The House by the Cemetery (1981) The Odd Duck of the Gates of Hell Trilogy (Review)

Few people are as vital to the development of post-WW2 European horror as Italy’s Lucio Fulci, and although his films are not as beloved as Dario Argento’s or as critically acclaimed as Mario Bava’s biggest hits, his mixed oeuvre (which ranges from giallos to fantasy to westerns), is full of canonical b-movies like The Beyond and Zombie Flesh Eaters. Fulci’s career is very similar to a vast majority of Italian filmmakers at the time – jumping from project to project with incredibly quick turnovers that often had low budgets, making use of familiar actors, and frequently taking a large number of ideas directly from popular American films like The Terminator or Escape from New York. Fulci’s Gates of Hell trilogy (which remains unofficial and not narratively connected), was completed within a mere span of two years (he made three films in 1981 alone), and finished on the often overlooked The House by the Cemetery.

Fulci’s most defining feature as a director is his bombastic, incomprehensible films that throw out logic and order, and replace them with a dread inducing atmosphere and gratuitous violence. Like the rest of the trilogy, The House by the Cemetery is heavily influenced by the cosmic horror of HP Lovecraft, with both of the previous two entries (The Beyond and City of the Living Dead), being apocalyptical films about ancient evils rising out from the Earth to bring about doomsday. This film’s Lovecraft influence is much more lowkey as its less influenced by the mythos of ancient monsters like Cthulhu, and focuses more on mankind’s obsession with the macabre nature of immortality. This results in something much closer to Lovecraft’s Reanimator serials (the basis of Stuart Gordon’s excellent film), and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

The House by the Cemetery cements its Lovecraftian roots by being set predominantly in Massachusetts, with a family relocating from New York so that the academic father can pick up research done by his colleague who had been mysteriously killed. A quiet, eerie town is the perfect location for the slowly unfolding narrative about a mad Victorian doctor named Freudstein, who brutally murders the townsfolk and uses their body parts to maintain his existence. The family’s relocation has, unfortunately, led them to the old Freudstein manor, and they’re unaware that he remains lurking in the walls of the basement – especially as many of the local residents refuse to talk about him and claim he is just an urban myth. Like many Italian horror films, the central mystery is tackled not by the police or a private detective, but by a regular academic who stumbles into this horrifying nightmare seemingly by coincidence.

Unlike in the previous entries, Freudstein looks like a much more humanoid figure – albeit one whose body and face have been altered so much, it’s more akin to something like Frankenstein’s Monster or a Romero-esque zombie. Despite Fulci’s films usually following spaghetti logic (that seems to be entirely inconsistent and unexplainable), this movie is fairly straightforward and features one monster with little convolution. Bob, the family child, regularly sees visions of Freudstein’s daughter warning them of the danger they face in the house, adding a much more surrealistic element to the film that makes a lot of sense given the screenwriter, Dardano Sacchetti, was heavily influenced by Henry James’ gothic horror classic The Turn of the Screw – which features children haunted by ghosts in a luxurious American manor.

Unlike many Fulci films, The House by the Cemetery features a much more minimalist aesthetic, and there’s a sparseness to the film that largely comes from it being set mostly in a single house, with every creaking door and haunting hallway explored to their full potential. There are a number of gruesome kills – throats being slit and heads being decapitated – but they’re far more infrequent here than in his other works. Instead of being the driving force of the horror they punctuate the much slower creeping narrative, making them feel even even more terrifying, and although the gore is toned down in scale the film still maintains a high level of gruesome barbarism that any fan of entrails will deeply appreciate. Despite the aesthetic and narrative differences, the film is still very much governed by traditional Fulci tropes – a myriad of odd and unexplainable characters, intensely zoomed in close ups, and a vibrant electronic score.

The House by the Cemetery is a much more toned down feature than many Italian films of that era, and in many ways it resembles a giallo more than a supernatural horror – with the creeping, knife wielding Freudstein being much closer to a maniacal killer than any otherworldly being. Of course, the film rejects any sense of naturalism by adding ghosts and surrealistic visions that combine with the horrifying monster dwelling under the surface to create an oneiric experience that feels wholly unique. Arrow’s 4k transfer looks absolutely gorgeous, and the vast amount of extra features make this a must buy for any Italian horror fanatic – or just any horror fan looking for a film quite unlike anything else.

Autumn’s Archive: The House by the Cemetery (1981)