Recognize this place, Italian horror fans?

[Purge]

"Read the fine print--you may have just mortgaged your life!"

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I couldn't get too close, because it's private property. (It's an art institute now.) The third one was taken from my car.

[axlish]

Fixed (after a lot a friggin' tinkering)

[krakenslayer]

House by the Cemetery, right?

[triste realtà]

Were there any damn tombstones by that place?

Just a few weeks ago, I read the longest review on the net about the movie and it explained everything. Norman and the babysitter were having an affair and they knew a little about Freudstein and moved into the house to find everything out. Well, I guess they got their chance. I surely guess they had...:ukk:

[MinionZombie]

Woo, House by the Cemetery - speaking of which, it's finally been released fully uncut in the UK. It could have been earlier, but the distributors only just went for a new rating this year.

The previous release, from about 2002 or whatever (by Vipco) had two cuts - and that's the version I have.

[krakenslayer]

Yeah, I believe the situation with HbtC in the UK was the same as with the cuts to Zombie Flesh Eaters - it would have gotten released uncut in 2002 but it still had prosecutions from back when it was officially banned in the 80s and 90s so the BBFC had to wait until the prosecutions had expired (which usually means 10 years since it was last confiscated from a dealer) before they were allowed to certify the uncut version.

[Purge]

Thanks for bailing my technologically illiterate ass out, Axlish. ;):clown:

Nope, none of those "damn tombstones". (I guess I'm not the only one who laughed at that line.) They must've been props. The house itself is located in Scituate, a wealthy town about twenty miles south of Boston. It's so awesome to visit.

[kortick]

I didnt know that was in Scituate.

The things u learn.

[capncnut]

Place still looks creepy. Nice shots, Purge.

[Cody]

Woo, House by the Cemetery - speaking of which, it's finally been released fully uncut in the UK. It could have been earlier, but the distributors only just went for a new rating this year.

The previous release, from about 2002 or whatever (by Vipco) had two cuts - and that's the version I have.

Why didn't you just buy copy from another region?

[MinionZombie]

Why didn't you just buy copy from another region?
I duno really ... cos it was cheap-as-chips when I bought the R2, and I hadn't found DVDCompare.net yet ... nor was I paying a lot of attention.

Back in those days I'd go on large DVD spending sprees ... ah, those were the days.

These days I'm far more discerning, and often buy R1 DVDs.

[slickwilly13]

House by the Cemetery did not make a damn bit of sense, but it had some good gore scenes. The ending made me scratch my head, too.

[Purge]

Its soundtrack is probably my favorite too. I found a bootleg copy of it at Chiller some years back.

[triste realtà]

Here's the review that explains everything:
http://www.braineater.com/fulci/hbtc.html

Does your bootleg soundtrack contain the disco song that plays as they leave the city? Every soundtrack that I want especially for one song never has that one song. This is especially true if it's a disco song. House...Edge...Park: the disco song that starts the trailer (I got the other two), Creepshow: Don't let go (of wanting that f'n song), Cemetery Man: have to get Hadi Bakalim from another place cause it ain't on the CD, Zombie: that disco song that plays on the cop's radio while they're on the boat is MIA, Shock: there's a song that plays at the party scene that I have no idea what it is...:annoyed:

Edit: nevermind about the Creepshow disco song, I've been listening to it over and over since last night (see DeWolfe thread)

oMF0bqFiISQ

[Purge]

No, that song is missing, but everything else is there.

[triste realtà]

Actually, if yours is just a dupe of the 15 track one from BEAT records, there are a couple cues missing, and they are the best ones. :( I don't understand why this happens. The soundtrack is only 30 minutes long, they had plenty of room to put everything on there.

Another disco song I just thought of is the one in Cannibal Apocalypse where she's painting her toenails. Nowhere to be found on the soundtrack.

[slickwilly13]

I believe I understand now.

Everyone was killed at the end of the movie by Dr. Fruendstein. The boy did not make it, but was warmfully greeted by the doctor's deceased family who were murdered 70+ yrs earlier.

[triste realtà]

Sorry, I just saw that that review doesn't give a definitive explanation of the ending.

My interpretation is that Freudstein has gained supernatural powers because of his experiments (remember he transported in the cellar from one place to another, the door opens and closes by itself and those glowing eyes in several places within seconds) and maybe he somehow resurrected his family or gave them the benefits of his knowledge and they are have been immortal ever since way back when but it seems more likely that they are ghosts that have taken Bob beyond into their realm before he got cut up for science. I don't think Bob actually died at the hand(s) of Freudstein there at the end like his parents did.

Maybe Freudstein is keeping his wife and daughter alive as well as himself with all the bodies he's cutting up and they are really alive but need injections or transfusions or whatever's going on. But they have the supernatural powers too cause Mae speaks to Bob from on the other side of the street and through the picture. I don't know, I never thought about it that much till I read that review.

[krakenslayer]

The sad fact is that Fulci just didn't care a damn about logic or narrative in the majority of his films, and preferred to stick a bunch of (albeit well-executed) set pieces together, loosely connected by a group of characters and location and just enough plot to make the lack of sense frustrating. :(

Don't get me wrong, I think he was a good director, and I love Zombie Flesh Eaters particularly, but some of his films were just infuriating. Compare him with Dario Argento, one of his contemporaries who also dispensed with realistic narrative in many of his films - Argento's films still have a kind of internal logic, even though the things that happen on screen often just wouldn't in real life, they make sense in the context of the universe of the film. Although Argento's characters are often just ciphers, they at least seem like real beings with real motives. In some of Fulci's films, stuff just seems to happen because Fulci thinks it would be cool, then he stretches a membrane-thin narrative over those scenes to link them together, and then throws in some characters who act like different people each time we see them depending on the requirements of the scene. It's like the set pieces come first, and everything else is built around them. I wouldn't mind if he just dispensed with storytelling altogether and just made horror art films purely out of imagery and stuff, but he sticks in enough of a half-arsed plot that is never resolved, which just leaves me feeling short-changed.

[triste realtà]

I cannot take part in a Fulci vs Argento discussion because I don't really like Argento (did you know he's half Brazillian?) although semi-recently watched Suspiria and loved a couple parts like the ray of light striking Susie in the hallway. Argento and Fulci are thieves. Argento stole a lot from Bava and remember that weird doorman or whatever he was in Suspiria, he took that from Werewolf in a Girls Dormitory. Of course, Fulci took that dog biting it's owner thing from Suspiria and the animal title thing after Argento did it. I read that they bad mouthed each other a lot then decided to work together but Fulci died. Fulci also took that acid spilling on someone's face from Terror-Creatures from the Grave.

House is my favorite Fulci film so that's why I pay so much attention to it. I've only seen 5 Fulci films and maybe 3 Argento ones. Fulci was like a gateway to Italian horror for me and I don't watch those movies as much now.

But the thing I meant to write is that there is an interview with Claudio Fragasso on a Shriek Show DVD I think where he says Fulci would take out parts of the script and directors shouldn't do that. So that's what may happen when his films don't make any sense on top of Eurohorror being like that in the first place.
http://www.frightbytes.net/spookysmiles/msmile144.gif

[MoonSylver]

The sad fact is that Fulci just didn't care a damn about logic or narrative in the majority of his films, and preferred to stick a bunch of (albeit well-executed) set pieces together, loosely connected by a group of characters and location and just enough plot to make the lack of sense frustrating. :(

Don't get me wrong, I think he was a good director, and I love Zombie Flesh Eaters particularly, but some of his films were just infuriating. Compare him with Dario Argento, one of his contemporaries who also dispensed with realistic narrative in many of his films - Argento's films still have a kind of internal logic, even though the things that happen on screen often just wouldn't in real life, they make sense in the context of the universe of the film. Although Argento's characters are often just ciphers, they at least seem like real beings with real motives. In some of Fulci's films, stuff just seems to happen because Fulci thinks it would be cool, then he stretches a membrane-thin narrative over those scenes to link them together, and then throws in some characters who act like different people each time we see them depending on the requirements of the scene. It's like the set pieces come first, and everything else is built around them. I wouldn't mind if he just dispensed with storytelling altogether and just made horror art films purely out of imagery and stuff, but he sticks in enough of a half-arsed plot that is never resolved, which just leaves me feeling short-changed.

I don't really find Fulci more OR less guilty of this than Argento...


on top of Eurohorror being like that in the first place.

Exactly. All of the Italian horror films I've seen had a weird, visceral, dream-like quality. They seem to be more focused on the visual aspect of the medium & less on a logical, narrative, story telling aspect per se.

So, if you approach them as having their own, internal, logic & set of rules, consistent w/ those in a nightmare, it really makes them more enjoyable IMO.