HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY (1981)

REVIEW MOVIE.. HOUSE’ FOR GORE FANS ONLY.. HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY - DIRECTED BY LUCIO FULCI , SCREENPLAY BY FULCI.. AND DARDANO SACCHETTI. STARRING KATHERINE MACCOLL, PAOLO MALCO, GIOVANNI.. FREZZA. AT THE BEACON HILL AND.. SUBURBS. UNRATED, BUT NOBODY UNDER 17 WILL BE ADMITTED, OWING TO THE.. FILM’S FREQUENT AND EXPLICIT VIOLENCE.

Boston Globe - April 21, 1984

Author: Jay Carr Globe Staff

Add "House by the Cemetery" to your must-miss list, unless you’re interested in the title-roleist, a handsome three-story gray-and-white Victorian house in Scituate (called New Whitby in the film), where the action unfolds, or, rather, spurts. Otherwise, it’s a tacky little cement block of a monster-in-the-cellar movie by the same people who gave us the utterly unmemorable "Gates of Hell," the most arresting aspect of which was a priest wearing eye makeup. The most notable feature of "House by the Cemetery" is the name of its mad scientist, banned from medicine in 1879 for illegal experiments, but still clumping around the cellar, kitchen knife in rotting hand, breathing heavily, complexion a bit, well, off. He’s called Dr. Freudstein.

The high priority attached to cramming the screen full of sadistic stabbings and slicings (the stage blood not only flows like lambrusco; it looks like lambrusco) means minimal attention to such niceties as lip- synchronization (it was made in Italian) and consistency. The scruffy patriarch of the family renting the house, is fanged by a tenacious bat that suggests a winged cruller. We next see his bitten hand undamaged, but in the following scene he’s wearing a bandage. "House by the Cemetery" isn’t even a good bad movie; it’s too complacent and inept, letting the soundtrack do most of the work, with creakings, groanings and lots of electronic keyboard pumping. "The Shining" and even "Friday the 13th" did it better, avoiding such howlers as sending a car from Manhattan to Boston by way of the Brooklyn Bridge, as this one does.

Italian gore master surpasses himself in ..House by Cemetery’

The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution - January 14, 1985

Author: CAIN, SCOTT, Scott Cain Staff Writer: STAFF

Lucio Fulci , the Italian gore master, surpasses his own lurid standard in "House by the Cemetery." There is no way to sit through the entirety of this blood-drenched movie except by being impervious to it, and that defeats the purpose of going to the theater.

Regrettably, Fulci likes to work in America. He is fascinated with Nathaniel Hawthorne territory, but hasn’t spent enough time in this country to pick up a sense of social etiquette.

The house where the shenanigans take place is a ramshackle monstrosity deep in the countryside. Middle-class Americans would consider the building to be uninhabitable, but Fulci’s family moves in without a moment’s hesitation.

Owing to restless spirits, a grotesque amount of slaughter occurs. Fulci trots out his usual supply of severed limbs, split skulls, lacerated chests and tumbling eyeballs. As ever, he decorates this carnage with an abundant supply of maggots. If there is such a place as a maggot farm, Fulci is undoubtedly its No. 1 customer.

House by the Cemetery: A horror movie directed by Lucio Fulci . Movie guide: Rating, R; sex, none; violence, a lot and very gory; nudity, none; language, mild. Theaters: Tower Place, Galleria, South DeKalb, Shannon, North 85, Marbro.