Manhattan Baby (1982) Horror Egyptian Curse

Manhattan Baby -aka "Eye of the Evil Dead" -  Well that was something. The film directed by Lucio Fulci reminds me of other things but does not seem to be an homage to any of them. There is this entirely sort of Exorcist beginning where Archaeologist Father, George Hacker (Christopher Connelly) and Wife Emily (Laura Lenzi) are visiting the pyramids in Egypt with daughter Susie (Brigitta Broccoli). While George is off investigating a cursed tomb, almost to his demise. Mom a journalist is taking pictures leaving little maybe 11 or 12 year old Susie alone in the ruins. Susie is visited by a blind woman who hands her a stone amulet that looks like the Eye of Horus then disappears into thin air. There are small details that I found amusing in this opening scene, when the old woman appears to Susie the girl reaches into her pocket and holds out what looks like money to the old lady. Such an American thing to do. Is the air thin in Egypt? At the same time a local dies directly after saying "Tombs are for the dead" as he and George enter the cursed tomb.Right before this they turn a symbol of a snake on the wall to reveal the secret passage they go down. There is this moment where the symbol pops off the wall and a cobra pops onto the floor near them. So was that just a place where cobras always nest? Or was that a four thousand year old cobra? There George sees another eye a symbol on the wall, suddenly blue laser beams shoot out and blind him.  He stumbles from the tomb blind.
  I can see not really getting into the death of the local in the tomb. We are setup to see George and his family and so when in the next scene George is being examines by a doctor back in NYC it is no big shock. He will be blind for about a year says the doctor but his sight will return. What follows is a less than coherent plodding film that tells the story of the effect the amulet has on the family and those around them. The stinger on the end is made to make it seem that there story is a cycle that has happened many times before.
  Included as ideas are that the Amulet that Susie has creates a doorway back to Egypt, and possible through time and that She and her little brother Tommy (Giovanni Frezza)use it to travel from there room and back. When someone tries to intervene with the magic the amulets power seems to possess the young girl bringing her close to death. The portal idea is a cool one but it also proves to be very dangerous. Sure there are some more innocent things like sand being deposited in the room, or Tommy bring back a 3rd century Anubis statue. There is also though a friend of Emily's disappearing through the bedroom door and transported to an untimely death in the desert of Egypt. The same for the Au-pair Jamie Lee (Cinzia de Ponti) who vanishes through the portal never to be seen again.
  Fulci not known for films that always go from point A to B is all over the place on this one. It is really two story parts that crisscross throughout the film. One of Mom and Dad as they try to figure out what is happening in there house. Their part though often feels detached from the plot. They do not regularly interact with their children and thus it takes most of the film before they are really clued in to what is going on. They almost lack agency when it comes to the plot. Even when they do find out about the amulet it is because they are contacted by the amazingly serious Mercato ( played over the top ominously by Cosimo Cinieri with voice dub by Edward Mannix). He is the exposition about what the amulet does and how it can possess the wearer, in this case poor little Susie.  The children and Au-pair are on the other track of the story and we get to see lots of strange happening during their scenes. including the demise of Jamie Lee. At know time even though two different people disappear do we ever see the police of for that matter any real concern by the Hackers. Instead the add in Mercato takes the curse off the girl at a grave cost to himself and she is freed to heal. Again the family seems to have no agency, things are just happening to them.
  The discombobulated sequence in which the scenes play out is off putting to the viewer. The acting is a bit cardboard for all except little Tommy who is little brother annoying and Mercato who is doing his thespian best to make sure the furthest seats can read his emotions. The building the family lives is is at the corner of East End Ave and 86th St. in NYC and you can see it today on google maps street view. I read in the Wikipedia that not only was this film poorly received but that Fulci was very unhappy with it and that contributed to him breaking from longtime producer Frabrizio De Angelis. He was quoted saying something to the effect that he had to make the film he was asked to make.       Someone like me who sort of likes even the bad Lucio Fulci films does not mind watching this film or even owning it. As far as a recommendation for the casual viewer, I would not go that far. I find it worth it for the elevator scene alone but again it is a real commitment if that is the only reason you are watching the film. It is a throw away scene but how it is executed is a wonderfully terrifying experience. No one in the film really addresses that horrible death either or the fact that they now have to walk up and down stairs to their sixth floor apartment. That may be the crux of the problem this movie lives with, there are things in it of value but overall it just does not come together coherently enough to make it good.
  

City of the Living Dead (1980) Horror Gates of Hell

City of the Living Dead (1980) Spoilers! All through this review! I have watched a shit ton of movies in my life and have extensively explored the Italian horror genre but somehow I failed to ever see this film. So I was pleasantly surprised when I put this DVD in and saw something new to me. I thought that I had seen it but watching it was a new experience. Part of a three film Blu Ray set called "Gates of Hell Trilogy" put out by the Australian company Cinema Cult it also contains the other two Lucio Fulci Gates films The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery. Whether a problem with the DVD or my player I could not get the special features to play which is a bit disappointing. The film is a wonderful piece of cinema with a great score by Fabio Frizzi and Fulci directing it tells the story of a Gate of Hell being opened by a priest killing himself near it and how the lead characters try to shut it. Dunwich is a small New England town supposedly built on the ruins of Salem where the witch trials took place. A sick looking priest, Father Thomas (Fabrizio Jovine) walks in a cemetery. There is some strange cutting in this film going between the cemetery and a seance in New York City Mary a psychic see Father Thomas hang himself, followed by the sounds of howling and we see the dead rise from a nearby grave. Mary (Catriona MacColl) goes into convulsions seeing this and appears to die. On a gravestone in the cemetery is a saying. "The soul that pines for eternity shall out span death. You Dweller of the twilight void come Dunwich."  While the cops investigate Mary's death, we get some exposition about the book of Enoch a four thousand year old book that tells of the gate or some such thing. There Interrupted by the crying out fireball that appeared out of no where to ad some proof of the supernatural. Teresa (Adelaide Aste) predicts that horrible things are happening in a distant town.  Peter Bell (Christopher George) a reporter shows up in NYC looking for a story. He and Mary end up going to Dunwich to attempt to close the gate to Hell before All Saints Day. Confused that the dead Mary is involved well with Fulci things take turns and her turn is amazing.
   A couple grave diggers having lunch at a cemetery, reporter comes by and they chase him off. Grave of  Mary Woodhouse, Peter is still investigating her death. He watches as she is buried with these great in the coffin shots. She wails in the coffin. Peter hears her but a plane going over head blocks the noise, tension as we wait to see if he is going to go back yo the grave he does but her struggle finally saving her as she screams. The scene is great with cool shots of Mary in the coffin struggle to claw her way out cut with shots of Peter thinking he is hearing her but not sure. After the rescue book of Enoch explanation is a bit much but the shots done in Giallo style close ups of the eyes Mary explains that the Monday the night is the All Saints day and if the gates of hell that have been opened in Dunwich are not closed before then the dead will walk the earth. Peter is prophesied to be the one to do it oh that book just is quite magical. Mary and Peter start the road trip to Dunwich where they will eventual meet the locals there and bring this story to an end.
  Back to Dunwich and an eerie fog is blowing in on a howling wind. A Bob (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) in an abandoned house finds a blow up doll and what looks like a child worm covered rotting corpse. Junie's Lounge in Dunwich when the mirror just breaks all by itself, the two patrons and the bar tender examine it . Ever since Father Thomas hanged himself things have been strange. Then the wall cracks open and they hear sounds, the two patrons run off leaving the bar tender alone. They are the local spice for the town. The main characters are introduced. Sandra (Janet Agren) talking with her psychiatrist, Gerry (Carlo De Mejo), Emily (Antonella Interlenghi) comes in to see Gerry and we get some exposition about the Dunwich group, Salem witch burners are the ancestors of the town people.
With the creepy starting to happen in the town we start getting scenes that are goreliscious. Emily looking for Bob at the abandoned house, snarling sound scare him and he runs away leaving the poor girl alone.  The priest finds her and smears worm goo flesh all over her. She dies of fright her Father Mr. Robins shares that while talking to Gerry. The best set piece of gooey goodness has a couple locals, Tommy and his girl making out in their jeep. She is scared so he turns on the headlights to see the hanging priest in front of them. He appears next to the car the girls eyes start bleeding and her mouth foaming. Tommy goes from frantically trying to start the car to seeing his girls insides spill out of her mouth. Then the priest appears in the jeep and rips out Tommy's skull from behind.
  Hanging himself opened the gates of hell. Funeral for the Robin's. Ghoulish mortician is getting her ready. Mrs Holden died of fear also and we learn that Rose Calvin and Tommy Fisher from the jeep, town folk are blaming Bob who may be a pervert.

  Ghoul mortician tries to steal from the dead and has his hand mangled by the dead old lady. Emily's brother in his bedroom but something is outside the windows. He hears the moaning and the great music build the tension as he nears the shades to see his rotten corpse sister outside.
 Sandra has a gun smartest one out of the bunch apparently. The old lady from the mortuary is on Sandra's kitchen floor, Mrs Holden They are puzzled. Some social commentary about women having neurosis. More sound and the couple search around the house, when they return to the kitchen the body is gone. Panic sets in for Sandra knows dead Mrs. Holden is in the house. Logical Gerry calms her and she says " I will do whatever you say" Old lady was behind the painting but they don't see her. After the search the lights go out and a window blows in.(Did I mention the wind storm?) The glass blows into the painting and they see blood seeping out.
  There is also one death not caused by the dead, One of the locals finds Bob and thinking he is behind the deaths pushes his head into a industrial drill through the temple all the way through. It is quite the scene and we get great practical effects.
   Things start coming together once Mary and Peter arrive in Dunwich but the film doesn't really have clear main characters. Who are the hero's it seems they are Mary and Peter but we spend so much time away from them learning what's happening in the town that Gerry ans Sandra seem also to be emerging.  Gerry and Sandra arrive at a house the mortuary but no answer. Peter and Mary arrive at the graveyard, they have to find the priests grave and uncover him. Music tells us the tension should be rising and the fog. Gerry also arrives at the cemetery Mr. Logic meets the psychic. Now the four, Peter, Gerry, Sandra and Mary are assaulted by maggots blown in on the wind. Sandra Vomits as the floor is covered by them. It's a pretty amazing scene that ends with a call on the phone from little John-John,  Emily corpse killed her parents and John calls Gerry to tell him. The foursome drives over in the worst of wind storms and the girls look after John while the guys see the butchering of his parents. You don't see anything though this is an off camera murder, and we just get the reactions of the guys when they come out. It's a bit strange considering how much gore has already been in the movie
Plan is the funeral  parlor and then the cemetery to uncover he priest, Sandra takes John to Gerry's office while the other three enter the mortuary. Emily is waiting for Sandra and John-John and rips our the brains out of Sandra. This method is used repeatedly in the film, it like a hair pull but the back of the skull comes off. Pretty cool effect.  Kid runs, Kid in crisis running the dead are after him. Makes his way but the dead keep finding him. Gerry is suddenly there and confronts dead Emily by shutting his eyes. She vanishes and the crisis ends weird.
 Finally heading to the graveyard the three, Gerry, Mary and Peter arrive at night just a short time from midnight, they fail! The film sort of falls apart here a bit. Since they were supposed to close the gate before midnight but don't seem to do so the consequences for the world is the dead would rise. This is not the case though. They enter the family tomb and open his sarcophagus to find its broken out from the other side. They crawl through to check the other side. Dead Sandra is down there and they see her but suddenly she is behind Peter and rips out his brain. They killed Peter WTF! She then stares as Mary until her eyes bleed. Gerry rams a pipe through her and she dies a second time. Mary is okay now but what the fuck are they doing? Great visuals in the tomb of skeletal remains as the now pair move further towards the gates of hell,
They see the gates as the dead start to rise all around them.  The dead are coming for them! Priest guy appears and they are trapped his stare causes her eyes to bleed again. Jerry runs a cross through the priest who promptly burns and the dead are returned to the grave. Now we can call it City of the burning the dead catch magical fire. Wonderful Shame Peter didn't survive. Why the scream when the kid runs towards her to end the film? Must be from the first few scenes? I went back and watched the opening scenes but there is nothing there, So it is a mystery maybe the special features can solve. The music and gore are great in this film and even though it has some flaws this was a great film to finally watch. That last shot will bother me until I know the story behind it. This film is a bit problematic where women are screamy and emotional and the men are the calm ones telling them to get it together. The character Gerry in particular is a bit of a cad. Still the film is great and I definitely recommend this film to you all.

Sodoma's Ghost (1988) Horror Nazi Ghosts

Sodoma's Ghost (1988) - Il fantasma di Sodoma, Six teens traveling towards Paris take a shortcut into horror when they come to a mansion and need to stay the night in the seemingly abandoned house. The back story is that in 1943 when the Germans occupied France they had this building as a headquarters. Opening on a night of a wild orgy we see the German soldiers and half naked woman partying through the night. Drugs and drink and sex are documented by a young soldier with a camera. At the end of the night as the party winds down we see, the soldier watching the film he magically developed. This scene meanders on for a good 4-5 minutes and I think the point that the Germans were having a wild party was clear in the first minute and a half. Really I think all that was accomplished with the extra time was to raise the skin to clothes ratio. A final flash as the bombs of the allies hit the house and all goes dark. Its a rather long scene with ample skin as the prostitutes dance and simulate sex with the soldiers. I could see many people never getting past this scene and into the movie proper since it is not very good.
  Our kids while driving to Paris argue about the route but the driver Marc (Joseph Alan Johnson) takes them on a short cut. Its the common conflict as some people in the car want to stick to the main roads and Marc is determined to do his own thing. Again we get some wandering around and lots of arguing so we are happy when they finally end up somewhere. Paul (Claudio Aliotti) the car's owner almost causes them to crash in his frustration with the short cut experiment by pulling on the wheel. Who the fuck thinks its okay to pull the wheel of a moving vehicle. Coming across the house all closed up it looks foreboding, but not daunted by some one's closed up house the group soon finds a way in. Sure they knock and ring the bell first which should tell them no one is home and they should leave but not these young people. Now I don't know about you but I would not just break into a house if I was tired and lost on the road. These young people think nothing of it finding a spare key under the mat they just enter and start looking around. The characters are strangely accepting of the of the closed up house with fresh fruit on the table and something cooking on the stove. They seem to settle in even as the music by Carlo Maria Cordio warns us all that strange things are going to happen.
  Written and directed by Lucio Fulci a "master" of Italian horror gore films this story is small and although I can't think of titles right now does not seem particularly original. I think he thought the Nazi twist on the ghost story was going to make this unique, but really it could have been gypsies, midgets, or an old orphanage and the ghost story could have worked in a similar fashion.
  Its strange that these young people get in the house and find it looks like someone is there and still they talk about "taking only what we need" Jean (Sebastian Harrison) makes the rule that they clean up their messes too. There is ample fresh food and an extensive wine cellar and they fully explore the place. Then when Jean finds the wine cellar he immediately raids its for something to drink, so much for only what you need.
  This exploration time is important, they see the valuables of the house, create an elaborate meal in the dining room and while all this is going on we get to see who the characters are. Unlike a lot of these film the three guys and three girls are not paired off so the interactions are not defined primarily through intimate relationships. In fact early on it seems the guys are not attempting to connect with the girls at all. In fact the only one showing any sexual interest in the group is Marie who is trying to score one of the other girls, Annie.
   After the drunken meal the girls head off to bed and Annie (Teresa Razzaudi) in a bedroom, and after a exhibitionist display of her body in front of a mirror settles down to sleep. She is visited through the mirror by Willy the Nazi (Robert Egon), who was the young man filming the debauchery in the opening scenes. He steps through the mirror and is quite clearly with eyes set on Annie. He is seductive and she is confused but not resistant to his advances. He promises to make all her secret desires come true. She attempts to regroup remembering her virginity, but he is persistent saying he only does what she likes. To prove the idea he repeatedly slaps her bloodying her face and telling her to admit she wants that. This is one of those horrible for society scenes,  where she initially says no and then says yes to his advances. Yes, a male writer again advancing the idea that No, does not always mean no. They make love and when we next see her she is waking but no blood. Was it all a dream?
  All of this is to prepare them and us for the Twilight Zone they are about to enter. They head off the next morning leaving the house behind but for the life of them can not find there way back to the highway. In fact all day they drive only to end up back at the house. Tired and frustrated they have to spend another night in the strange house. So again the morning comes and they are excited to leave again. Off they head to the car but what? The car won't start and they can not find anything wrong with it. Now there is this little flaw in the staging of this scene where they are sitting in the car trying to problem solve, and you can see apartment buildings not too far off behind them. I mention this because up to this point they seem to be isolated in the country and no amount of driving got them out of there.
  So they head back into the house to use the phone and call for help. A cryptic call where the police number reaches the cemetery. The phone goes dead before they can get the conversation with the police started and now there is no phone either. The tension starts to pick up through the fairly good strings in the musical score. They begin sensing something is wrong when they find the phone lines damaged. Now the story really starts to pick up as they try to leave the house and find they are locked in. So let the freaking out begin, Marie (Jessica Moore) in particular has to be man handled as she gets hysterical. Yet another example of casual violence to woman put forth in this movie.
  Now as the characters drift apart under the stress of their situation they encounter the ghost of Nazis. Marc plays Russian Roulette with Willy and in a long drawn out scene wins. So he gets what he desired a naked prostitute he saw through a mirror. The experience is less than desired though and soon he is wandering the halls in a hallucinatory trance. He attacks Paul on the stares and falls breaking his neck. The deaths have begun. This being a Fulci film the gore is rather gross and well done. Marc's rotting body with its exploding puss blisters, the prostitute with the rotted breasts and more make the gore a feature.
  Really the two things that are consistent about this film are great practical effects and the not great exploitation of woman. From the opening scene of nude prostitutes dancing for Nazi soldiers, to Annie's nude mirror viewing, to Marie walking into a bedroom and having a topless encounter with a ghost prostitute. To the violence and and hysteria, the woman in this film are objectified and displayed as weak minded and in need of men to keep their emotions in check.
  So as the ghost interact with the teens nothing good can come of it and the gore starts to grow more gruesome. Starting with Jean who spend a night making love to Annie look alike ghost who rots before his eyes. In this case we don't see anything onscreen except a piece of skin peeling off her face. Annie I guess is out of the picture at this point, or it was not her ghost look alike but her in a converted state. Anyway there are just the four for most of the rest of the film. Confused? Well this film really is not the best constructed example of the silver screen.
   The urgency raises from this point on and the kids don't seem up to the task. Then while trying to pry a window open they find Willy the Nazi's movie. To get us to the final sequence there is a sloppy bit of dialog where Jean says "Now listen, don't jump to any conclusions. I'm not crazy my mind is perfectly clear. But since so many damn strange things are happening in this house, I've got the feeling that all of the answers to our problems are in that can of film." Now this is a really illogical jump to get to the climactic scenes. They decide to go look at the film but the fire that erupts around it as they reach for the canister should deter them. Through determination they get it and Marie, Celine, Paul and Jean rush to queue up the film. Ham handed the logic to get to this point is really disappointing.
  As it plays ghost Nazi's start marching on the room they are in and they struggle to block the door to keep them out. As the Nazis break through the old film ends and with it is a flash just like the bombing from the beginning of  Sodoma's Ghost. All the kids wake outside the ruins of the house obviously destroyed in 1943. A small cemetery surrounds them and by finishing the film they obviously broke the spell of the house. All alive and well they are confused and relieved they head for the car and head off to the closing credits.
  Not one of Fulci's best works but maybe worth a viewing if you can get by the treatment of women as either sexual objects or hysterically helpless. Granted this director does not have a reputation either as a women's libber or a stellar director. Still some of the gore is very good and the film is not unbearable. I don't think it will get a recommend here at Soresport movies but it didn't piss me off like some poorer horror films do.
Rating (4.3) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more recommended than others.