Manhattan Baby starts in Egypt and concerns the Hacker family from New York. George is an archaeologist. His daughter, Susie, is given an amulet by a mysterious old woman. George goes to look inside a tomb and out of nowhere is blinded by blue lasers fired from inside the tomb. Because of this, George is left temporarily blind (theres a great scene when he has a thick wad of surgical dressing over each eye and he puts some glasses on to try and disguise this but it just makes it look even more conspicuous) but his eyesight starts to come back once they are back in New York. People connected to the Hackers start to die unexpectedly. Does the amulet have something to do with this?

The first thing I thought when I watched Manhattan Baby was how gorgeous it looks. I’ve come to expect great direction and cinematography from Lucio Fulci’s films, but Manhattan Baby blew me away as did the amazing transfer which has been restored by the ever brilliant Blue Underground. Both the Egypt and New York scenes are breathtaking, with imaginative framing and direction that is in awe of both of these locales, the ancient and the modern.

I also loved the references to other movies that Fulci has craftily interwoven into Manhattan Baby. Of course, the first act of the film, taking place in Egypt, is reminiscent of the Northern Iraq sequence within The Exorcist and gives gravitas to the idea of an ancient, very powerful malevolence. This is followed by the rest of the movie which takes place in New York, which, of course, stands in for Georgetown. Later in the film, Susie is taken to have medical tests due to her strange behaviour and hence another tip of the hat to The Exorcist. There are other more fleeting references to other films, such as the fact that there’s a female character called Jamie Lee (I wonder who they’re referencing here) and the mentions of a character called ‘Adrian Marcato’ (hello, Rosemary’s Baby!) There are also shades of Poltergeist within this film.

The film is brilliantly paced and never loses your interest. This is prime Fulci, who had just made the masterpiece The New York Ripper before he started work on Manhattan Baby. Fulci also has a cameo in this film as a doctor who is tending to young Susie. And what’s more, Bob from House By The Cemetery is back!

Apparently, Manhattan Baby was shown in the States under the title Eye of the Evil Dead (another sneaky reference!) but never under its original title.

This is Fulci at his peak.

4.5 out of 5 stars