Manhattan Baby
Directed by Lucio Fulci
In Lucio Fulci’s chilling follow-up to THE NEW YORK RIPPER, an evil Egyptian entity possesses the young daughter of an archaeologist. When Susie returns home, she and her brother Tommy start behaving badly, and visitors to their room begin turning up dead. Can Susie’s parents stop the entity from destroying her? Or is it already too late? Borrowing elements from ROSEMARY’S BABY, THE EXORCIST and POLTERGEIST, Fulci crafts a surprisingly gore-free ghost story that favors suspense over gruesome kills. The opening sequence ranks among the director’s best work.
An evil Egyptian spirit possesses the young daughter of an archaeologist.
Cast: Christopher Connelly, Laura Lenzi, Brigitta Boccoli
Member Reviews
It's Fulci so expect crazy. As always with Fulci, it's well shot, it's gory, there's a fascination with eyes and it doesn't make sense! There's a live in nanny called Jamie Lee, which I presume is a callback to Halloween. Strap yourself in and enjoy it.
Yes, I agree: not bad, but not for noobs. Fulci is an acquired taste. If you like incoherent Italian horror, I don't get the "gore-free" part of the description from Shudder, what? I guess the chatbot didn't watch the end of the film. Definitely not how I want to go out. :) Obviously not Fulci's best, but full of eye-zooms and weird kills accompanied by a Fabio Fabrizzi score that never matches what is happening in the film (that's why we like them :). It does feel a lot tamer than Zombi and New York Ripper, but it's copying The Exorcist and Poltergeist instead, so that makes sense. Anyway, if you've seen a bunch of Fulci films it's no Zombi, but mostly what you would expect. If you have never seen a Fulci film, try Zombi first (or if you want to see a good film, catch Don't Torture a Duckling. But that's a giallo film and not a horror film.)
Typical Fulci. Ambiance over logic. A must watch for a Fulci fan.
I don't understand the hate for this movie, there are far slower and more incoherent films around here. It's not something I'll rewatch, but it was fine. Didn't leave angry, as so many reviewers seem to have.
A very strange and incoherent film. However, I think incoherent kind of works for it. It grants the story a sort of nightmare logic that the characters themselves cannot fathom. There's no real agenda apart from imparting chaos and I liked the fact that it was mostly unexplained as to the purpose of the "journeys" taken. As gets mentioned a lot, there's definitely ideas taken from Excorcist, Poltergeist and the likes, but overall it carries the Fulci charm of dreary mayhem that many horror fans can appreciate.