Given that pretty much all of Fulci's latter day efforts (post-Murderock) suck, it's only natural to assume that The House of Clocks will suck too; but it doesn't. Don't get me wrong, the film won't change the way you think about horror, but it is consistently entertaining throughout, which is good enough for me (I've sat through Sodoma's Ghost, so I know just how bad Fulci can get).
A supernatural horror that manages to deliver both a fair amount of creepy atmosphere and revolting gore (the film is surprisingly bloody, considering it was made for TV), House of Clocks stars Paolo Paoloni and Bettine Milne as Vittorio and Sara Corsini, a wealthy old couple who live in a remote country villa, where they spend their time caring for their 'children'—a vast collection of antique clocks and watches—and tending to the corpses of their nephew and his wife, who they have murdered for being greedy.
One night, the Corsini's routine is disturbed by the arrival of three hoodlums (Keith Van Hoven, Karina Huff and Peter Hintz) who intend to hold the couple hostage and rob the house; their plans go awry, however, when the elderly couple's protective gardener Peter (Al Cliver) intervenes, and a struggle ensues, during which both Vittorio and Sara are blasted with a shotgun (cue mucho giblets and blood) and Peter is brained on the corner of a desk.
Free to search the place for valuables at their leisure, the threesome set about turning the place over; meanwhile, the Corsini's 'children' begin to turn back the hands of time, bringing the dead to life for revenge...
Stylish direction, combined with gruesome effects (impalements, a bloody knifing, splattery shotgun wounds) and a wonderfully macabre, underlying sense of humour all go to help make The House of Clocks a delightfully surreal and rather absurd (in a good way) experience that should please most followers of the director's work. In fact, the whole thing is so gloriously off the wall that, for once, even the patently ridiculous Fulci ending seems strangely fitting.
6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.
A supernatural horror that manages to deliver both a fair amount of creepy atmosphere and revolting gore (the film is surprisingly bloody, considering it was made for TV), House of Clocks stars Paolo Paoloni and Bettine Milne as Vittorio and Sara Corsini, a wealthy old couple who live in a remote country villa, where they spend their time caring for their 'children'—a vast collection of antique clocks and watches—and tending to the corpses of their nephew and his wife, who they have murdered for being greedy.
One night, the Corsini's routine is disturbed by the arrival of three hoodlums (Keith Van Hoven, Karina Huff and Peter Hintz) who intend to hold the couple hostage and rob the house; their plans go awry, however, when the elderly couple's protective gardener Peter (Al Cliver) intervenes, and a struggle ensues, during which both Vittorio and Sara are blasted with a shotgun (cue mucho giblets and blood) and Peter is brained on the corner of a desk.
Free to search the place for valuables at their leisure, the threesome set about turning the place over; meanwhile, the Corsini's 'children' begin to turn back the hands of time, bringing the dead to life for revenge...
Stylish direction, combined with gruesome effects (impalements, a bloody knifing, splattery shotgun wounds) and a wonderfully macabre, underlying sense of humour all go to help make The House of Clocks a delightfully surreal and rather absurd (in a good way) experience that should please most followers of the director's work. In fact, the whole thing is so gloriously off the wall that, for once, even the patently ridiculous Fulci ending seems strangely fitting.
6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.