appearance at Fangoria's 1996 Weekend of Horrors fest, while filmmakers Lloyd Kaufman, Sergio Stivaletti and Joe Dante also turn up to pay tribute to the great man. Interspersed with clips from CEMETERY and the trailer for A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN (a future release?), this is a nice English-language addition to the disc.

A deleted scene follows, with a text intro explaining that this 'lost' footage does not contain audio. It's an extension to the aftermath of the bat attack and, including the text intro, last for exactly 1 minute. Picture quality is quite good. This deleted scene apparently also featured as an Easter Egg on the Anchor Bay US DVD of the film.

A 30-second US TV spot is presented in window-boxed full-frame and is worth catching simply for the hilariously excitable voiceover.

Two trailers follow - an International one (a gory 3 minutes long, in anamorphic 2.35:1), and a US one (a less gory 100 seconds in length, presented in full-frame). Interestingly, the International trailer includes a few seconds of that deleted scene - with audio.

Extras on the disc are completed by a 1-minute stills gallery that includes 13 photographs. All are related to CEMETERY, apart from a couple from THE BEYOND and CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD.

Within the keepcase packaging there's a very professionally finished fold-out 12-page booklet entitled "Video Nasty Vixen!". This houses an enjoyable interview with Catriona MacColl, in which she does a grand job of answering her questions in depth (Lord knows, she must struggle for things to say about these films after nigh-on three decades of being quizzed by gorehounds the world over).

There's also a fine fold-out colour poster reproduction of Rick Melton's new DVD cover artwork. The reverse of this serves as an advertisement for Arrow/Cult Laboratories' new genre range.

Even better, the DVD cover itself is double-sided: if you're none too keen on the new artwork, you can flip it over and savour the artwork from the original UK theatrical poster (familiar to those of us who owned the film on Vampix's pre-certificate videotape).

It's lovely to see THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY finally available uncut on UK DVD, and great that Arrow have given it such a worthy release. The packaging is beautiful and the extras, if not the most bountiful, are greatly appreciated.

Lamberto Bava's MACABRE and Dario Argento's SLEEPLESS have also been released as part of the "Masters Of Giallo" series' maiden voyage. No matter that at least two of this trio of titles don't fall into the 'giallo' category, it's the directors that the series is focusing on. On the strength of this DVD, I'm fascinated to see what they release next.

My only concern is that the market isn't presently what it used to be. We've already seen the likes of NoShame and Subversive Cinema fall to the wayside after walking the extra mile for releases of films restricted to cult appeal. I wish Arrow and Cult Laboratories every success, as I'm keen to see a lot more of this series. If they maintain this level of quality - in transfers, extras and packaging - they really could take over from Shameless as the UK's leading purveyors of quality genre fare.

It just takes people to put their hands in their pockets and support the cause ...

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Arrow Video
Region 2 - PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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