Intro

It was early one Sunday morning in 2009 that I stumbled across Lucio Fulci’s “The House By The Cemetery” on Film4. The synopsis teased me with talk of a monster lurking in the basement, something which had me intrigued, especially given the Stella Artois fuelled state I was probably in. Looking back now, I’m guessing the airing of the film coincided with it finally being passed uncut by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) after years of censorship, as well as being included in the now legendary “video nasties” list.

Having not experienced any Italian horror movies up until that point, I was unaware of what I was getting myself into. The first thing that bewildered me was Giovanni Frezza as Bob, or to be more specific, the dubbing for Giovanni Frezza as Bob. Why on earth this voice was chosen is beyond me but after subsequent viewings I have grown to love this wonky portrayal. So much so that when Giovanni Frezza appears in other films I am genuinely disappointed that firstly, his character isn’t called Bob, and secondly, that he still isn’t dubbed by the same actor (or actress, I still can’t work it out).

The second thing that struck me was just how much the film revelled in showing extended scenes of gore, even when the effect starts to lose credibility. The bat scene in particular keeps going to the point it verges on the comical. Of course, as I would start to watch more Italian horror, this is something that is very much part and parcel of the genre. Fulci, more often than not, can keep the gore going whilst retaining its shock factor; the gut spewing scene from “City of the Living Dead” is a prime example of that.

After watching “The House By The Cemetery” for that first time, I was intrigued to find out more about Fulci and the genre. Sadly, I didn’t get round to watching any other films as my time was mainly spent pursuing musical endeavours. Film4 did show “The House By The Cemetery” again years later and I tuned in for five or ten minutes with a friend who quickly exclaimed “this is shit”. The thing is, I didn’t think it was shit, in fact, I quite enjoyed it. Sure, the plot didn’t really make much sense and the dialogue was written and delivered in a very hokey fashion but there was something about the atmosphere that made me want to see more. Thus my mission to seek out and watch more horror films from Italy and the rest of the world began. 

I am not a film academic, nor have I written a blog before, so this is going to be pretty amateur stuff but I felt it would be nice to share with you my findings. I am by no means an expert on the subject of horror films but I’m learning, and any film recommendations are greatly appreciated. So without further ado, let’s dive in….