HoopTober 8: Mosquito Takes Mandragon

Movie 57
7th of 8 films from 1981

You know, Bob gets a bad rap, but I didn't think he was anywhere near as annoying as some kids from Italian horror films? I remembered his dubbing being worse than it is.

Yes, that's my key takeaway from The House by the Cemetery. Well that and how BALLS-OUT TERRIFYING IT IS!!! Honestly, I had completely forgotten how legitimately scary these Fulci "Gates of Hell" films are - maybe not The Beyond so much (as wonderful as it is) but I think this one and City of the Living Dead really do deliver the thrills in both outrageous gore effects and effective chills.

The House by the Cemetery is perhaps a little more simple and straightforward than the other two aforementioned films - that sounds like a compliment, but it actually makes it just marginally a bit less fun than those. It's basically a haunted house (although by what I'm still not entirely sure - even after getting to see it in detail) where people just get killed one after another - basically a supernatural slasher movie. Still a pretty solid premise for a movie with this much visual virtuosity (Sergio Salvati ftw).

I love the glowing eyes in the basement - made ludicrous later when we find out the thing down there doesn't even seem to have any eyes, but that's just a bit of Fulci magic in itself. And that final scene in the basement with Bob and his folks is one for the ages. If I was Bob I'd be screaming like my voice was dubbed with an incongruous thirteen-year-old girl, too.

Classic - maybe slightly "lesser" than some of Fulci's other films, but still top tier for me.