Manhattan Baby (1972) — Triskaidekafiles

MANHATTAN BABY

WRITERS: Story and screenplay by Elisa Livia Briganti and Dardano Sacchetti

DIRECTOR: Lucio Fulci

STARRING: Christopher Connelly as Professor George Hacker
Martha Taylor as Emily Hacker
Brigitta Boccoli as Susie Hacker
Giovanni Frezza as Tommy Hacker
Cinzia de Ponti as Jamie Lee

QUICK CUT: A family recovers after a vacation to Egypt

THE MORGUE

George - A professor or archaeology who digs up more than he bargained for. A smart man, who doesn’t believe easily in the occult.

Emily - A successful magazine writer, and George’s wife. A caring mother, and very protective of her children and family

Susie and Tommy - The Hackers’ children. Pretty much your average kids. Sibling rivalry abounds, and they’re very precocious and love getting into trouble, and play games.

The story of Doctor Manhattan when he was a toddler.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! This week, I am diving back into the world of Italian cinema, with Lucio Fulci's Manhattan Baby. I have had this movie for a LONG time, and it's been on the Trisk to do list for almost as long. I've had it scheduled almost once a year, but for some reason or another, it got bumped for better ideas. But this year, I decided to put my foot down and get this one done. And here we are.

And the movie gets off to a great start, with Professor Hacker plucking a scorpion out of the sands of Egypt to bring home to his kid, Susie. I wish my dad brought me home pet scorpions.

So, of course we then meet Susie, being photographed by her mom, as the sands of the hourglass run through her fingers, like the days of our lives. Eventually, Susie is visited by a blind woman and gives her a strange medallion.

Now all she needs is the Grimorum Arcanorum and the Phoenix Gate...

Meanwhile, the professor enters a cursed tomb, against his associate's better wishes, and they discover a strange snake like coil sculpted into one of the walls. When they twist it, it opens up a secret passage. And releases a cobra.

Hacker and his guide go into the secret passage, and trigger traps, because this is a horror movie set in Egypt. The guide lands on a pit of spikes, leaving the white man completely unharmed. Hmm.

Inside the tomb, Hacker sees a glowing blue gem that blasts him in the face, which I am sure will have zero effects on him the rest of the movie.

His optic blasts are concussive force, not lasers! They don't generate heat!

This has the effect of blinding George, and the doctors think his sight should return in a year. So, it's back to Manhattan, baby, to wait it out!

We settle into just chilling at home and the movie calms down, but only just a bit. One night, there's a mighty storm, and Susie is freaked out by all the lightning. And she does a really good job of acting the part.

The movie keeps a moodly ominous feeling going through all the normalcy, helped with the score giving musical stings every time they show Susie's new medallion. Also, everything just feels a little off. But that could also just be Italian horror movie.

Eventually, the closet door in the kids' room starts glowing, and Tommy steps into the light. The kids start screaming, causing dad to come running, but he doesn't know what's wrong, what with being blind and all. And then he gets hit by more supernatural lasers.

Well, that’s six more months of blindness.

Shockingly, this second blast of light actually restores his sight. So...what was the point of all that, then? Oh, and they seem unbothered that their kids are now missing?

Oh wait, they're NOT missing, and are both fine? What a weird movie. But hey, Italian cinema.

George heads over to a colleague, Doctor Forrester. And before he can launch George into space to torment him with bad movies, he tells George the carving that blinded him reminds him of the Grand Shadow, a god named Habnumenor.

And before anyone gets up my butt, I realised a bit later this is NOT Doctor Forrester, he was at the start of the film. But I’m leaving the joke in anyways.

Back at their apartment, the kids are playing hide and seek with their babysitter, Jamie Lee. The lights go out, and she can't find the kids, but then a guy in a white Shatner mask come sin and...wait wait, no. Then a snake suddenly appears, and she calls building maintenance.

Unfortunately, he never makes it to the apartment, as the bottom of the elevator falls away, and he plummets to who knows where?

Mom and her colleague from work rush home to check on the kids, and he offers to get the suddenly locked door open. He succeeds, and disappears to a sand dune somewhere in a flash of screaming light.

Emily rushes up and enters the kids' room, finding the floor covered in sand. And then the scorpions start appearing.

And you thought YOUR bedbug problems were bad.

Later, Jamie Lee tries to get a Polaroid of Susie, and the photo comes up blank. They litter the park with their trash, and leave. Afterwards, the photo develops into a shot of the medallion, and is picked up by a woman.

The woman takes the photo to Mercato, an antiques dealer who recognises it, and they contact the family. I have so many questions, but I know from previous Italian movies, it's best to just go with the flow.

Elsewhere, George's professor friend gets attacked by a cobra and dies, because he had the cursed photo. This leads to learning that Susie is going on "voyages" across the astral plane, and people are dying.

The parents head to Mercato's and the antiquities dealer gives them a heaping bowl of exposition. The gem is a symbol of evil, Susie has absorbed energy from it, and the Hackers should invade their child's privacy and make sure she doesn't have it.

After ransacking Susie's room, they find the medallion. They're about to contact Mercato, but their daughter screams and they rush to her.

The child passes out, and Mercato is suddenly there, saying to leave him alone with the child. And, dude, no. Creepy dude is creepy.

But, they do anyways, and he pays the price. While the Hackers try and decide what to do next with all this weird Egyptian bullshit circling them, the antiques dealer starts screaming and bleeding and speaking in Susie's voice.

Once Mercato is back to normal, he tells the parents that Susie is a prisoner of the stone, and her condition worsens. They rush her to the hospital, and George heads home to see after Tommy.

Mercato takes the pendant and transfers its curse from Susie to himself, while Tommy begs to be punished, and gets a babysitter's corpse in his walls.

Susie is now safe, Mercato urges George to throw the pendant away into the ocean, and then his entire collection of birds comes to life and pecks him to deah.

What a weird way to end a movie. The main characters are safe, let's spend five minutes on a sudden taxidermy bird attack.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: A really solid transfer by Blue Underground. The darks are dark, everything is clear, and it just looks great.

Audio: A very good audio mix too, using some solid sound atmosphere, as well as Fabio Frizzi’s score.

Sound Bite: “I didn't ask you, did I? Lousy lesbian!" This is made 100 times moe hilarious because it's said by a 10 year old kid.

Body Count: A fairly light movie, but not a bad amount either.

1 - 11 minutes in, and a guide gets gutted on a spike pit.
2 - A poor maintenance man gets eaten by an elevator
3 - Luke disappears
4 - Wiler gets bitten by surprise cobra
5 - Jamie Lee's mummified corpse appears in the Hackers' walls
6 - Marcato gets pecked to death

Best Corpse: Hmm. No real standouts this week, but there are some great effects on Marcato (Who’s name I probably never spelled right) where the birds are pecking at him and digging bits out.

Blood Type - C+: Not a lot of blood, but there’s some really good uses, and the few standout effects scenes bring the score up.

Sex Appeal: Huh, I think there was a complete nothing here.

Drink Up! Every time someone lets sand pour through their fingers

Movie Review: Like a lot of Italian cinema, this is a hard movie to really review. Dream logic abounds, things just happen, and by any measure of coherent storytelling and structure, it falls down. But Italian movies are more experiences than stories, and Manhattan Baby delivers. It’s an odd dreamlike movie, there’s some cool ideas, and you just vibe with the atmosphere and music. This isn’t quite as visually and audibly enthralling as other Italian flicks, but even lower tier Italian cinema is still good to just experience. The acting is decent, for it’s overdubbed cheesiness, and the plot isn’t bad, if very strange and wandering. I enjoyed my time, and it’s worth seeing. Three out of five medallions.

Entertainment Value: Ah, Italian movies almost always bring the weird vibes, and this is no exception. The strange blind ladies, the weird happenings, and the ongoing sense of dread make for an entertaining watch that keeps you uncomfortable. Also, if you’ve seen House By the Cemetery, you might recognise Tommy, as Bob from that movie. And you will have fun with that, surely. Three and a half out of five scorpions