Manhattan Baby (1982)

So much average

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Lucio Fulci dips his toes into the supernatural horror genre with fair results, in this mostly NYC set genre flick. Christopher Connelly ('Peyton Place', "Benji", "1990: The Bronx Warriors") stars as George Hacker, an archaeologist examining some ruins in Egypt. Gee, do you think he'll come to regret this decision? As it so happens, an ancient evil spirit is now free, and it comes to roost inside his adorable daughter Susie (Brigitta Boccoli). George must unravel the mystery of a strange gem and decipher the message left on a photo given to his wife Emily (Laura Lenzi).It's not that surprising to learn that Fulci was left with a budget far less than what he had been promised. In the end, the film is certainly watchable enough, but has very little in it that's all that memorable. Fulci delivers gore only in small bits and pieces until the gloriously sadistic ending. Until then, we see some mildly amusing paranormal occurrences, which involve such people as the couples' au pair Jamie Lee (Cinzia de Ponti) and Emily's wacky co- worker Luke (Carlo De Mejo). The opening sequence in Egypt is pretty good and atmospheric. One of the most enjoyable components is the typically eclectic music score by Fabio Frizzi. The makeup effects are quite effective.The performances don't knock your socks off, but they get the job done. Connelly, whose character is stricken blind for a while, rarely changes his facial expression all that much. Lovely ladies de Ponti and Lenzi are quite easy to watch. Boccoli does a decent job for a child actress. Giovanni Frezza (Bob!) co-stars as her smart mouthed brother, and Fulci has his customary cameo as a doctor in the final portion of the picture. Cosimo Cinieri has a good look as a stranger who lends some valuable assistance.This is good fun for Fulci fans, but overall isn't anything really special.Six out of 10.

Manhattan Baby (1982)** (out of 4) Professor Hacker (Christopher Connelly) is in Egypt where he opens up a tomb, which sets loose a spirit, which possesses his young daughter.MANHATTAN BABY is pretty much a forgotten film from director Lucio Fulci. This film was made after his notorious "gore era" that started with ZOMBIE and lasted up to THE NEW YORK RIPPER (before starting again later in his career). More times than not people stumble across MANHATTAN BABY and are disappointed by the lack of gore but there are more issues than just that.It's strange but while I don't really care for this movie I do think it's much better than its reputation would have people to believe. I think the biggest problem with the film is that the director was obviously going for more atmosphere/scares than anything else and I don't think he pulled it off. There's really nothing scary about the movie and I'd argue that none of it is overly creepy either. There had already been so many possessed children movie and this here simply doesn't do anything new or original.As I said, those expecting gore are really going to be letdown because you get a creative death scene early on and then nothing else up until a gory sequence at the end. One really has to wonder why Fulci went away from the gore and especially since it pretty much jump started his career and got it back on track. Even the non-horror films from this era were full of nasty things yet here's MANHATTAN BABY with very little.There are some nice performances scattered throughout the film and I'd argue that the music score is quite effective. Still, there's no question that the film just doesn't have enough to keep it entertaining.

The version I saw looked like a movie where major scenes were ripped out. Because the editing was very badly done. Now I was willing to overlook this since I hoped for some scenes that would make up for this like he did in his previous movies. But those redeeming elements never came.The music is there and the typical Fulci ambiance and style is there also only much lesser than we are used to. At least the coherence of it all. If someone is actually able to make sense of this then I applaud you. There is a nice scene at the end with stuffed animals which reminded me of the bat scene in The house by the cemetery. Other than that it is a waste of time.

Lucio Fulci's MANHATTAN BABY isn't a great movie. As is often the case with Fulci's pictures, the acting is wooden and the pace a little slow. But Fulci chooses this time around to de-emphasize the over-the-top gore for which he was infamous and concentrate on atmosphere with generally successful results.An archaeologist is in Egypt doing research. He has brought his wife and daughter along with him on his journey, and they spend their time wandering around the ruins while he digs up ancient artifacts. After falling into a secret tomb (resulting in the impalement death of his guide in one of the movie's few moments of on screen gore), he is rendered blind by a ray of light that comes from a jewel embedded in the wall.Meanwhile, his daughter meets a mysterious old woman who gives her a jewel studded amulet before disappearing into thin air. Back in New York, the girl starts becoming ill and having nightmarish visions. Her creepy little brother seems to take this all in stride, as he himself has had out-of-body experiences which he always thought were just a part of life. It is implied that the reason the girl was chosen as a recipient of the amulet is her and her brother's "sensitivity." Doctors are at a loss as to what is wrong with the girl. Finally, an exorcist explains that she is under the influence of an evil Egyptian demon who has not yet possessed her, but is trying to. He agrees to exorcise the demon from the girl by bringing it into himself, but unlike Father Karras in THE EXORCIST, he may have less than righteous motives for doing so. Unfortunately for him, the demon isn't about to lend itself for his own selfish use and brings his stuffed bird collection to life which tears him to shreds.While there are obvious nods to THE EXORCIST and ROSEMARY'S BABY (the exorcist's name is Adrian Mercato), the movie never really becomes a rip-off, as it takes the borrowed aspects of those previous movies in unexpected directions. There are some ambitious metaphysical plot twists which unfortunately suffer from limited special effects capabilities, a few of which are similar to better-executed sequences in POLTERGEIST (though the movies were released almost simultaneously).The stuffed bird attack at the finale is the movie's gore highlight, and while many viewers have complained about the phoniness of the birds in the scene, I think the sequence works in a surreal, nightmarish way. I love THE BEYOND, but the pipe-cleaner spiders looked ridiculous. Here, the obvious artificiality of the birds makes them that much more creepy.Overall, MANHATTAN BABY is worth a look. I can't bring myself to give it more than a 6 out of 10, but fans of Fulci's work might be interested to see him show off his flair for atmosphere and style instead of gut-munching and eyeball-popping.