Manhattan Baby

Manhattan Baby is not Lucio Fulci's best film, but I would definitely rank it among the most interesting ones he has made. It's hard to get into, and some viewers might never manage to, but as a mosaic of terrifying images and events, this film is still impressive and offers a lot to see. Its approach doesn't captivate you, which is a significant drawback, but I wouldn't completely dismiss it. (20.12.2014)

After the worldwide mega-success of Indiana Jones, Fulci rode the wave of the fashionable popularity of Egyptian mythology and based his new film largely on it. He attached to it a somewhat tame story about a little girl who, while exploring her father's archaeological site somewhere in Egypt, receives a jewel from an old woman with white eyeballs that later takes over her body and mind in Manhattan. So, there's not much to look at this time, Fulci's direction gives a very somnolent impression, and the viewer gets to see his typical trademark in a single scene only in the last 10 minutes, when a stuffed bird in the professor's apartment comes to life and dismembers the poor scientist's face and neck, with even some gut-pulling following. Moreover, Fulci is, more than ever, obsessed with eyes, there are about 25 close-ups of eyes during the film, and it gets tiresome towards the end. Fulci's court composer Fabio Frizzi then rips himself off, sometimes his music doesn't match the action on the screen at all. (03.08.2007)