Dr. Norman Boyle (Paolo Malco) moves his family from New York to New England following the suicide of a colleague, picking up where the now dead professor left off. Norman, his wife (Catriona MacColl) and his son court tragedy when it turns out the basement of their new rental home is inhabited by the monstrous Dr. Freudstein, a 19th century surgeon who has harnessed some semblance of immortality by feeding on the flesh and blood of humans. A ghostly young girl attempts to save the youngest Boyle (a child named Bob) and Norman is obviously hiding something from his already mentally unstable wife. Things are not going to end well for the Boyle family in Fulci’s underappreciated creeper. Does the house exist within some sort of fluctuating timeline where realities clash and time loops into itself? Is Freudstein just a horrific manifestation of oedipal conflicts drawn out to absurd lengths? How much does Norman know, what’s his relationship with the alluring Ann (Ania Pieroni) and why do people seem to recognize him? We’re never going to get an answer and I’m okay with that. The childishly whimpering Freudstein is wonderfully realized, the violence is blunt and gruesome, there is some horrible dubbing and Bob just may be the worst thing to ever happen to horror cinema. Where The Beyond is a straightforward (in comparison) nightmare of hellish brilliance, House by the Cemetery slowly pieces itself together with repeat viewings. It’s a nightmarish masterpiece that never lets you in on its secrets; or I could be reading too much into it and it’s just a senseless piece of crap. I choose to believe the former.
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