The House by the Cemetery - What About Bob?

I thought about making the subtitle for this a third riff on landing in hot water with a local board of tourism. I opted not to because, for one - if you’ve seen this before this, you’ll get why I chose this name. The other reason - pattern breaking is a big part of this entry.

First let me lead this off by falling on my proverbial sword for you all not once, but twice over errors I made in my previous entries. First up - in discussing Fulci’s collaborators over the course of this trilogy, I named one person in error. Composer Fabio Frizzi provided the scores for City of the Living Dead and The Beyond, but the score to The House by the Cemetery was provided by Walter Rizzati and Alessando Blonksteiner. Second, though much less of a faux-pas by comparison - at the start of this, I had stated the entire trilogy of these movies could be streamed on Tubi. Once again, that only applies to CotLD and TB, but don’t be discouraged - The House by the Cemetery can be streamed for free from RedBox of all places as of this writing (with ads, but you’d get the same deal with Tubi, so there’s that.)

Okay, so now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s go into The House by the Cemetery, and my reasons for using this particular subtitle.

Overall, I like this movie. I want to get that out of the way up front. It’s a fun riff on a haunted house film, it has some properly grisly Fulci-style kills, and it offers a different take on the zombie type from the previous entries.

The last point is where I get stuck on it - looking at these movies as a trilogy, one can see the connective tissue between City of the Living Dead and The Beyond. By comparison, The House by the Cemetery feels like a hard shift from the earlier films. It’s not that there aren’t connections - as previously established, Fulci is again working with Sacchetti and MacColl in their respective roles of director, writer, and actress. Also, Fulci and Sacchetti are making a story inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft, though this marks where things start to break off.

In the prior movies, the Lovecraft influence skewed toward broader (or as it tends to be generally coined cosmic) horror - the version of Hell presented is seen as a supernatural corruption that is opened and poured forth into our world, growing in scope and power. Here, the angle is a story that could exist within the universe of Lovecraft’s work, but not of the same type as the others. In this case, that takes the form of a doctor whose quest for immortality leads him to ends that can be described as, in the least spoilery terms, the ghoulish. It’s an interesting concept, and as the zombie aspect goes, it makes a fun spin. But again, it feels somewhat out of step with what came before, both in terms of the nature of the horror and the much smaller scale this movie plays at.

It's a minor quibble, but I'll say it - it seems weird
to call a child 'Bob.' Bobby, sure. Robert, yeah.
Bob just feels like of those names you have to age into.

Speaking of smaller, we go to the subject of our title and the other big difference of this movie - its protagonist. MacColl completes her run in this movie, but unlike the last two, she feels more like a supporting role. Instead, the lion’s share of the focus goes to Giovanni Frezza (with a voice dubbed by Lyle Stetler that feels eerily out of place on the young actor) as MacColl’s son, Bob. I feel a little bit like a jerk coming down on this character since he IS a kid, and at least appearance-wise, Frezza is making a game attempt with the role. Having said that, for being the focus of much of the movie, Bob is sort of ineffectual in the larger movie. He’s set up at first as being akin to Danny Torrance in The Shining, being treated to visions that foreshadow the coming horror, but ultimately all he can really do is try to warn people who still wind up dead anyway. I place the fault on this more on the script than the child himself, but when he’s that big a part of the movie, it is a hard problem to look past.

Ultimately, I’m of two minds on this movie. On its own, it’s still a fun time. It hits the notes I come to Fulci for - good atmosphere, solid score (it’s no Frizzi, but it works) and that sweet, sweet carnage. Its biggest faults lie in its role as the final part of the ostensible Gates of Hell trilogy, where it lacks the gates, the Hell, and honestly, just the highs of its predecessors.

Also, after a series called The Gates of Hell literally ends
its second movie with its leads going to Hell,
this ending just feels underwhelming.

Again though, it’s a brisk 90 minutes and well worth seeking out.

I needed this right about now. It’s been a weird year and I’ve been wanting to get back into this. November is probably off the table as that will be a busy month, but we’ll see how things shake out in December.

In the meantime, a Happy Halloween till you all, and if nothing else, I’ll see you all next October!.

The Beyond - New City, Same Great Hell Zombies!

Welcome back once again to the Third Row’s October Franchise Dive (someday I’ll have a proper name for this thing.)

Well, the survivors of Dunwich put it to a vote. I won’t go into the details, but let me just say that if I’m spotted within city limits, there WILL be consequences. So, you win this round, board of tourism.

But, the journey through Fulci’s Gates of Hell trilogy isn’t over, so we’re pulling up stakes and heading south. There’s a quaint little hotel in Louisiana I’ve been hearing about. Nice location, good price. Just a little matter of a portal into Hell in the basement, but hey - it adds character!

Okay, joking aside, I’m gonna start with an up front disclosure. As of what I have seen to this point, The Beyond (AKA …E tu vivrai nel terrore! L'aldilà, AKA 7 Doors of Death) is, hands down, my favorite Italian horror movie. This isn’t to say ‘best’, mind you. If you put the proverbial screws to me, I’d say the best likely goes to something like Black Sunday or Suspiria. But that’s the thing - favorite isn’t always going to be best, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Just want to get that out there now in the interests of transparency.

Watching the movie this time, I went in with an eye for how this plays as a continuation of the trilogy, in particular compared to the previous City of the Living Dead. To that end, I want to again reaffirm my sentiment from last time - I like City of the Living Dead quite a bit, but in many ways, it feels like a test run for a lot of what Fulci would do in The Beyond.

Once again, we’re given a similar premise, albeit this time with some changes in presentation. Gone is the ill-fated town of Dunwich as we’re instead transplanted to a hotel in Louisiana. Care of a prologue, we learn the building is located over one of the fabled seven portals to Hell foretold in the Book of Eibon. In this case, however, there’s no act that invokes its opening. In fact, we start this film with an artist who claims to be able to stop it - shortly before he’s attacked and murdered by an angry mob.

Hey, we all make mistakes.

Flash forward - this time, the race against the clock has been swapped out for Catriona MacColl playing the ‘lucky’ new owner of said Hell-adjacent hotel. Right from the jump, we’re getting similar but different - Fulci keeps the growing corruption angle, but in this case, our heroes are initially unaware of what they’re dealing with instead of racing to stop it.

Which comes to one of the areas where I feel like this improves on City - the escalation feels more consistent (as much as the film's dreamlike narrative allows for) starting slowly and getting gradually larger and more graphic. Our first incident is framed as a benign accident. In fact, it’s probably one of the tamest injuries you’ll see in a Fulci movie. From there, we get isolated cases of people running afoul of the living dead, strange unseen forces, and two triumphs of prosthetic heads, the first involving a bottle of acid, and then second an army of half actual tarantulas, half props. Each time, the set pieces cast a little further out before, once again, we have hordes of the shambling dead to send us to our big finish.

Alongside that better sense of an upped ante, I have been noticing a through line in this movie that I find curious. Again, compared to its predecessor, there seems to be more of a shared thematic through line in this movie’s carnage.

Which is probably the best opportunity I have to say, before I continue, if you’re squeamish about eye trauma, this MIGHT not be the movie for you. I’ve joked in the past about Fulci’s predilection for grisly scenes with eyeballs, but even by that metric, this movie goes for them with all the frequency and passion of all Three Stooges.

As much as I joke about this just being a standard Fulci tendency, I have to admit it does feel like it also has a narrative basis in this case. Most notably with regards to the presence of Cinzea Monreale’s character Emily.

Shout out to numerous cast members.
Apparently they could see nothing behind those contacts.

Second warning for this entry - for this point, I will need to drop some spoilers. So I will give you till the count of…

Okay. You were warned. Let’s go.

Emily is initially presented to us as a mystery. She has knowledge of the hotel’s past, and other than that, her most distinct characteristic is the fact she is visibly blind. When I say ‘visibly’, I call your attention to the above screencap - and props to Monreale for sticking out her scenes with those. This in and of itself could just be a stylistic effect of the movie, but for two things. First - she has a scene later in the film where her dialogue establishes that she was a former damned soul that was released from Hell to warn of the doorway’s opening. Second - the movie’s final scenes, in which our two leads have now wandered through the door and are trapped in the barren abyss of Hell. As they wander, they gain the same blinded appearance Emily has.

And with that, I bring this back to my initial point - there is a distinct thematic through line in this movie of Fulci tying the eyes to the concept of being damned/blinded by evil. It’s an idea that plays through many of the kills inflicted by Hell’s growing influence, as characters’ eyes are crushed, gouged, or in one case eaten by the growing demonic forces. Yes, it also doubles for some great visceral set pieces, but Fulci for making it all tie together with the general idea of the movie merits some additional respect.

Okay, I lied.
None of these spiders will give you super powers.
Mostly, they'll just eat your face.
Sorry about that.

Besides having a (relatively) tighter narrative and thematic consistency, the one other thing I want to give a shout-out for this movie - the music. Fabio Frizzi definitely one-ups his work from the prior installment, most notably with the recurring ‘Voci Dal Nulla’ - a choral track that bookends the movie, effectively serving first as ominous intro and then an ending that, for our protagonists, feels downright apocalyptic.

Honestly, if you only watch one of the movies in this series (and why only one? Come on, these are brisk 90 minute jaunts!) I would say make The Beyond your go to. They’re all solid, but this is definitely Fulci at his most on point of the three.

Which makes me feel like kind of a jerk because we still have one more of these to go. This isn’t to prematurely toss our next entry under the bus, because it does have its charms. But man, after the highs of The Beyond, The House by the Cemetery does feel like a bit of a step down.

Still, best to make the most of it. Because after this entry, Louisiana won’t want me back either.

So, see you again in a couple more days as we scale our sights down from town-wide carnage to a quaint little house that becomes a proving ground for a creature of purest evil.

Oh and Hell. Yes, Hell will be there too.

Till then.

City of the Living Dead - Not Approved by the Dunwich Board of Tourism

Welcome back for another October here at the Third Row.

Mind the newspapers. This series is gonna get messy.

Probably should have thought of that last year, but hindsight's 20-20.

Speaking of which, be sure your protective eyewear is properly secured, we're in Fulci territory now.

Okay, with all that cheek aside, let's dive into City of the Living Dead.
AKA The Gates of Hell.
AKA Paura nella città dei morti viventi.

One of the fun parts of Italian horror - more often than not, these will have multiple titles. I'll include the alternates where I can within reason, though for the rest of this, let's stick to CotLD.

To set the scene, this movie came about thanks to the success of Fulci's earlier Zombie (aka Zombi 2 and Zombie Flesh Eaters.) There was interest in him making another horror movie, and he began working with previous scriptwriter Dardano Saccheti (who is one of a few collaborators who worked on all three movies in this trilogy, others including composer Fabio Frizzi and lead actress Catriona Mac Coll.)

The idea they came up with is one heavily inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Set in the town of Dunwich (a big tip of the hat), the suicide of a local priest sets in motion a chain of events that signal the opening of a portal to Hell. As the clock ticks down to its opening, a psychic and a journalist race to stop the opening before it's too late.

I'll admit it - I don't have a quip for this.
I just really like how Fulci frames this transition.
...and no, the Dunwich tourist board didn't
okay this one either.

That’s the elevator pitch, in any case. The story in the film plays a bit looser, including things like a police investigation in New York and a vagrant who, even by the standards of Fulci’s characters, has spectacularly bad luck. These both play in the orbit of the growing doom descending on Dunwich, however, even if the connections don’t always feel concrete.

Yeah, it’s not intricately plotted, but honestly, with the influence Fulci is working with, I feel like that helps. There’s any number of works that play to Lovecraft’s specific mythos of ancient eldritch gods and arcane texts (while carefully cutting around his uncomfortable racial issues), but Fulci opts to go for the broader strokes of the creeping unknown rather than a specific evil. It’s a big part of why I find this series fascinating - rather than a singular monster or straightforward threat, the films share an idea of a sort of growing corruption, starting from a single incident and growing outward with greater scope and stranger horrors.

It’s something I haven’t seen done as often in other horror movies (Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness comes to mind as the most immediate comparison), so it’s part of what makes these movies standout. The horrors, in this case running anywhere from Fulci’s signature zombies, to a rain of maggots, to one particularly memorable set piece in which a woman vomits up her own organs (an effect accomplished with veal intestines, a prosthetic head, and one INCREDIBLY game actress that I hope was paid well for her part.)

Seriously. This scene goes a good way before they
swap to the prosthetic head - partly because no human
being can regurgitate that much safely.
This woman is a damn trooper!

While a part of me feels odd putting the gory set pieces first and foremost in the strengths, the fact is, they really do make up the backbone of this movie. Not simply as gore for gore’s sake, but as reflecting  the growing escalation that goes with that otherworldly corruption. We start the movie with a priest hanging himself and a man finding a decayed body. From there, we see first graphic standalone deaths, then carnage unfolding on greater and greater scales. To his credit, Fulci maintains the momentum almost perfectly, save for the last twist of the movie that feels like a fumble, and possibly a reshoot for how little set-up it has compared with a lot of what came before.

The movie opened to its share of mixed reception - besides the series of violence cuts for different countries, as was the style at the time, the movie earned its Gates of Hell moniker in response to a legal response from United Artists who felt that the distributors were trying to ride George Romero’s coattails. Critically, there were some who praised Fulci’s style, but many who were turned off by the violence and some of the looser writing of the movie. In the years since, it has developed a respectable following in horror circles.

Granted, it’s still somewhat in the shadow of its successor, but we’ll be going into that more next time. For now, I’ll say this much - on its own, City of the Living Dead is still a very fun, watchable, work of Italian horror. Its set pieces may sometimes be disjointed, but they move at a brisk pace that keeps you invested (so long as you have the stomach for some low budget carnage, anyway.) As its own movie, it’s a good time, as part of the trilogy, it walked so The Beyond can run, but it still stands well on its own.

In the interests of playing somewhat fair with the
good townsfolk, I have been asked to say this:
Come see scenic Dunwich, where you will more than
likely NOT have your brains squeezed out of your
skull by the undead!

If this has gotten you interested in checking this out (and if it hasn’t, you might want to turn back now - Fulci’s penchant for blood, guts, and strange, dreamlike narratives persists in this series), you can watch this, and its sequels, for free on Tubi as of this writing.

In the meantime, unless you’re sticking around for a watch or rewatch, it’s time for us to bid farewell to the ill-fated town of Dunwich as we make our way south to a little hotel in Louisiana. There, we’ll be opening one of the seven doors of Hell with 1981’s The Beyond.

Until then.

I'm Back and I'm Bringing Zombies!

 You feeling that?

The days are getting shorter, the temperature's getting cooler, the leaves are changing color.

Fall is here.

And that means I'm back on my BS again.

This past year has been a lot. Some good, some bad, and just a lot going on. I was honestly debating if I wanted to do another horror dive this year.

This was also a result of last year's run. Don't get me wrong, there were parts of diving into Hellraiser that I really enjoyed - finally reading The Hellbound Heart and digging into the production history were good times, including gaining a level of respect for Bloodline, in all of its flawed glory.

Then we had the six movies Dimension pumped out purely to keep the rights in their camp. That was where the project went from enjoyable to a chore. I was being entirely sincere when I said a big part of why I summed those up in a single article was simply because I could only repeat the same flaws so many times.

So, in approaching this year, I had two requirements in mind - I wanted something that was going to be less of a backlog, and I wanted something I would enjoy without feeling like I was forcing myself through it. In the future, I may take on another tall order again, but this year, I wanted to treat myself.

I went over a few options before the answer smacked me in the face, care of a program I did with my partner on Italian horror.

With all that said, buckle your seatbelts and break out your safety goggles - we're going back to Hell. And this time, Lucio Fulci's taking us there.

"It's just the same cenobite designs in every sequel now!"

Okay, I know calling a thematic trilogy a franchise could be read as a cheat by some. BUT, seeing as no one gave me grief for it when I did John Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy in 2019, I'm gonna take that as approval for Fulci's Gates of Hell trilogy this year.

So, keep an eye on this space in the weeks to come. We kick things off in suitably gut-churning fashion with 1980's City of the Living Dead, followed by the 1981 classic The Beyond before bringing the month a close with 1981's The House by the Cemetery.

Part of me would like to say I could throw in some supplemental material, but I can't make guarantees - I know The Beyond has a comic tie-in, but those tend to be a bit on the pricier side. If anything else comes up, I'll be sure to try to surprise you!

It's gonna be a fun ride. The dead will rise, eyes will be gouged.

Till next time.