Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Fulci Misses The Mark, March 27, 2004
Italian horror will never be seen as art to the masses. Even the hardcore fans admit to the cheesiness as being part of the attraction to them, but even though it's a trashy kind of genre, you can screw up! Lucio Fulci screwed up here. To people now taking an interest in Fulci, I'm sure this dvd cover has stared out at you from the shelf at the store and beckoned you to take it home . Don't listen to it! Yeah, it's Fulci, and yeah, it's from Anchor Bay, but don't let that fool you. Manhattan Baby is BAD, even for a Fulci film. With most of his horror films you could always guarantee to have a fun viewing experience, but this is actually quite painful. Everything you love about his previous works is nowhere to be found here. Fulci was actually trying to make a real horror film with suspense and stuff. Many directors accomplish this, but Fulci never has, and he certainly doesn't here. Fulci's films excel in atmosphere, music, gore, cheesiness and just downright strangeness. This film has none of that. It's basically a reworking of the Charleton Heston mummy flick, The Awakening-which was no masterpiece, but better than this. The only purpose this dvd will serve is to make your Italian horror dvd collection look bigger, coz it will get only one or maybe two viewings-mark my words! You just may be better off investing in a Kiss Koffin. That will at least get more use.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
an excellent example of fulcis imagination and craftmanship!, January 29, 2002
This film is magical right from the begining to the blood curdling end. Worth every penny! Fulci has got ideas from raiders of the lost ark in here but still manages to keep the film soley his own great vision.One of fulcis most stylistic films and great fun.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Why I Never Wanted a Sandbox, June 28, 2002
Manhattan Baby, considered a failure by many critics that wanted Fulci to conform to the formula of horror that made him successful, was actually one of his more entertaining movies. This was because it did break from the proverbial mould, building more on a storyline and an ever-present, overwhelming scene of doom. Unlike many of his earlier movies (Zombie, The Beyond) that brought this bleak overview with them as well, Lucio decided to try a new avenue in this presentation, one that only briefly sprinkled gore into the cinematic formula, causing much of the fallout experienced. He said that he wanted to present a more metaphysical terror, using a small array of special effects in the process, that would give his film a more Catholicist, "evil can be beaten but not truly destroyed," mentality. Well, mission accomplished.
The storyline, with its Egyptian focal point, deals with the manifestation of an ancient evil that is awaken (and overused) by a little girl after her foolishly curious archeologist father prods at things best left alone. It has some nice scenes with pieces of dark humor mixed together with catchy "manifesations/proofs of the dark forces present," plus some humorously cheap scenes that keep the movie from taking itself too serious. All in all, its fun and a bit dark at the same time, and is a good film for horror lovers/Lucio fans that remember his Sci-fi trials/Westerners and not simply his gore films.
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