Happy New Year! Let's start it off with a Lucio Fulci flick! At least no women are graphically mutilated in this one... This is the first Fulci film that left me a bit disappointed. Up until now, his films that I've come across have been pretty dependable in terms of crazy violence, general sleaziness, or just plain insanity. But Manhattan Baby (titled to remind people of Rosemary's Baby) doesn't have much of those qualities to offer. Sure you get the occasional guy falling on a bunch of spikes or birds pecking off a guy's face, but there isn't too much here to recommend.
Contrary to what the title leads you to believe, the film actually starts in Egypt, with a guy collecting a live scorpion in a little plastic container - he thinks it would make a great souvenir for his daughter. Now that's good parenting! He's an archeologist named George Hacker, and he's on the cusp of a big find that some native Egyptians are warning him to stay away from. But of course scientific arrogance wins out, and he comes across an ancient "consecrated temple, whose members worship the forces of evil." Things do not go well - his assistant is killed by a booby trap and this crazy emblem shoots lasers into George's eyes, blinding him. Meanwhile, his daughter Susie and wife are out chilling at a different (mostly abandoned) site, and his wife leaves the daughter alone to go take some pictures. Again, good parenting! Anyways, a creepy old woman with whited-out eyes gives her some weird talisman - which happens to be the same emblem that blinded her father in the temple! Crazy!
The family then goes back to Manhattan. George is still temporarily blinded and Susie and her brother Tommy (Giovanni Frezza - who played the child memorably named Bob in House by the Cemetery) are starting to see some supernatural activity from the Egyptian relic. It turns out the eye is pure evil, "the negative counterpoint.. to the principle of all being." This of course means that it opens up a portal from their Manhattan apartment to Ancient Egypt, and all kinds of crazy stuff gets through. Okay, not crazy stuff - mostly just snakes and sand. I was hoping for a mummy or something, but no dice. George regains his vision and is curious about what he witnessed in Egypt, and enlists the help of his friends from the world of academia. But then people start to go missing... or worse! What curse has George brought back with him? Will his family be able to survive this ancient evil? What does the title have to do with anything? Tune in to find out!
First and foremost, this biggest issue I had with Manhattan Baby is that this is way more of a supernatural thriller than I expected. From what I've seen of Fulci's films, he's never really dabbled in the spiritual world like he does here. I'm more used to Fulci directing zombies or pyscho-killers - he does that kind of physical violence/horror very well. Here the horror is more based around the metaphysical - which more or less means special effects. And they're just not up to snuff. I watched an interview with Dardano Sacchetti, one of the writers of the film. He said the producers slashed the budget, and essentially wanted to make a three-million-dollar movie on a half-million budget. Unfortunately, those budget cuts show. Whenever the film goes into the supernatural realm, it just looks kind of cheesy - and not in a good way.
And some of the stylistic risks just don't pan out. Like I said, there are a lot of snakes in this movie - somehow, the "eternal evil" can control snakes and make them attack people. They opt for a snake-cam a couple of times, which ends up being really annoying. Think of a camera man just holding the camera near the floor, and then moving it back and forth to simulate a slithering snake. It just doesn't work and honestly looks a little silly. Although maybe it's all just karma, because they clearly kill a living snake in the beginning of the film. A cobra is protecting the cursed temple, and the dude just shoots it. The special effects of 1982 just weren't up to snuff to show a fake snake - or I suspect killing a real snake was much easier. I hate that shit.
The ending of the movie is far and away the best part, and gets back to the "real world" violence that Fulci is famous for. Since I'm kind of upset now after writing about that snake, I'll spoil it here. (SPOILER ALERT!) This secondary character randomly gets attacked by a bunch of the taxidermied birds in his office that come to life. It's one of those scenes that straddles the line between funny (you can see the lines holding up the birds) and genuinely upsetting - true to form, the gore is pretty nasty here. I can't help but think about Birdemic here... At any rate, I think the filmmakers knew that their ghost/spiritual ending fell flat, and tacked on this extra ending to send the fans home happy. Sometimes a good ending can make up for a rough movie, but only if it makes some kind of sense thematically within the context of the film. While this ending was pretty rad, story-line wise it was like watching a really cool extra rather than a fitting end to the film.
Anyhow, I'm pretty committed at this point to working my way through Mr. Fulci's filmography, so I'm glad I watched it. It's a noteworthy attempt at a more supernatural film - although it showed me that he may be more effective dealing with more real-world/visceral thrills than supernatural ones. It's not a total disaster - if this was just from some random dude I may cut it a little more slack - but it would still fall short of a recommendation. Ultimately, Manhattan Baby squanders a potentially fun story with a bunch of cheap (even by 1982 standards) special effects.
I would not recommend this film.
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