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WARNING SPOILERS!!!!! This is another one of director Lucio Fulci's early-'80s horror films, known better for its scenes of bloody gore rather than plot. As a matter of fact, the story makes little-to-no sense, but has some extremely bloody set-pieces.The film opens in the cobweb-filled Boston home (actually lensed in Concord, Massachusetts; the same house used in the Italian horror film GHOSTHOUSE - 1987) once owned by Dr. Freudstein, as a young woman (Daniela Doria) is looking for her boyfriend after using the abandoned house for a place to have sex. She finds her boyfriend's mutilated body and then she is on the receiving end of a butcher knife to the back of her head (the blade juts out of her mouth!).A new family is moving into the Freudstein home: Lucy Boyle (Catriona MacColl; THE BEYOND - 1981), husband Dr. Norman Boyle (Paolo Malco; THE NEW YORK RIPPER - 1982) and their young son Bob (Giovanni Frezza; MANHATTAN BABY - 1982), Bob is looking at a photo of the Freudstein home and sees a young girl peering out of one of the windows. When Lucy looks at the photo, she is not there. Norman and his family are moving into the house from New York City (where many Italian horror films from this period start out) after a colleague, Peterson (whom we never see), committed suicide while working on a top-secret "project" (which is never fully explained). Norman is taking over the project (Lucio Fulci maskes a cameo as "Professor Muller" as he and Norman are walking down a NYC street discussing why he has to go to Boston) and he is taking his family with him (not a good idea!).After making the drive to Boston, The Boyles stop at real estate agent Laura Gittleson's (Dagmar Lassander; THE BLACK CAT - 1980) office to pick up the keys to their new home. While Bob is waiting in the car, he strikes up a conversation with little girl Mary Freudstein (Silvia Collatina; THE GREAT ALLIGATOR - 1979), the little girl he saw in the window of the photo, who may be a ghost (Earlier in the film, we see Mary staring at a female mannequin in a store window, which then loses its head when it falls down on a piece of broken window glass. Why does the mannequin bleed?). Laura tells the Boyles that they will have to follow her to their new home, since it is hard to find and in the middle of the woods.Once in their new home, Lucy almost immediately has terrifying visions. Ann (Ania Pieroni; TENEBRE - 1982), their new nanny, looks exactly like the headless mannequin (Why is Lucy having the same visions as Mary?). Norman has set up an office in their new home and, that night, he hears a child crying, but when he checks up on Bob, he finds him sound asleep. He then hears Lucy trying to pry open the boards blocking the basement door (What's behind the door?).The next morning, Norman goes to the local library, where he talks to librarian Daniel Douglas (Gianpaolo Saccarola; THE BEYOND - 1981). Daniel has some papers belonging to his late colleague Peterson, who was doing research on Dr. Freudstein. Daniel then tells Norman that Peterson hanged himself in this very library (he shows him where). While cleaning the hallway, Lucy discovers a stone grave marker under a rug that belongs to Jacob & Tess Freudstein (Why were they buried inside the house?). Lucy then hears someone (or something) trying to break free from the tomb. She also hears other noises, such as a child crying, that makes her scream in terror. When Norman gets home, he discovers Lucy cowering in the hallway, crying. He then decides to open the basement door to prove to Lucy that there is nothing evil down there. After having problems opening the door (the lock is nearly rusted shut), he is able to go downstairs to the basement, where he finds a mens gold wedding ring (he puts it in his pocket). Almost immediately, he and Lucy are attacked by a very angry bat and Norman must use a pair of scissors to stab the bat to get it off his hand (The blood from the bat spraying on Lucy and Bob's faces). Norman and Lucy then go to Laura's office to ask for a new place to live, but Laura's assistant tells them she is not there (she is). Later on, Laura goes to see Norman and Lucy to see what the problem is (She has been getting plenty of complaints from previous residents), but when she gets to the house, no one is there (that she knows about). While Laura is looking for the Boyles, she steps on the stone grave marker, breaks it and a grunting and moaning figure stabs her in the chest and neck with a large metal spike (very graphic) and drags her bloody body down to the basement. The next morning, we see Ann cleaning the blood off the floor (Lucy: "What are you doing?" Ann: "I made coffee!").Meanwhile, Norman does some research on Dr. Freudstein and discovers that he was an early-20th Century doctor with a "penchant for illegal experiments" and gets a cassette tape from Daniel where we hear Peterson say "Blood! Blood! I can hear it everywhere!" (WTF?!?). Norman tells Lucy that he will have to make a short trip to NYC to do some further research.We then see Bob playing with Mary in a cemetery next to the house (we see Mary's gravestone). Then we see Bob playing with a remote-controlled car inside the house and loses it when it accidentally falls into the basement, so he goes down to collect it. Ann goes down to the cellar to look for Bob and the door locks behind her. Someone (or something) slices her throat over and over with a butcher knife (another very gory scene). Bob, who is not in the basement, goes looking for Ann in the basement and discovers her decapitated head (just like Mary & Lucy's vision). When Lucy gets home from food shopping, she finds Bob crying in his bedroom. He tells his mother what he saw, so Lucy goes down in the basement and finds nothing.Norman is now at a cemetery in New York City looking for the tomb of Dr. Freudstein (What about the marker in the hallway?), but the cemetery caretaker (Elmer Johnsson) tells Norman that Dr. Freudstein is not buried there and he is not the only person to make that mistake (What could this possibly mean?).That night, Bob goes down to the basement (Bob: "Ann? Mother told me you are not dead. Is that true?") and sees a glowing pair of eyes staring back at him. He runs up the stairs, only to find the door locked. Lucy tries to open the door, but breaks the key off in the lock. Norman shows up and breaks the door down with an axe (A hand holds Bob's head to the door hoping the axe blade will slice into his head and split his skull open, but no such luck). We then discover the mutated corpse of Dr. Freudstein lives in the basement (Bob discovers the bloody corpses of Ann and Laura hanging from the rafters). Norman stabs Dr. Freudstein with a knife (maggots come pouring out of the wound) before it rips Norman's throat with its bare hands (another memorable scene). Lucy and Bob try to escape through the cracked grave marker, but Dr. Freudstein drags Lucy to her death. Just when it looks like curtains for Bob, Mary lifts him out of the grave marker and Mrs. Freudstein takes him outside. Is Bob dead? It's hard to say, as the film ends with this quotation: "No one will ever know whether children are monsters or monsters are children" - Henry James.Like I said in the beginning of this review, the film makes very little sense, but the gore flows rather freely. There is no explanation on why Dr. Freudstein looks the way he does, or even if it is Dr. Freudstein at all, except to say that he was fond of "illegal experiments". What sort of illegal experiments? I guess we can only speculate, as the film offers us no explanations. The screenplay, by Fulci, Giorgio Mariuzzo (CONTRABAND - 1980) & Dardano Sacchetti (DEVIL FISH - 1984; CUT AND RUN - 1985) tips its hat to H.P. Lovecraft, but I believe even ol' H.P. would be scratching his head trying to figure it out. To show you how confusing this film really is, when Vestron Video released this on VHS, they showed two reels of film out of order and very few people noticed! Lucio Fulci does give this film a nice atmospheric sheen, which was one of the things he was a master at. The exteriors were filmed in Concord, Massachusetts, but all the interiors were shot at the De Paolis Studios in Rome, Italy. The fact that they do not look like sets, imbues this film with a dark tone that only Fulci could pull off. It may not make any sense, but it is a great film to look at.Originally released theatrically in the U.S. Unrated in 1984 by Almi Films, with a fullscreen VHS release from Vestron Video shortly thereafter. An edited fullscreen budget DVD in 2003 from Legacy Entertainment and a widescreen uncut version on DVD from Anchor Bay Entertainment followed, but the beautiful-looking Blu-Ray from Blue Underground is the only way to view this film. I saw it theatrically in the mid-'80s and I can honestly say that the Blu-Ray looks better. The extras on the Blu-Ray are second-to-none, as there is a great original featurette called "Meet The Boyles" where the lovely Catriona MacColl and the rugged Paolo Malco reminisce about making this film. They recall Fulci as always yelling on set, being a bit of a sadist to his actors and not liking children. On another extra on the disc, an interview with the adult Giovanni Frezza, he seems to back up their claims. I especially like the TV trailer for this film, where Brother Theodore narrates in his typical overwrought manner, making the film seem more sinister than it actually is. I remember seeing this trailer on TV and love that it was included here (there is also an international trailer and the U.S. theatrical trailer included on the disc). Also on the disc is an extended scene of the bat attack, which has never been seen before. I applaud Blue Underground for giving this film the deluxe treatment and urge everyone to buy this disc. Also starring Carlo De Mejo (TERROR EXPRESS - 1979), Giovanni De Nava (MURDER-ROCK: DANCING DEATH - 1984) as the mutated Dr. Freudstein (if that is who he is supposed to be) and Teresa Rossi Passante as Mrs. Freudstein. Unrated.
