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LUCIO FULCI MASTERPIECES
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LUCIO FULCI MASTERPIECES
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Manhattan Baby (1982)
Shameless DVD (region 2)
d. Lucio Fulci; pr. Fabrizio de Angelis; scr. Elisa Briganti, Dardano Sacchetti; ph. Guglielmo Mancori; m. Fabio Frizzi; ed. Vincenzo Tomassi; cast. Christopher Connelly, Martha Taylor, Brigitta Boccoli, Giovanni Frezza, Cinzia De Ponti, Cosimo Cinieri (89 mins)
Manhattan Baby is a Egyptology horror movie with a similar premise to that explored in both Hammer’s Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb and star Charlton Heston’s ill-fated attempt to make a blockbuster horror movie the likes of The Omen in The Awakening.
Producer Fabrizio D’Angelis was so fond of Dardano Sacchetti’s script for Manhattan Baby that he insisted it be the film Lucio Fulci make to fulfil the director’s multi-picture contract with D’Angelis. Fulci, however, had no interest in the subject matter at all and later wrote off Manhattan Baby as “a terrible movie, I’d venture to describe it as one of those setbacks that occur as you go along.” Of all Fulci’s horror films, Manhattan Baby comes closest to impersonal hackwork, though it is not without style or interest (especially since this new Shameless DVD release boasts the longest ever version of the film released) and its allusions to Rosemary’s Baby add considerable curiosity value.
The plot of Manhattan Baby, what there is of it that is readily decipherable, concerns a young girl holidaying in Egypt given an amulet by a mysterious blind woman while her father conducts an archaeological excavation nearby.
He enters a tomb and inadvertently sets loose an ancient curse which may consume his daughter. Blinded by lasers emanating from deep within the tomb (which seem related to the amulet), the archaeologist listens to recordings, hoping to reveal the supernatural secret gradually consuming his family. Strange deaths also related to the amulet begin to happen as the girl’s mother takes it upon herself to investigate further. Research is then carried out on the children to explain their unusual symptomatology.
Occasional flashes of gory style and distorted wide angle cinematography lend a surreal quality to what is a film striving for a hypnotic evocation of horror rather than the full-on gore with which director Fulci made his reputation. It is less hypnotic than boring, however, although the treatment of children makes for an interesting comparison to Fulci’s own House by the Cemetery and the latter stages of The New York Ripper as well as the mainstream American horror hit Audrey Rose. Pace-wise it is closer to Fulci’s The Black Cat, with which it shares a para-psychology theme, though without that film’s grandiose horror set-pieces. As the last half hour settles for a kind of spiritualist suspense that is effectively grisly, Fulci’s treatment of other realms intruding upon the everyday recalls his work in The Beyond, tying Manhattan Baby remotely to his zombie epics. Though the hilariously gory finale of Manhattan Baby is a long wait, the death scene is amongst the most unusual in Fulci’s works and is the only part of this film that truly excites the gorehound.
Director Fulci handles the exposition with leisurely disinterest, observing rather than dramatizing the material except in zooms, pans and close-ups (especially of eyes).
Un-concerned with theme or character except when obligatory, Fulci renders a vague plot that strains credibility and coherence with dutiful, repetitive style. Certain sudden moments of horror and the oddly tender concern for children in situations of life-threatening danger bring out Fulci’s talent for ominous mood. However, the relentlessly dreary pace overwhelms the occasional stylistic flourish and Manhattan Baby flounders, neither engaging as drama nor scary as horror. Not as terrible as its reputation, this is an indisputably minor work from the boom period of Italian horror in the late 1970s and early 1980s: a curio for fans of the director only as all else risk finding it unendurably boring but for the effective scoring by regular Fulci collaborator Fabio Frizzi. Other than the final gory set-piece, this is Fulci’s least memorable horror film.
For Fulci fans, the widescreen transfer here has a few grainy moments but is usually crisp and, importantly, the film is complete on this Shameless DVD. Without special features, it is difficult to imagine who but die-hard Fulci fans will wish to see Manhattan Baby. Shameless’ other simultaneous Fulci DVDs – The Black Cat and The New York Ripper amongst them – may be of interest.
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