Fans of Italian horror films were distraught when Anchor Bay unceremoniously sold out to Starz and entered the bleak world of crappy Direct To DVD shelf filler. All was not lost,however, as the baton was quickly picked up by none other than Grindhouse auteur William Lustig. Having transferred most of Anchor Bay's genre movies (as well as a treasure trove of movies that hadn't even been released on VHS) to his Blue Underground label, gore hounds had found their new Messiah, and the 'Bay became a hazy memory.
Blue Underground also has the distinction of being one of the first niche companies to enter the BluRay field. I for one questioned the purpose of releasing these movies on such a format; most of them had been passed from venue to venue like a cheap prostitute and were in pretty sad shape even when they were brand new.
It turns out that my fears were unfounded, as the BluRay releases of the Maestro's classics City of the Living Dead (A.K.A. The Gates of Hell; 1980) and House By the Cemetery lose none of their low budget ambience in the transfer.
City...is an ultra gory mood piece concerning the opening of one of the seven gates of hell in Dunwich, a town somewhere (one would assume) in the Northeast. The story could have used some fact checking (witches in Salem were executed by hanging rather than burning), but fans realize that such things are not really the point of Fulci's work. What stays with you is the sense that you are watching someone else's fever dream; a nightmare that you fear you may never wake up from. A lot of the scenes do not progress the way a mainstream story would, so they take on a creepy, surrealistic quality.
Whether or not this was Fulci's intention has been the subject of much debate (saddled as he was with pitiful budgets and a lack of comprehension of the english language). whether or not it was intentional ,it worked.
The movie is mainly known nowadays for it's gruesome F/X work, courtesy of Gino De Rossi. The drill, the maggot storm, the infamous vomiting scene (which actually made me sick the first time I saw it) are rendered in gruesome detail, leaving almost nothing to the imagination. The pizza faced zombies are pretty ghastly, too; no longer content to do the George Romero shuffle. The Undead have mastered such useful skills as teleportation and the ability to jump from treacherous heights without incident.
There is also a wealth of bonus material; this was a Godsend for me after having scoured the Internet for years without uncovering one usable factoid. The special effects featurette is quite enlightening (yogurt and blueberries make convincing brain matter), and the cast interviews are charming. The best part though is the fact that the print still has a few scratches, but it no longer looks like the distributor picked his teeth with it.
An even more obscure title, House by the Cemetery languished in the no man's land of the public domain for two decades, usually turning up in those ten movie value packs alongside stuff like Dwain Esper's 'Maniac'. Now it finally gets the treatment it deserves. The story, as it were, concerns a doomed family that moves into a house inhabited by one Dr. Jacob Freudstein. The mad doctor resides in the basement of the house, periodically surfacing to kill locals to use in the gene reconstruction process that has kept him alive since the late 1800's (though once viewers get a look at the guy they may question whether or not it's actually working). The bare bones plot is merely a jumping off point for one of the most bat shit crazy movies in horror movie history. It's even more surreal than City, but it is also unbearably tense, leading to a very nasty showdown in that basement.
So to summarize, the BluRay format turns out to be a great medium for these fine films. You would be well advised to delay eating until the movie is over...provided you still can-G.P.
