The House by the Cemetery

1981 ‘Quella villa accanto al cimitero’ Directed by Lucio Fulci

Read the fine print. You may have just mortgaged your life.

After a doctor kills his mistress and himself while researching the mysterious previous owner of his Boston home, his colleague, Dr. Norman Boyle, takes over his research and moves his family from New York City to the Boston mansion. Soon after, Boyle's young son Bob becomes plagued by visions of a young girl, who warns him of the danger within the house.

Catriona MacColl Paolo Malco Ania Pieroni Giovanni Frezza Silvia Collatina Dagmar Lassander Giovanni De Nava Daniela Doria Gianpaolo Saccarola Carlo De Mejo Teresa Rossi Passante Kenneth A. Olsen Elmer Johnsson Ranieri Ferrara Lucio Fulci

Alternative Titles

Aquella casa junto al cementerio, The House Outside the Cemetery, Η Στοιχειωμένη Βίλα, Zombie Hell House, Das Haus an der Friedhofsmauer, A Casa dos Mortos Vivos

horror

87 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Ian West ★★★★★ 12

Fulci’s Henry James tombhouse nightmare... slathered in a hazy New England atmosfear that oozes with dissonance.
Dreamy.

House by the Cemetery feels like the perfect melding of City of Living Dead and The Beyond (and a few other classic Fulci-isms), the previously mentioned Henry James, and much to his dismay.. The Shining (Sorry lucio it’s true even though you deny it lol) taking the best elements that shine and turning the screw all the way up with gratuitous gore, brutal stabbings, and one hell of an iconic murder House... not just by a cemetery, but IN one!
Not my favorite of the trilogy, but I’ll never say no to watching this James/Shining mashup—the new blu underground release looks fantastic and I can’t stop listening to the soundtrack (one of my favs!).
If there was a gate to hell, I can think of no better doom house to sit on top of it than this. 5 stars.
Review by Coolnilk ★★★

Easily the weakest (though still fairly fine) Lucio Fulci effort I've seen to date, The House by the Cemetery isn't particularly memorable altogether as the characters that are followed around here aren't exactly the greatest especially with their inordinate acting & the pacing for an 87-minute flick is rather sluggish in general as the plot does take a bit to get going along.
Despite that, there are still some things to enjoy here as Fulci does his best with what he typically has in the store for the viewer as his trademark over-the-top gore, suitably chilling atmosphere, and a relatively solid zombie villain/design in this undoubtedly elevate the film to a reasonable enough level.
Ultimately, it doesn't come close to the other features he's directed from the ones I've seen so far, but The House by the Cemetery does genuinely have a few neat moments now and then that make it somewhat worthwhile.
Review by Hollie Horror ★★★★ 16

The House by the Cemetery opens with the beautiful Daniela Doria sacrificing her on-screen life for Fulci...yet again. You may remember her as the girl unable to hold the contents of her stomach [oh so literally] in City of the Living Dead, or maybe you remember her as the pretty blonde foaming at the mouth in The Black Cat, surely you haven't forgotten her run in with razorblades in The New York Ripper either...
A couple other actors from City of the Living Dead appear in this as well, with Fulci regular Catriona MacColl as a given, but we also see a brief glimpse of Carlo De Mejo as well, minus all the meal-worms glued to his cheeks.
Also appearing…
Review by Ian West ★★★★★ 7

I’ve bloviated enough on how much I love House by the Cemetery HERE so I’ll just say that Joe Bob suggesting that Italian Horror isn’t as sacred as other horror of its time period almost led to what may very well have been my first utterance of OK BOOMER.
I kid, I kid. His banter with Eli Roth on the subject was super enjoyable.
Didn’t expect this to be picked but I’m really jiving with the Mothers Day/House by Cemetery double bill vibes tonight. I know the dude bro heavy ‘horror community has ironically labeled Eli Roth a dude bro, but it think I’m going to do a deep dive on his filmography soon since it’s been a while...and I legit love almost…
Review by Lara Pop ★★½ 20

#Giallo
If Argento is campy art, Fulci is artsy camp that can wear the cloak of art but is never truly raised on its pedestal. Contrary to the surprisingly dark and oppressive Don't Torture a Duckling, here Fulci takes a notably less mature and extremely lazy approach that has all the grossness of the genre but lacks one element: imagination.
Frankly, watching The House By The Cemetery reminded me of Z-grade, sloppily made American horror fare with formulaic plots and sleazy rapid zoom-ins that aim to inject tension but only manage to make the suspense weightless. Although Fulci's distinctive style is apparent mostly in the drawn-out and fascinatingly slow and gore-dipped murder scenes, his vision ultimately fails to manifest, resulting in a bland and imagination-deprived entry in the giallo genre. Quickly moving on to hopefully better stuff.
Review by pd187 ★★★★★ 27

watched this in b&w as a goof and even my shitty mill creek "pure terror" 50 movie pack print looks incredible, like seeing it the first time w/ unclouded eyeballs (esp the final shots, slow pans & push-ins on forests & graves). fulci heads underrate the fuck outta this one and i "get" it but cmon even the frizzi-less rizzatti score is iconic & kinda sounds like "jah world" off THE W www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcgRbcBSrAg
everybody join me in the people's movement of watching house by the cemetery in black & white! #housebythecemeteryinblackandwhite #copyrightpd187 #donotsteal
Review by Tony the Terror😼🏳️‍🌈 👻 ★★★★★ 11

First let me say that I love every poster made for this movie, but my video store had this VHS box so it’s my favorite for sentimental reasons.
The third installment in Fulci’s death trilogy is my second favorite because, like The Beyond, it features a creepy old house and this particular house may be my favorite creepy old house because it’s the OG Ghosthouse house. It’s the Ghosthouse by the Cemetery 👻🏚👨‍👦‍👦❤️. It’s also got some great atmosphere and phenomenal gore. I actually never got around to seeing this at my video store for some reason or another. I saw it for the first time on a Saturday afternoon about 12 years ago. I’ll never forget it because you just don’t forget…
Review by Cam ★★★ 4

Cinematic Time Capsule
1981 Marathon - Film #97
”Bob, keep away from the door.”
It’s the adventures of poorly dubbed boy named Bob as he travels to quaint countryside home right next to the cemetery. Just smell that country air!
Please pay no attention to the girl who warns you not to come and no matter how freaked out you get, stay for a day or two, just in case you change your mind.
Oh, and while you’re here, be sure to behold the funniest bat attack of all time!
”I’ve lost all critical perspective.”

Cinematic Time Capsule - 1981 Ranked
Review by RetroMovieNerd ★★★½

MILL CREEK ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS PURE TERROR
Disc Five, Movie Nineteen
THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY
Fulci, you dead son of a bitch! How could you make a film that hints at plot threads that never get picked up? How could you allow such horrible overdubbing of a child actor that probably did not need to be horribly overdubbed to be annoying? How could you and your co-writers just put these characters into a house so horribly haunted by its past that continuing to rationalize their continued persistence in living there with a simple "it's just something you'll have to get used to"? How could your story contain all these things, and yet you beautifully manipulated me into enjoying the atmosphere…
Review by maskull ★★★★★ 2

My Eyes Hurt When I Go Outside, It's Too Bright!!! (or, My Halloween Horrorfest 2018) Movie #17
So back in the day I was into tape trading (look it up!), mostly metal demos and the like, but every once in a while I'd get a horror VHS from one of my friends. One particular tape, I think he'd sent me Don't Look In The Basement but I can't be sure, featured a bunch of trailers for other horror movies and assorted weird stuff. That's how I discovered HBTC. There was a short scene edited into all the other horrors of a kid with his head being held to a door as someone on the other side was hacking the door…
Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★★½ 7

_________________________________________________________________
Film #17 of the "Scavenger Hunt 2" Challenge!
Task #16 : A film that HAS been banned, by ANY country, past or present!
letterboxd.com/naughty/list/scavenger-hunt-2/
___________________________________________________________________
Apparently director Lucio Fulci's gruesome lil arterial geyser film made it onto the UK's Video Nasty List! Look I understand we need a rating system to keep children away from inappropriate films! I however do NOT understand why we as a society let a group of prudes and prigs decide what we are allowed to view as adults! In my not so humble opinion the people need to speak up loud and clear with their votes and oust this archaic system that bans and censors films!
Atmospheric, creepy and bloody good fun when it's…
Review by SilentDawn ★★★½

63
The central slasher-esque antagonist is neat and gnarly, but it ultimately places a coherence onto a strange Italian 'New England Gothic horror' text that wasn't needed. For a film with such impenetrable mood, such rich spookiness, The House by the Cemetery is too basic beyond the nasty stuff.

Recent reviews

Review by figur34 ★★★

I'm confused...
Review by Zach Low ★★★½

Love for crucial exposition to come in the form of a throwaway line, like, ten minutes from the end of the movie. Absolutely bananas made-up Henry James quote to end on. Ania Peroni was unspeakably gorgeous.
Review by SprintingFish ★★★★½

I really enjoyed the way this story was told. The ending feels like an actual conclusion. 4.5 stars because what anything has to do what anything else is anyone's guess.
Review by Travis Thomas ★★★

Atmosphere: Great
Story: Nonsense
Maggots: Gross
Bob the Heinously-Dubbed Child: MOMMY MOMMYYYYYYY MOMMMMYYYYYYY MOOOOMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYY
Review by thedrifter ★★★

Creepy as fuck. Classic Italian horror, where plot is inconsequential to the story. And the story does not get in the way of style.
Review by towerofbears ★★★

Fulci swaps out eyeball trauma for neck trauma in the third entry in The Gates of Hell trilogy. The House by the Cemetery returns the action to New England for a slasher ghost story that carries more than a little influence from Turn of the Screw and Frankenstein. There’s a lot to digest: ghosts, dolls, mannequins, slashers, mad scientists, and a tomb in the living room; it’s a case of a ton of really great elements that are individually excellent but maybe don’t all fit together. But as I learned in The Beyond, things not making sense isn’t necessarily a detriment when Fulci is in full on Fulci mode.
The biggest weakness might be its focus on Bob, the child…
Review by ASCIIHeart ★★★

I don't know what it says about me that I spent most of the last act hoping that the child would be murdered
Review by Sean Quinn ★★★

Not as enamoured with 3rd part of Gates of Hell trilogy as parts 1 and 2
But again great set pieces and thrills
Again - all these need a rewatch and re evaluation!
Review by Seth Stevens ★★★★

Solid tight "haunting" story. Incredible special effects as is to be expected
Review by Kyle West ★★★

This film is messy but in a way that is very charming, especially for the time it was made.
I do wish there was a little more to it plot wise but it honestly uses its sub 90 minute runtime to its advantage. It doesn’t linger too much, except for maybe a few “screaming at nothing” moments, which could have used a bit more work editing wise to make it so there was actually some tension involved, hence my nickname.
Of course with the nature of its production the ADR is goofy most of the time too. If you know what type of film this is however I’m sure you’ll find some enjoyment out of it, even if it’s just a few drinks with a few friends. C+
Review by roycebunn ★★★½

Love some Fulci, this movie started out a little slower than most of his work but the last 15 minutes was batshit crazy and made up for it.
I hated the little boy and some of the worst dubbing in cinema history.
Review by Will ★★★★★

bob gotta learn his lesson man