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

• The House by the Cemetery – IMDb (Rating: 6.1), Wikipedia, Rovi, Amazon
• Lucio Fulci – IMDb, Amazon
• Movie trailer for The House by the Cemetery: YouTube
• Detailed synopsis of The House by the Cemetery (with spoilers) – IMDb
• Psychotronic, a special sub-genre – Wikipedia
• Italian horror – GreenCine
• Dario Argento Italian horror on Amazon
• Mario Bava Italian horror on Amazon
• Lucio Fulci’s Zombie/ Zombi 2, Amazon

Originally written on Saturday, June 25, 2011