Must Kill BOB!!! (The House by the Cemetary (DVD))

Member Name: rmay666

Product:	The House by the Cemetary (DVD)
Date:	20/02/02 (28 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Okay Plot, Superb Music, Good direction

Disadvantages: Confused plotting, Annoying dubbing for the boy

Fulci made this film on the tail-end of his directorial height. There has been much debate over where Fulci the director finished and where Fulci the hack turned up. Apart from the New York Ripper all his films after this just didn't hit the same kind of heights.
The House By The Cemetary has a very confused plot. It seems to borrow ideas from a few different places. The main 'inspiration' seems to be The Shining because throughout the film a little girl who from the outset is presented as somekind of 'spirit guide' who looks out for the small boy in the film called Bob (Who is horribly dubbed by some women trying to put on a childs voice,its soo bad that you'll find youself wanting him to become Freudsteins next victim).
Wherever the film draws inspiration from it seems for the most part to pull it off. Fulci even delivers a sustained peice of suspense in one set-piece in the film (I won't say what set peice otherwise it would spoil part of the film).
For the main part though HBTC is really a farewell note not just from Fulci but from Italian Horror Cinema. HBTC was really the last great Gothic Horror and was one of the last great Horror Films to be produced in Italy. With the exception of some Argento films the whole industry went into a downward slide from which it never recovered.
So,Sit back and watch a film which could have been better but still is good enough to be a 'classic' of the genre.

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