Excellent B Movie. Great atmosphere, story, gore, cinematography, OK acting This movie has great atmosphere and cinematography, and decent story and acting. That alone makes it a solid B movie. All unlikable characters. All die. Solid editing. Gore was great. The acting was OK, not great but very workable.Best part: When the thieves kill the old couple and their groundskeeper. They didn't mean to kill them, but it happened. They were in shock. Great stuff!Rating is a B, for a B movie. Or 8. 10 given for all the loser reviews.

This cheesily bad horror film is a great amusement to watch. Made as one in the series of four 'House of Doom' television movies, this shows the once-great director Lucio Fulci at work, his star sadly on the wane here with only a few moments in the movie which resemble his earlier career. The movie, a standard haunted house flick, takes its inspiration from a number of sources, but aside from a few moments of gore its impact is diluted all the way through.Things set off with a supposedly violent teenage gang (inspiration? Think LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and all of its imitations) robbing village shops and suffocating a black cat in a plastic bag – the latter scene is hilarious and has to be seen to be believed, just for the sheer bad taste of it. They break into an old, remote country mansion and after a cool, short action sequence end up butchering the occupants. End of the film you think? Oh no, because for some unexplained reason, the clocks all go backwards, the dead return to life and the gang members find themselves on the receiving end of some rough justice.This film contains nothing like the gore level in Fulci's earlier classics. One gutting in a greenhouse is particularly gruesome, and a hark back to the nasty days, but otherwise this film is pretty tame, although still pretty bloody in places. There are a couple of good shotgun blasts and lots of showy makeup. The plot is inconsequential, and merely a series of contrived death sequences, and the acting is horrible. The only actor of note is genre stalwart Al Cliver, cast as a deformed gardener, who has a hilarious moment where he takes on the role of Jack Nicholson in THE SHINING. Other things worth watching for include the hilarious dream ending, and the final twist, which will have you rolling in your seat with laughter. A classic of bad film entertainment, this is fast-moving and cheesy fare.

The House of Clocks was a film by Italian horror master Lucio Fulci made in his later years. Although not up to the standards of his earlier works, it certainly didn't disappoint. Apart from the distracting dubbing, the acting and plot is reasonable enough to make for a good watch.Three teens travel to an elderly couple's house intent on robbing the place. The elderly couple aren't exactly feeble and prudish however; they act out their homicidal intentions on whom they see fit to. Anyway, the teens' plan goes pear-shaped and they end up murdering the whole household: the couple and their gardener. The old man's collection of clocks then turn time backwards, allowing the couple and the gardener to return to life and seek revenge.After that, it gets a little confusing as time seems to then repeat itself yet still go backwards (two police visit as they did 12 hours previously yet the teens die and time goes back all the way to when they were on their way to the mansion). I just think the film could have been brilliant if the plot was just a little clearer and more explained. That said, the ending was satisfying and very fitting. All in all, not Fulci's best but not his worst either.

I had been a Fulci fan from watching Zombi, but I had never seen this title before. I saw the trailer on another DVD and thought it looked good. But, unfortunately, the trailer is better than the movie. It also gives away a lot of the gore.The basic plot: There is a really strange couple living in a big mansion filled with clocks and the bodies of their niece and nephew that are rotting in an odd chapel room. We soon discover that the maid has found the bodies and is so creeped out, she decides to leave. But she never makes it as the old woman kills her. And we find out she was maid number three. So right way, we know this couple is not what they appear to be.Then we have three con artist thieves who come along hoping to steal from the house. And that's when things get interesting. They kill the couple and their handyman only to find that no one ever really dies in that house.I thought a lot of the plot was good. Some of it was awful. There's one scene I just hated where the thieves suffocate a cat. And I found that to be irredeemable for this film, even though Fulci tries to make up for it at the end with an "undead cat's revenge" scene. I still hated it. And felt that was a real faulty script area. The entire ending seemed tacked on.The gore is excellent. And it's interesting that this was a made for TV movie in Europe in 1980 since it would never have made it past the US censors. We don't even get anything near as gory today. That alone is reason to watch this film.The creepiness of the house and the old couple was very good. The thieves were badly cast, stupid and inept.If you're curious about Fulci's other works, I would say watch it for that. I wouldn't really go so far as to call it an old gem, but it will keep you amused for awhile.I would like to see this remade at some point, updated. I think it has a lot of potential.