The Unseen #2: The House By The Cemetary

Reason Bought?: Came with my copy of The Beyond asking why I bought The Beyond is a very silly thing to do.

Why Haven't I Watched It Yet?: I was a bit Fulci'd out when I picked it up (Yes such a thing is possible) I was saving it for a rainy badly dubbed day.

How Was It?:So going from one disreputable Italian Genre film to another disreputable Italian Genre film. Today’s Unseen comes to us from Lucio Fulci. AKA The Curly of the three Godfathers of Italian Horror films.

The movie gets off to a promising start as a busty topless chick calls out for her boyfriend in the middle of the titular house. Because nothing screams romance like fucking in an abandoned house in the middle of a cemetery, and then leaving your girlfriend alone to enjoy the post coital bliss all by her lonesome. Try it guys it’ll earn you some major points. After the predictable happens, the movie, which makes little sense even for a Fulci film, decides to follow a family that moves from their safe New York home to Boston.

The horror THE HORROR, but fear not gentle readers, they haven’t moved to Dorchester, they’ve moved to the house by the cemetery, which means they have to only deal with one house filled with murderous ghouls and not a whole neighborhood of them. (By the way what is it with Fulci and moving? An inordinate amount of his movies begin with people moving into a new place and thus opening up the gates of hell/ Zombies/ catching the attention of a serial murderer. If there’s one thing that’ll get you killed in a Fulci flick it’s not sex, and it’s not drugs, it’s desiring a more prestigious area code.

Anyway what starts as a good old fashioned family moves into a house haunted by a killer in the cellar pic, gets needlessly convoluted, again even for a Fulci film. The jist of it is that the house used to belong to a mad scientist named Dr. Freudenstein (No Really) and some of the Doc’s experiments may still be kicking around. The family moves in, including their horribly dubbed child Bob (is it just me or is it wrong to call a child Bob?) and what ensues is basically a version of The Shining if everyone took a double digit IQ drop. The Dad gets obsessed with Dr. Freudenstein (No Really) The Mom gets nervous, and Bob, the child acts creepy. And every once in awhile a shambling zombie thing comes and kills someone innocent.

Still despite it’s many shortcomings the film does offer many of the pleasures you associate with Fulci films. Its got, extreme gore, interesting style, a great Eurotrash score, and some real scares. And the most prolonged Bat Attack Of All Time.



The house itself as shot by Fulci has a genuine personality to it, and a genuinely creepy one at that. I don’t think it’s one of Fulci’s best films but it’s certainly one of his most enjoyable.