THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY (1981)
Label: Blue UndergroundRegion Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 86 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Atmos, English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 1.0 Mono, Italian DTS-HD MA Mono 1.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 2160p UHD Widescreen (2.39:1)
Director: Lucio Fulci
Cast: Catriona MacColl, Paolo Malco, Ania Pieroni, Carlo De Mejo, and Dagmar Lassander
The Boyle family from New York City, Norman (Paolo Malco, The New York Ripper), his wife Lucy (Catriona MacColl, City of the Living Dead) and their young son Bob (Giovanni Frezza, Manhattan Baby) are moving from the big city to a rural town in New England where researcher Norman will continue the work of a colleague named Dr. Peterson who has died suddenly. It is probably not a good sign that Peterson killed himself and his mistress in the very same mansion the family are moving into, a fact that Peter keeps from his wife, and that it is conveniently located right next to a creepy cemetery.
Even before moving into the eerie Victorian mansion the Boyle's young son begins receiving supernatural warnings to keep away from the house, not unlike little Danny Torrance from The Shining (1980). These warnings come from the freckle-faced spirit of a young girl named Mae (Silvia Collatina, Murder Rock), who first appears to Bob by appearing in some old pictures of the house, which sort of also mirrors some of what we saw at the end of The Shining.
Bob attempts to tell his mother of the girls warning but of course it goes unheeded, so the family moves in an begin to settle into the unsettled house. Later while doing some research in his study Norman comes across the story of a local surgeon, the ridiculously but still awesomely named named Dr. Freudstein, a homicidal Victorian-era surgeon that lived in the same very same house, yes, it seems bad things have always occurred in this evil-abode. Things get even weirder when the mother discovers that Freudstein is not buried in the cemetery next door, but is actually buried inside the the house in a crypt she finds hidden away beneath a carpet while cleaning in one of the rooms... what could possibly go wrong!?!
The House By The Cemetery is the third entry in director Lucio Fulci's Gates of Hell Trilogy, and despite this fact there are no portals to Hell anywhere to be found in it, but there is an undead mad-scientist living in the basement, who occasionally emerges from his dusty basement lair to viciously murder unwelcomed guests, harvesting their body parts in an effort to further prolong his life. The first persons to die are a pair of horny teens, a young woman (Daniela Doria, The New York Ripper) having just done the nasty with her boyfriend in the then uninhabited house, when she finds her boyfriend brutally stabbed to death with a pair of scissors. Before she can even get out a proper scream a large kitchen knife is thrust through the back of skull with the tip emerging from her mouth, it's a delightfully visceral gore-gag that was mirrored a few years later in the nutso-slasher Pieces (1983), but Fulci did it first.
The Fulci flick has some excellent kills but is not quite the gore-fest that either of the previous Gates of Hell entries were, but it has loads of creaky old dark house atmosphere, it's got a very eerie haunted house vibe that is unlike anything else he directed. That is not to say that it is bloodless by any means, Fulci brings the sweet pain right from the get go with the young woman stabbed in the head, and continues it with some dazzling bloodletting, most notably an unfortunate real estate agent (Dagmar Lassander, Black Cat) who is attacked with a fire-poker, unleashing a geyser of blood and tortured screams that you will not soon forget. Later Norman stabs the monstrous Fruedstein with a kitchen knife unleashing a torrent of maggots and worms from the wound, which is truly stomach-turning. Not all the special effects are fantastic though, even slathering it in copious amounts of blood cannot disguise the shoddiness of a basement bat-attack that goes on for far too long. Fulci has always referenced cool kills from his earlier work, and in this one we get a well-shot scene that manages to not only references the pick-axe scene from his own The City of the Living Dead but also the iconic axe-through-the-door scene from The Shining.
More so than the atmosphere and bloodletting I think the film is most notorious for the shrill English-dubbing of child actor Giovanni Frezza, whose voice was dubbed by a woman, which sounds like fingernails shredding a chalkboard. That's not the kids fault though, he does just fine, as does young Silvia Collatina (Murder Rock) as the spooky freckle-faced specter who befriends Bob. Both Catriona MacColl and Paolo Malco who were Fulci regulars turn in solid performances as the parents, even if their parental and decision making skills are highly suspect, choosing to stay in what s clearly a evil doom-house despite all the strange happenings, bad parents indeed.
Audio/Video: The House By The Cemetery (1981) was previously issued on a fantastic 3-Disc Limited Edition set from Blue Underground just last year, which at the time I said would prove to be the definitive version of the film barring a future UHD release. Well, now that foretold UHD has come to pass I am pleased to report that it easily eclipses even the high standard of the Blu-ray edition. The UHD is sourced from the same 4K scan of the uncut 35mm camera negative framed in 2.39:1 widescreen in 2160p UltraHD with a Dolby Vision + HDR10 color-grading. The source elements are flawless with a thin velvety layer of film grain throughout, the increased resolution offering wonderfully rich detail with a appreciable uptick in depth and clarity. The Dolby Vision + HDR10 color-grading also offers a broader color spectrum with deeper truer blacks that add depth and contrast to the shadowy interiors of the house. The Dolby Vision + HDR10 also offers punchier colors highlighted by the luminous stained-glass windows in the house, with other primary highlights looking quite nice as well. Notably the teal-push of the previous Blu-ray edition seems a bit more restrained on UHD, and this is also noticeably not as bright, which I think might be truer to the source. The screenshots used in this review are from the Blu-ray, sorry folks, don't have a UHD drive for the laptop, yet!
The Fulci fright flick also gets a new Dolby Atmos remix that does good work immersing the listener into the creaky old dark house with a crisp vibrancy. It also carries over the English and Italian DTS-HD MA 1.0 mono and 5.1 surround mixes, though I still prefer the original mono mix, I like the flat directness of it. With that said the Atmos remix is great, easily superiors to even the DTS-HD MA 5.1, further highlighting the moody score from Walter Rizzati (1990: The Bronx Warriors).
Blue Underground carry-over all the disc extras from their three-disc limited edition release with the exception of the CD soundtrack. On the UHD disc we have the terrific audio commentary from Troy Howarth, author of 'Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulci And His Films'. When it's come to Euro-cult cinema Howarth is the man, he digs into it deeply, commenting on the poetic atmosphere conjured by the film, highlights from Fulci's filmography, digging into the cast and crew, an of course touching on Fulci's misogynist reputation. We also get the International and U.S. theatrical trailers for the film, a rough-looking TV spot, a brief 1-min deleted scene, and several image galleries containing tons of promotional material for the film from various territories.
The second disc is the same Blu-ray extras disc that accompanied the 3-disc limited edition release right down to having the same serial number and artwork. Also know that this Blu-ray does not contain the actual film, only extras, kicking off with over 88-min of archival extras from the previous 2011 Blu-ray release from Blue Underground. These include interviews with stars Catriona MacColl, Paolo Malco, Giovanni Frezza, Silvia Collatina, Dagmar Lassander, Carlo De Mejo, and Giovanni De Nava, plus co-writers Dardano Sacchetti and Elisa Briganti, cinematographer Sergio Salvati, special make-up effects Artist Maurizio Trani and Gino De Rossi. These extras form a well-rounded examination of the film, it's themes and the sometimes difficult director, as well as the infamous dubbing.
We also get all the newer extras produced for the three-disc limited edition release, we get the 15-min interview with co-writer Giorgio Mariuzzo, a 30-minute Q&A with star Catriona MacColl from the 2014 Spaghetti Cinema Festival moderated by author Calum Waddell, and a 20-minute discussion of the film with Stephen Thrower, Author of 'Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci'.
The two-disc UHD/Blu-ray release arrives in a black keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring a fantastic illustration which I believe was done by legendary Italian artist Enzio Sciotti, correct me if I am wrong. We also get an embossed slipcover with the same artwork with raised lettering on the front, back and spines, plus each of the discs inside have artwork printed on them. If you already own the three-disc limited edition I would still hang onto as it does feature a few nifty packaging extras you won't get with the UHD. For starters you won't get reversible sleeve of artwork, or the cool lenticular slipcase, nor the 20-page collector's booklet with writing on the film by Michael Gingold, and perhaps most importantly you will not get the 31-track CD soundtrack containing the score from Walter Rizzati. I highly recommend upgrading if you want this film in the absolutely best looking and sounding version of the film, but if you're a packaging and extras whore like myself you're still gonna want to hang onto that 3-disc release. I am also a bit curious about why the three-disc limited edition omitted the word "The" from the title of the film while the new UHD includes it, someone who knows please get back to me on that.
Special Features:
Disc 1 (4K UHD Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras
- Audio Commentary with Troy Howarth, Author of 'Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulci and His Films'
- Deleted Scene (1 min) HD
- U.S. Theatrical Trailers (2 min) HD
- International Theatrical Trailer (3 min) HD
- TV Spot (1 min)
- Poster & Still Galleries (2 min) HD
Disc 2 (Blu-ray) Extras
- Meet the Boyles – Interviews with Stars Catriona MacColl and Paolo Malco (15 min) HD
- Children of the Night – Interviews with Stars Giovanni Frezza and Silvia Collatina (13 min) HD
- Tales of Laura Gittleson – Interview with Star Dagmar Lassander (9 min) HD
- My Time With Terror – Interview with Star Carlo De Mejo (15 min) HD
- A Haunted House Story – Interviews with Co-Writers Dardano Sacchetti and Elisa Briganti (20 min) HD
- To Build a Better Death Trap – Interviews with Cinematographer Sergio Salvati, Special Make-Up Effects Artist Maurizio Trani, Special Effects Artist Gino De Rossi, and Actor Giovanni De Nava (322 min) HD
- House Quake – Interview with Co-Writer Giorgio Mariuzzo (15 min) HD
- Catriona MacColl Q&A (29 min) H D
- Calling Dr. Freudstein – Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci (20 min) HD
House By The Cemetery (1981) might not reach the delirious heights of Fulci's The Beyond (1981) or City of the Living Dead (1980) but it still has a great old dark house vibe intertwined with some tasty bits of violence and some weird undead mad doc mayhem that makes for a solidly entertaining watch. Blue Underground had already set the standard with their previous three-disc release of the film, but they have gone and raised the bar to new UltraHD heights with this outstanding release.
