Lucio Fulci again directs another horror film supposedly taking place in New York City(but obviously not). This time around, Fulci opens with a somewhat intriguing opening in Egypt where archaeologist Chris Connelly finds the tomb of an ancient Egyptian god of evil. Once in the tomb, one man dies from a fall on sharp objects at the bottom of a pit and Connelly, through the electric light show, loses his eyesight because of light beams. While all this is going on, a stranger gives an evil amulet to his very young daughter. We then go to, what passes for, New York. There strange things happen, peripheral characters die, though no police become involved with these inexplicable deaths. All is to be resolved with Adrian Mercato's help(an obvious homage to Polanski's Rosemary's Baby). This film is weak even for a Fulci film. He doesn't even satisfy his gorehound crowd with minimal bloodletting and virtually no suspense. Fulci does have some nice sweeping shots here and there and a few tense moments but no more. What we do get is plenty of the Fulci trademark of close-ups of eyes. Fulci must have had 20-25 eye close-ups - no exaggeration! The two child actors - the young girl and her even younger brother - are atrocious actors(particularly the boy). The final scene, poorly shot, is a taxidermist's worst nightmare and le bad cinema buff's joy to behold. The actors are all pretty wooden, the direction uninspiring, and the script pure nonsense. At times I could not make head nor tails or beaks out of what was going on and why Fulci felt compelled to shoot the scene. A rather boring, tepid film from one of many's(not mine" acknowledged masters of horror.
Review of Manhattan Baby
