Sightlines · reception

How The House by the Cemetery was received

1981 · Lucio Fulci · The House by the Cemetery on Sightlines

The arc

Dismissed on release as the incoherent runt of Fulci's Gates of Hell trilogy — and banned in the UK as a 'video nasty' — it's since been reappraised as his most gothic, dreamlike film, now a staple of boutique Blu-ray restorations and horror canon lists.

What’s debated

The eternal fan debate: is it the weakest of the trilogy after The Beyond and City of the Living Dead, or secretly the most atmospheric — and can you get past the infamous dubbing of little Bob?

Its footprint

Bob's bizarre dubbed voice is a running joke in horror circles, 'Dr. Freudstein' is one of the great villain names, and the film's whole 'dream logic over plot logic' reputation made it shorthand for Italian horror's beautiful incoherence.

Where it stands

A cult object with a fierce defender base — essential viewing in the Fulci catechism, and a Letterboxd favorite for fans who rank the Gates of Hell trilogy like others rank Godfather films.

Did you know? The film closes with an eerie epigraph attributed to Henry James — but no such quote exists in James's work; it's widely reported that Fulci simply invented it and pinned it on the author he was channeling.

Named by the director

• Henry James — Fulci invoked James's gothic ghost-story tradition for the film, going so far as to end it with a fabricated quote attributed to him.