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UK: Terence Fisher, 1968

(Watched with commentary by Christopher Lee, Sarah Lawson and Marcus Hearn)

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UK/West Germany: Peter Sykes, 1976

To the Devil a Daughter was Hammer's last horror production, and it's far from the studio's finest hour, but in spite of its flaws it turns out to be an enjoyable enough affair. This was one of three Dennis Wheatley novels optioned by Hammer (the most celebrated, of course, being the very good The Devil Rides Out), and by all accounts it diverges a great deal from the original text. Indeed, the making-of documentary on the DVD reveals that the script was being hastily rewritten even as it was being shot and that the end result bore no ressemblance to anything Wheatley had ever written. Needless to say, he hated it, but despite its chaotic production there are a number of good elements. Christopher Lee is excellent, as usual, in the role of the mad priest, and the constant shifting between different time periods and between dreams and reality, while confusing, help to create a strong sense of unease. For the most part, the film is competently helmed by Peter Sykes, even if his direction is largely unremarkable.

As Christopher Lee points out in the documentary, the real problems set in during the final 15 minutes, where the original intended ending was abandoned and what replaces it not only makes absolutely no sense but is also dreadfully anticlimactic. Additionally, as author John Verney, the man to whom the task of defeating Christopher Lee falls, Hollywood actor Richard Widmark (who apparently was a complete and utter prima donna on the set) never really does much to engage the audience's attention. Where's Peter Cushing when you need him?

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Spain/USA: Brad Anderson, 2004

(Watched with commentary by Brad Anderson)

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Japan: Satoshi Kon, 2003

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USA: Michael Ritchie, 1972

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USA: Chris Columbus, 2002

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Original title: Quella Villa Accanto al Cimitero
Italy: Lucio Fulci, 1981

After the disappointment of City of the Living Dead, I found this offering to be a step up, although it's still nothing like as good as The Beyond or his better giallo films. The tale is nothing new and continues Fulci's growing obsession with the living dead, featuring husband and wife Norman (Paolo Malco) and Lucy (Catriona MacColl yet again) and their snot-nosed little kid moving into an old house in the countryside... a house that happens to be beside a cemetery. Crazy shit starts happening as the aforementioned snot-nosed kid keeps going on about a girl who doesn't seem to actually exist, funny noises come from the basement and the babysitter goes missing.

The plot is just about passable, but the execution is a real mixed bag. Catriona MacColl seems to be channeling Lee Remick from The Omen throughout her performance, and Paolo Malco is okay but fairly bland as her husband (where's David Warbeck when you need him?). Their kid, however, brings a whole new meaning to the word annoying. Most of it is surely down to the dubbing (I swear, I'd rather listen to nails scraping on a blackboard than hear that little cretin's squeals again), but the character, who constantly acts like an idiot, snivels and wails, is not much better. Ania Pieroni (you may remember her from Argento's Inferno and Tenebre) puts in a creepy performance as the babysitter who appears out of nowhere, although she turns out to be a bit of a red herring.

Fulci's direction comes across as a bit erratic here. Sometimes he's right on form, with some nicely tense sequences involving various characters being menaced by the house's dark secret, but on other occasions the pacing falls apart and the editing becomes decidedly sloppy. The script is also all over the place, and while I didn't mind the lack of logic in The Beyond, the storyline doesn't really justify it here. It really does feel as if Fulci was making it up as he went along, and the conclusion is far from satisfying. Overall I think that I prefer Fulci's giallo work - The Beyond was good, but so far I have enjoyed his supernatural flicks, on the whole, far less than his thrillers.

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Original title: Paura Nella Città dei Morti Viventi
Italy: Lucio Fulci, 1980

After the fun of The Beyond, City of the Living Dead turned out to be a let-down for me. Like The Beyond, City of the Living Dead stars the excellent Catriona MacColl, and like The Beyond, it deals with the living dead, but this is where the similarities end. The best moments all occur during the opening 25 minutes, beginning with a priest committing suicide in a spooky graveyard and culminating in Catriona MacColl being buried alive. From there it's all downhill, as the pseudo-supernatural hokum used to explain the reanimation of corpses doesn't work half as well as that of The Beyond and the mundane backdrops of New York and Georgia have none of the atmosphere of New Orleans that worked so well in The Beyond.

I gather that City of the Living Dead is not regarded particularly highly among Fulci scholars. That's good, because of his films that I've seen so far, I enjoyed it the least. I hope The House by the Cemetery is an improvement on this.

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