The House by the Cemetery

The House By The Cemetery
Italian theatrical poster
Directed by	Lucio Fulci
Produced by	Fabrizio De Angelis
Written by	Elisa Briganti, Lucio Fulci, Giorgio Mariuzzo, Dardano Sacchetti
Starring	Catriona MacColl, Paolo Malco, Giovanni Frezza, Silvia Collatina, Dagmar Lassander, Giovanni De Nava
Music by	Walter Rizzati
Distributed by	Almi Pictures (theatrical; U.S.), Anchor Bay Entertainment (video)
Release date(s)	1981; 30 March 1984 (U.S. date)
Running time	87min.
Language	Italian

The House by the Cemetery (Italian: Quella villa accanto al cimitero) is a 1981 Italian supernatural horror film directed by Lucio Fulci and is the third instalment of the unofficial Gates of Hell trilogy which also includes City of the Living Dead and The Beyond. Its plot revolves around a series of murders taking place in a New England home - a home which happens to be hiding a particularly gruesome secret within its basement walls. Themes and motifs from popular horror films such as The Shining, The Amityville Horror and Frankenstein are readily on display.

The film stars Catriona MacColl, Paolo Malco, Ania Pieroni, Giovanni Frezza, Silvia Collatina and Dagmar Lassander. Dr. Jacob Freudstein is played by Giovanni De Nava, who appears in the Fulci film The Beyond as 'Joe the plumber'.

This movie was declared a video nasty.

Plot

A woman (Daniela Doria) in an abandoned house looks for her boyfriend. After she discovers his body, she is stabbed in the back, and her body dragged through a cellar door.

In New York City, Bob (Giovanni Frezzi), and his parents, Norman and Lucy Boyle (Paolo Malco and Catriona MacColl), are moving. Norman's ex-colleague, Dr. Peterson, who murdered his mistress before committing suicide, was the previous owner. The Boyles are to stay there, whilst Norman researches old houses. As his mother packs, Bob looks at a photograph of a house and sees a girl in it who warns him to stay away. In New Whitby, Boston, Bob waits in his parents' car while they collect keys. The girl from the photograph appears across the street. The girl, Mae (Silvia Collatina) psychically warns Bob to stay away. In the real estate office, Mrs. Gittelson (Dagmar Lassander) is annoyed when her colleague hands the couple "the Freudstein keyes." She insists it is called “Oak Mansion.” Gittelson promises to find a babysitter.

Oak Mansion is in a poor state of repair. The cellar door is locked and nailed shut. A woman arrives and introduces herself as Anne, the babysitter (Ania Pieroni). That night, Norman hears noises and finds Anne unblocking the cellar door. The next day, Norman goes to the library to peruse Peterson's materials. The assistant librarian, Daniel Douglas (Giampaolo Saccarola), informs Norman that Peterson conducted private research at the house. He studied records of area disappearances and other demographic data.

Mae shows Bob a tombstone on the grounds marked “Mary Freudstein” and says she is not really dead. Indoors, Lucy finds the tombstone of “Jacob Tess Freudstein.” When Norman returns, he reassures her that some old houses have indoor tombs, because of the hard wintry ground. Norman opens the cellar door and walks down the stairs only be attacked by a bat, which he stabs. Spooked, the family drives down to the estate office and demands to be re-housed, but are told it will be few more days before they can move.

While the Boyles are at hospital to treat Norman's injuries from the bat, Gittelson arrives at the house to tell them of a new property. Letting herself in, she stands by Freudstein tombstone, which cracks apart, pinning her ankle. A figure emerges, stabs her in the neck with a fireplace poker, and drags her into the cellar.

The next morning, Lucy finds Anne cleaning a bloodstain on the kitchen floor. Anne eludes Lucy's questions about the stain. Over coffee, Norman tells Lucy that he's discovered that Freudstein was a Victorian surgeon who conducted illegal experiments. Norman must travel to New York to research Freudstein. On the way, Norman drops by the library and finds a cassette of Peterson, which explains Freudstein killed his family. Anne goes to the cellar looking for Bob, but is decapitated by Freudstein. Bob sees Anne’s head, and exits screaming. Lucy refuses to believe Bob's tale about Anne. That evening, Bob returns to the cellar looking for Anne.

Lucy hears Bob’s cries tries to open the cellar door. When she cannot open the door, Norman returns and attacks it with an axe. The rotting hands of Freudstein (Giovanni De Nava) appear and restrain Bob. One axe blow chops off the monster's hand, and he staggers away, holding Bob. The cellar contains mutilated bodies, surgical equipment, and a slab. Freudstein is a living corpse with rotting flesh. Norman tells Lucy the 150-year-old Freudstein lives by using his victims’ parts to regenerate blood cells. Norman attacks Freudstein, but the ghoul twists the axe away. He grabs a knife off a tray and stabs Freudstein.

Freudstein picks up Norman and rips his throat out. Lucy and Bob climb a ladder leading to the cracked tombstone. Lucy strains to shift the stone, but Freudstein grabs her. Freudstein kills Lucy by ramming her head into the concrete floor. As Freudstein advances up the ladder, Bob strains to escape. Suddenly, Bob is yanked upwards and finds Mae. With Mae is her mother, Mary Freudstein (Teresa Rossi Passante), who urges them to leave. Freudstein leads Mae and Bob down the wintry grove into a netherworld of ghosts and sadness.

Home video history

The film has had a huge history of BBFC problems over the years. The original cinema version was heavily cut with edits to the poker murder and the slashing of Ann's throat, and this print was later released on video prior to the Video Recordings Act and subsequently banned as a video nasty. The film was made officially available in 1988 though the print had been pre-edited by 34 secs (removing the cinema cuts) and then additionally cut by 4 mins 11 secs with further cuts to the opening stabbing, the bat attack, Norman's throat being torn out by Freudstein, and tracking shots of mutilated bodies in the basement. The film was again released in 1992 though this print had been heavily pre-cut by the distributors and removed 7 mins 27 secs of footage, thus rendering much of the film unintelligible. The 2001 Vipco DVD issue restored nearly all of the film's prior edits but was cut by 33 secs by the BBFC with lesser edits made to the poker murder and a throat cutting. Although willing to release the movie uncut, the film had recently been prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act following the discovery of bootleg copies of the uncut version, leaving the BBFC no choice but to cut the film. All the cuts were finally waived for the 2009 Arrow DVD.

The Anchor Bay DVD version was later released uncut, containing all the gore and violence from the original version.

The film was released by Blue Underground on Blu-ray (as well as a new DVD edition) on 25 October 2011 with a new 2K transfer.

External links

• The House by the Cemetery at the Internet Movie Database
• The House By The Cemetery at AllRovi