The House By The Cemetery is the finale of Lucio Fulci’s Gates of Hell trilogy after City of the Living Dead and The Beyond.

The film concerns a house in New England that is synonymous with a series of murders that continue to happen in it. A new family have just moved in, not knowing that the killer, Dr Freudstein (!) resides in the basement.

When I think of The House By The Cemetery, I think of two words- VIDEO NASTY! As a loophole in the law existed for the new medium of home video, certain extreme horror films took advantage of the fact that these films being released on video didn’t have to be classified by The British Board of Film Classification. Hence, for a brief period of time at least, the uncut versions of shockers, such as Driller Killer, The Evil Dead and this film, could be rented for a fantastic night’s viewing.

This would very quickly change with the introduction of new legislation. These new and more graphic horror movies would either be cut to smithereens, banned outright or even be placed on an official list issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions as the worst offenders. Anyone found distributing these titles could face a huge fine and/or jail time.

The House By The Cemetery was one such film. It has all of the ingredients that I love of early 80’s Italian horror films- bad dubbing, a great synth-heavy soundtrack, beautiful direction and cinematography and the kind of kills that are both utterly grisly and perversely beautiful.

The House By The Cemetery is a fantastic film on its own. But, for me, the legend surrounding the movie and its controversy only adds to its legend. And it’s not even my favourite Fulci film (that honour goes to New York Ripper followed closely by Zombi 2).

These films also epitomise an era in horror history of graphic content directed with panache and flair. In Italy directors such as Fulci, Bava and Argento are seen as artists. Back then, in the UK and Thatcher’s Britain, the state banned their films. That’s Britain’s loss.

Common sense did prevail, though, with this film now being given the 4K treatment and the love it so rightly deserves.

4.5 out of 5 stars