Search - The House by the Cemetery on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Violence, Not For Children, Gore Movie Release: 1981 DVD Release: 05/22/2001 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Edition: Special Collection Audio Tracks: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 27 mins Studio: Anchor Bay Members Wishing: 4 Genres: Horror, Haunted House Film, Supernatural Horror See Also: House by the Cemetery, The House by the Cemetery [Collector's Edition], The House by the Cemetery, The House by the Cemetery

This cult horror film from director Lucio Fulci lurches along with a certain amount of disjunction due to cutting, perhaps, if not to an innate Fulci disposition. When the Boyle family temporarily moves into a mansion near Boston so the father can do some research, the son Bob (Giovanni Frezza) starts seeing the ghost of a young girl motioning to him, and eventually he discovers the basement's terrible secret. A certain Dr. Freudstein (Giovanni de Nari) has been hanging out there since 1879 when he was banned from the medical profession, and he has kept himself alive although in miserable physical shape, by murdering the various inhabitants of the house and using their cells to keep his body going. An oversize bat attacks the father, floors come apart and crush unsuspecting victims, and at one point little Bob's blond head is held to the basement door by the evil doctor while the father is wildly swinging his axe through the door to save his son. Scenes like these and others are the real objective of the movie -- the strange and irresolute ending, and leaps and gaps in the plot, are indications that all else is dispensible pretext - gore is the goal and it is delivered in sickening doses. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Catriona MacColl - Lucy Boyle
Paolo Malco - Norman Boyle
Anja Pieroni - Ann

For DVD fanatics with a tight budget and a fondness for Italian horror, it just doesn't get much better than Diamond Entertainment's release of Lucio Fulci's House by the Cemetery.
Deceptively bearing the artwork of the long out-of-print, censored U.S. video release in addition to the misleading R-rating and listed running time of 84 minutes, Diamond's release is actually the fully uncut feature, running 87 minutes and presented in widescreen in the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Taken from the out-of-print Japanese laserdisc release of the film (if you let the disc run long enough, after the end of the film you will actually see the end of the trailer before "Laserdisc stop side B" appears!), the transfer is more than acceptable, with only slight evidence of artifacting in the darker scenes and the occasional appearance of film grain. Colors are also fairly vibrant throughout with mostly solid blacks and bright, lively reds. The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is adequate in emphasizing Fabio Frizzi's suitably creepy score, though the audio occasionally sounds undermixed, with the occasional (though fairly non-intrusive) scratch and pop distortion undermining the more quiet scenes. The disc is just about as bare bones as a DVD can come, featuring nothing more than a promotional page for other Diamond releases, a mere four chapter stops, and a one-page filmography of Lucio Fulci. Though completists may opt for the slightly more definitive and expensive Anchor Bay release, cost-conscious consumers eager to see a suitably creepy and gory fright flick from one of the masters of the craft will certainly find what they are looking for (for little more than the cost of the average video rental) in Diamond's release of this Italian horror classic. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide