The House by the Cemetery, 1981 Italian supernatural horror

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a.k.a. Quella villa accanto al cimitero (original Italian title)

Country: Italy
Director: the unforgettable Lucio Fulci
Horror themes: undead, murder, creatures, blood, body parts, cellar, H.P. Lovecraft, corpses, haunted house, gorefest, mannequins, decapitation, zombie, ghost girl, psychic warning, tombstones, medical experiments, psychotronic, bats

This is REAL HORROR… none of that remake sh%t or teen preppy horror. This is the real deal!! (Source: Quote about The House by the Cemetery from YouTube)

The House by the Cemetery: U.S. trailer for Lucio Fulci’s Lovecraft inspired… (1:50)

Synopsis of The House by the Cemetery

A deranged killer lives in the basement of an old mansion and pops out occasionally to commit grisly murders that include be-headings, ripped throats, and stabbings with a fireplace poker. The killer needs fresh body parts to rejuvenate his cells. He also has maggots for blood.

About The House by the Cemetery

The House by the Cemetery represents the third installment of Lucio Fulci’s Gates of Hell trilogy which also includes City of the Living Dead and The Beyond. Its plot revolves around a series of murders taking place in a New England home – a home which happens to be hiding a particularly gruesome secret within its basement walls. Themes and motifs from popular horror films such as The Shining, The Amityville Horror and Frankenstein are readily on display.

Trivia about The House by the Cemetery

Bob’s voice – the voice of Bob in English is irritating because it has been doubled by a girl and unfortunately also in the Italian version it is the same. That’s because at the time girls doubled little boys (also in the cartoons). Luckily nowadays the voice of kids stays the same. I know that The House by the Cemetery and other Fulci movies are difficult to understand and this is because they have a psychological meaning you have to interpret; also, The House by the Cemetery leaves a lot to the imagination.

The House by the Cemetery:Trailer for the gore classic by Italian splattermaster Lucio… (3:26)

These older psychotronic exploitation horror movies directed by Lucio Fulci are in a class by themselves. The House by the Cemetery
is disquieting as hell, even ominous – but to me this is a different type of creepy/scary than most modern horror movies (e.g., Paranormal Entity, Insidious). Fulci-branded horror is more disturbing and unforgettable than most other horror titles. American horror fans who have not yet ventured into Italian horror have a few surprises waiting for them, that’s for sure.

The highly controversial film art of Lucio Fulci was initially met with disgust by critics and movie industry moguls the world over. Dario Argento and Mario Bava (two other great Italian horror directors) tended to employ a certain amount of artful technique in their films, but – by contrast – Fulci’s direct approach certainly did not skimp on the gore. Even so, the best Lucio Fulci horror titles are not just gorefests; they were not merely gore for the sake of gore… they are so much more. Although this blogger and supernatural horror fan looks down on excessive gore, generally speaking – Fulci gets a pass!

The scariest Lucio Fulci horror movies

In chronological order…

  1. Zombie, 1979 (a.k.a. Zombi 2) – IMDb (Rating: 67)
  2. City of the Living Dead, 1980 – IMDb (Rating: 61)
  3. The Beyond, 1981 (a.k.a. Seven Doors of Death – the U.S. censored version)

Resources: The House by the Cemetery, 1981 Italian horror

Originally written on Saturday, June 25, 2011

The standard big-screen ghost

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Grave Encounters (2011) has it.
Respire (2011) has it.
Primal (2010) has part of the look (even though they aren’t ghosts).
Forget Me Not (2009) has it in frightening droves, and effectively, I thought.
30 Days of Night was one of the early films in which the antagonists (in this case, vampires) sported some of the features in appearance, most notably the black eyes and pointy teeth.

It is the current, standard big screen appearance for a hopefully scary ghost:

  1. The teeth are pointy and sharp – not big fangs, but smallish
  2. The mouth opens unnaturally wide, such that the lower jaw seems unattached
  3. The eyes can be all or mostly black – or just large holes

Other horror standards & trends

Standing in the corner. I believe this trend began with The Blair Witch Project – at the end, when one of the missing kids was found standing silently in the corner, facing the wall. It’s eerie.

Fertile Ground, 2011 After Dark supernatural horror film

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Country: U.S.
Directed by: Adam Gierasch
Horror themes: Old house, personality change, pregnancy, dressmaker’s dummy, inanimate objects moving, ghosts, deathbed photography, haunted house, possession
Verdict: 65/100… I liked it better than most critics; it contained some of the supernatural horror themes that frighten me most.

Fertile Ground, (2011) – Official movie trailer (YouTube video)

Brief plot summary of Fertile Ground: Emily (Leisha Hailey) and Nate Weaver (Gale Harold) leave the city for the rural comfort of Nate’s ancestral home in the country. Once there, Emily is plagued by horrifying visions and haunted by the ghosts inhabiting their isolated new home.

Resources: Fertile Ground, 2011 supernatural horror movie

The Mothman Prophecies, 2002 supernatural horror film

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Country: U.S.
Directed by: Mark Pellington [ Mark Pellington horror ]
Verdict: 75/100… Creepy as hell, especially the phone calls

Movie trailer for The Mothman Prophecies, 2002 (YouTube)

Plot summary: The Mothman Prophecies

When John Klein (Richard Gere), a Washington Post journalist, and his wife Mary (Deborah Messing) finally find the house of their dreams, they just can’t believe their luck. On the way back from the bargain, Mary nearly runs over strange figure in the road, jerks the wheel, and skids into the sidewalk. She hits her head badly, lsong consciousness – and dies in the hospital a little later. John is completely devastated and soon finds some sketches his wife made just after the accident occurred, which depict a frightening winged creature. Two years later, John all of a sudden finds that he has inexplicably driven himself to Point Pleasant, West Virginia – traveling 400 miles in less than two hours. In the small town of Point Pleasant, local cop Connie Mills (Laura Linney) struggles with multiple sightings of a mothlike creature taller than a man being reported, while John believes that an explanation for his wife’s fate can be found. The deeper John digs, the clearer the mothman’s purpose arises – only to leave his life in immediate danger, as it seems.

Scene from The Mothman Prophecies, 2002 (6:55 – YouTube)

The Mothman Prophecies is based on a true story – or so it claims. Chasing the Frog is a great place to look for the truth contained in those works of fiction claiming to be based on a true stories; there’s an interesting page about The Mothman Prophecies.

Interview with Mark Pellington, director of The Mothman Prophecies (excerpt):

The Mothman Prophecies is one of the better supernatural thrillers of the new millennium. Based on a supposedly non-fiction book by John A. Keel, the Richard Hatem’s screenplay details the strange events that befall journalist John Klein (Richard Gere) after the untimely death of his wife in an automobile accident. In some inexplicable fashion, Klein finds himself two years later in the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, where there has been a rash of sightings of an elusive, frightening figure, sketches of which bear a startling similarity to drawings made by Klein’s wife just before she died in the hospital. The film was directed by Mark Pellington (Arlington Road), who appeared after a 2002 screening of the film in Hollywood and made the following comments on the subject of translating the story to the screen…

Resources: The Mothman Prophecies, 2002 horror

Movie review of The Mothman Prophecies

Resources relating to The Mothman Prophecies

The Torment, 2010 U.K. psychological horror film

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Country: U.K.
Directed by: Andrew Cull (writer), Steve Isles
Horror themes: Paranoia, nightmares, hallucination, murder, intruders, supernatural creatures

Based on actual events, The Possession of David O-Reilly is a terrifying supernatural shockumentary about a demonic presence in a young couple’s London home.

Movie trailer: The Possession of David O’Reilly – YouTube

More info coming soon…

Resources: The Torment, a.k.a. The Possession of David O’Reilly

Reviews of The Possession of David O’Reilly, a.k.a. The Torment (2010)

Originally written Monday, June 13, 2011