Manhattan Baby

Plot synopsis:
On holiday in Egypt with George and Emily Hacker (Christopher Connelly and Martha Taylor), her archaeologist father and journalist mother, 10-year-old Susie Hacker (Brigitta Boccoli) is approached by a mysterious blind woman, who gives her an amulet with a blue-jewled eye in the center. Soon after, George is struck blind by a bright piercing blue light when he enters a previously unexplored tomb. But his assistant is not so lucky as he falls from a false floor bottom to his death on spikes in a boody-trapped chamber.Upon arrival back in New York, George is informed that the loss of his eyesight will only be temporary. Susie begins to act strangely, and her younger brother Tommy (Giovanni Frezza), who stayed behind in New York with the family's au-pair Jamie Lee (Cinzia De Ponti), is also affected by the mysterious amulet. Emily soon discovers that both of her children are appearing and disappearing out of their rooms every day and night. Both Susie and Tommy have gained supernatural access to dimensional doorways. A few days later, George's eyesight returns, and he describes the design on the wall of the tomb he'd entered to a colleague called Wiler, Wiler guesses that it may be the Sacred Symbol of the Grand Shadow, a sight of terrible evil.Over the next few days, the Hacker family experiences more odd happenings. A scorpion appears in a desk drawer when George opens it. Later, Jamie Lee is menaced by a snake that attacks her in the apartment building cellar during a game of hide-and-seek with the kids. Then, Emily discovers piles of sand on the floors of their bedroom and adjacent rooms. Also, the building superintendent dies in a supernatural freak accident then the elevator he's riding in malfunctions, and drops open the floor of the elevator car, making him plunge to his death. A little while later, Luke Anderson (Carlo De Mejo), an eccentric colleague of Emily's, arrives at the apartment to work with her about her latest journalist work detailing her travels in Egypt. When Luke hears a noise coming from Susie's bedroom, he enters it and tries to force open a jammed bedroom door. He opens it only to be sucked into the dimensional portal and finds himself transported to the deserts of Egypt where he later dies from dehydration in the vast, arid desert. The Hackers think Luke's disappearance is merely one of his practical jokes, but they never learn of his fate, nor find any trace of him.Jamie Lee takes the kids out to nearby Central Park to play where she takes photos of them. A woman picks up a discarded Polaroid photo taken of Susie. It shows nothing but the amulet against the grassy background. The woman contacts a man called Adrian Marcato (Laurence Welles) with her find. The next day, the woman drops the Polaroid down to Mrs. Hacker from a window overlooking the pavement. Marcato's name and phone number are written on it.Meanwhile, Susie and Tommy continues to appear and disappear from their bedrooms on what Tommy called "voyages." Soon, Jamie Lee herself disappears after entering Tommy's room. When Emily asks Tommy if he seen Jamie Lee recently, he tells his mother that Jamie Lee has not come back from her own voyage. That evening, George's colleague Wiler is killed when he gets bitten by a cobra that magically appears in his office as he is looking over the photo of the amulet that Hackers have given him. The photo magically disappears and reappears in Susie's hand as she recovers from a mysterious fit.George and Emily track down Marcato to his antique shop and demand to know what his involvement is. He tells them about the evil symbolism of the jewel, and suggest that Susie has absorbed its energy. He also tells the skeptical couple to at least make sure she doesnt have the amulet in her possession. When George and Emily find the amulet in Susie's bedroom drawer, she appears to them glowing with an unearthly blue light, and then faints. Marcato is called to the Hackers apartment to examine Susie, but is possessed by her inner voice crying for help, and falls to the ground, bleeding and foaming at the mouth. Marcato regains consciousness and succeeds in linking minds briefly with George, showing him a glimpse into the eldritch Egypt his children have been visiting. Susie is then taken to a nearby hospital where the physician Dr. Foster (Lucio Fulci) examines her and is baffled by her mysterious illness. An X-ray taken shows the dark shape of a hooded cobra mark in her chest.While, Emily maintains a bedside vigil for the near-comatose Susie, Tommy is alone at the apartment when he is partly affected too. Suddenly, Jamie Lee turns up, bursting through a wall as a briefly reanimated rotting cadaver before she drops dead. A strange blue light of negative energy is shown flowing from Tommy, the bed-ridden Susie, and the dimensional doorways and channeled into Marcato's home where he is inciting a spell in the ancient Egyptian language. George goes to see Marcato again, who tells them that he can stop worrying about his children. Through an ancient Egyptian spell, Marcato has channeled all the evil energy away from George's children and the curse is now on him. Marcato gives George the amulet and tells him to discard it so the curse will not affect anyone else. That night, Marcato is killed at his shop when the re-animated carcasses of his stuffed birds come to life and tear him to pieces. At the hospital, Susie wakes up to see her grateful mother by her side and both are happy that Susie all better. The following morning, George, following Marcato's last suggestion, flings the amulet into the East River, bringing an end to their ordeal.In the final scene back in Egypt, the mystical blind woman once again appears and gives the exact same amulet to another young girl, intending to continue the curse for the forces of darkness, bringing it full circle.

Tags: paranormal, violence, cult

Review:
This movie offers something different and something that I, a true Fulci admirer, appreciate and can watch over and over.Yes, I like "Manhattan Baby." While it's not like the aforementioned Fulci greats, it remains entertaining and it does deliver some good scares.
People would think 'Manhattan Baby' instead of 'Zombie' when they heard the name Lucio Fulci.Most horror fans haven't seen this one.
The same can be said for Italian cinema, but a lot of times, it's much more subtle in its delivery and can leave one feeling incomplete until they eventually see it again.Anyway, should you watch Manhattan Baby?
It's a beautifully shot film with hardly any of that Fulci gore we all expected.
The plot, while somewhat draggy as all of these films are (other societies don't demand a new scene every 2.5 minutes and either dialogue or action at all times it seems), it's not that slow.
Of course these films are often watched for the unflinching depictions of gore that Italians are not afraid to deliver, and while the violence is a bit more subtle in this one than most, there are three scenes which will satisfy this type of viewer.
After the Hacker family returns to New York, the little daughter experiences contact with evil through the amulet she got in Egypt.
This allows Fulci to devise the movie like "The Gates of Hell" or "The Beyond", meaning as a succession of loosely related scenes depicting strange occurences.
The final attack by stuffed birds is spoiled by the visibility of the wires (in good tradition of other phony attacks by animals).Although the overall result of "Manhattan Baby" is not as convincing and terrifying as Fulci's previous flics, it still belongs to his strong period in horror film making and is therefore recommended to everyone who likes Fulci's style not just for the sake of gore (as "Manhattan Baby" contains only few)..
It's taken me three viewings to get a handle on what story there is, and it does have some positive aspects, but Fulci completely fumbles the ball on this film.It starts off really well, in Egypt, where Christopher Connelly is doing some sort of dig into an ancient tomb.
His wife and daughter, meanwhile, almost immediately fall into Fulci's nightmare world, when a blind (like the Beyond) woman hands the kid an amulet.
Connelly, on the other hand, breaks into the tomb only to get his guide killed and himself blinded by purple laser beams (eh?).This is all atmospherically done, but the moment the family return to New York, the film slips its moorings.
The cinematography is uniformly excellent, the Egyptian scene is a great way to start the film, and there's a couple of scenes that do genuinely work, like the Psychic rolling about on the floor, screaming in Connelly's daughter's voice.I'd love to know if this was the film that Fulci intended, because I don't reckon it is.
We selected "Manhattan Baby" from the movie library last night, and I realized that it was to be probably the 7th time I have watched this rather uncelebrated Fulci offering in the past 5 years.
No, this is not a gory movie, which no doubt comes as a surprise (disappointment?) to fans of Fulci's other (mostly excellent) films.
Lucio Fulci was a great filmmaker and unquestionably one of the most essential & influential horror directors that ever lived; still not all his movies are masterpieces.
So-so horror film from cult director Lucio Fulci..
Lucio Fulci-many horror fans admire his work,I am also among them.However "Manhattan Baby" is one of his weaker efforts.First of all,the script by Dardano Sacchetti and Elisa Livia Briganti is very confusing.It borrows from "Rosemary's Baby","The Awakening","The Exorcist" and even "The Birds".The film is about a girl who,while in Egypt with her archaeologist father,is given an amulet that causes her to be possessed by the spirit of an ancient Pharaohess.There are some atmospheric shots,but the gore is almost completely absent(apart from the scene when the stuffed birds attack Adrian Marcato,rending his flesh as he dies screaming).Anyway if you're a huge Fulci fan like me you should watch this film,if not don't bother..
Second rate Fulci with a confusing script and virtually no gore.Unless you're a die-hard obsessive Italian horror fan, give it a miss..
People who love/hate Fulci's work usually mention two things - his nonsensical plots and his abundance of gore.
It was co-written by regular Fulci collaborator Dardano Sacchetti (who also worked with just about every important Italian horror/exploitation director - Mario and Lamberto Bava, Argento, Lenzi, Deodato,etc.) Sacchetti says that the producers slashed the budget at the last minute, which undoubtedly contributed to making this a poorer movie, but it's hard to know who to blame.
The script is certainly very muddled so the viewer has to battle to work out just what is going on half the time, and Fulci himself seems to have deliberately left out his trademark gore.
There's only really one notable gore sequence towards the climax of the picture, and while it's pretty good, it's a long time coming, and hardly up to the standards set by Fulci's horror masterpiece 'The Beyond'.
That movie had virtually no gore or effects but it had an interesting story and some good actors, neither of which 'Manhattan Baby' has.
I wouldn't say 'Manhattan Baby' is a complete stinker, as there are a few effective sequences, but it's extremely disappointing overall, and easily the weakest Fulci movie I've seen to date.
If Lucio Fulci could be considered the Ed Wood of Italian cinema, then Manhattan Baby might just be his very own Plan 9 From Outer Space.
This movie gets a very bad rap from most critics but compared to some of Fulci's abysmal later work Manhattan Baby scrubs up fairly well in the entertainment department, if nothing else.
George Hacker (Christopher Connelly) is an American archeologist in Egypt (where part of this was actually filmed) with his wife (Martha Taylor) and daughter in a creepy EXORCIST/OMEN inspired opening.
After acquiring a cursed medallion, he's temporarily blinded by blue light and returns to New York City, where his daughter (Brigitta Boccoli) becomes possessed by an evil spirit.
Fulci fans will also probably be severely disappointed by the curious lack of blood/gore/violence.(I have a hunch he was going through that I-want-to-be-respected-as-a-filmmaker phase).Score: 3 out of 10.
That-said, "Manhattan Baby" is a unique film for Lucio Fulci, and bears some resemblance to "The Awakening" and even "Rosemary's Baby" (hence-the-title?).
Director Lucio Fulci all but abandoned gore in this movie, instead giving us beautiful visuals, an onieric atmosphere and a story told totally in dream logic.Fulci's obsession with eyes is well in evidence here, the main difference being that they're generally not being skewered this time around.
I liked a few movies that Fulci did zombi 1979 being is best, but this one is lacking in all department.Not sure why he felt the need to put this annoying blonde blue eye kid in lots of is movies i just can't stand him.The movie starts off very good in Egypt, the scenery is amazing pyramids etc.
Dig in.Susie Hacker is in Egypt with her archaeologist father, George (Christopher Connelly, The Norseman, 1990: The Bronx Warriors, the Payton Place TV series), and journalist mother, Emily (Martha Taylor, better known as Laura Lenzi, who was in The Adventures of Hercules II) when a blind woman gives her an amulet.
Just as she takes it, her father is blinded while he enters a previously unexplored tomb (but not before he shoots the snake).They return to New York City, where we meet Susie's younger brother, Tommy (Giovanni Frezza, Bob from House by the Cemetery), who didn't go on the trip, and au pair Jamie Lee (boy, naming a babysitter Jamie Lee is in no way a coincidence, right?
Also, if you're wondering why a little boy is dubbed with the voice of a small girl, then you've never watched a Fulci film before.Read more at http://bit.ly/2zvo8R5.
His young daughter (Brigitta Boccoli) becomes possessed by the freed entity and, upon arrival back in New York, the gory murders begin.Dardano Sacchetti collaborated with his wife Elisa Briganti on a script originally titled "The Evil Eye".
I was trying to bring horror in a different direction." Sacchetti and Briganti were not pleased with the film's finished product, with Sacchetti stating that "when the producers decided to cut three-quarters of the budget, some of the special effects could not be realized, and the film was ultimately very poor." Sacchetti says the extended opening scene in Egypt was added as an afterthought to "give the film an international feel." The film would end the partnership between Lucio Fulci and producer Fabrizio DeAngelis.
Fulci commented that it was "a terrible movie; I'd venture to describe it as one of those setbacks that occur as you go along" Italian horror fans will recognize young Giovanni Frezza, known for "House by the Cemetery" and "Demons".
Whilst On holiday in Egypt with George and Emily Hacker (Christopher Connelly and Martha Taylor), her archaeologist father and journalist mother, a 10-year-old girl called Susie Hacker (Brigitta Boccoli)is approached by a mysterious blind woman, who gives her an amulet with a blue-jewelled eye in the middle of it.
When you watch a movie by Lucio Fulci, you expect certain things.
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.
For Fulci fans, this may be a bit disappointing considering the pace and the lack of heavy gore, but this is not to say that nothing strange or ominous happens during the course of the film.
Manhattan Baby really plays out like a poor sibling to "The Beyond:" an evil curse is unleashed and people start dying in strange, inexplicable ways while story coherence takes a backseat.
Fulci may always be remembered fro living dead films (i.e. The Gates of Hell, Zombie), but there are a few diamonds in the rough that are welcomed changes of pace (i.e. The Smuggler).
Manhattan baby was a strange movie directed by the (in)famous Italian director Lucio Fulci.
Susie Hacker, the daughter of an archaeologist, gets possessed by an malicious evil spirit after her dad accidentally unleashes it from it's Egyptian tomb, that also leaves him temporarily blind.
When one watches a Fulci film, one expects certain things to happen and the gore to flow.
We're left with an overly long badly dubbed film, which while still interesting to watch for huge fans of the director, is still pretty boring at times.
And then there's Fulci's annoying infatuation with close-ups of eyes....But the climacting attack sequence  is well-done (for the time) and the film at least is better than "The Awakening" and less disappointing than "Poltergeist" (due to lower expectations).
First off, "Manhattan Baby" is not a very good title for this movie.
Which is not very surprising, Fulci loved New York often filming scenes and such there even when the city itself was not prevalent in the plot.
I enjoyed some of the other supernatural horror films of Fulci's, but this one kind of ends up being pointless as while leaving things unexplained in "The Beyond" worked, it hinders this film..
"Manhattan baby" could have been more interesting if it had shown us more about those supernatural travels that the kids do sometimes but I suppose the budget was too low for that, apart from that, the movie tries to be scary and it never gets it.
"Manhattan Baby" was the last film to maintain a distinctive look, atmosphere, and mood from Lucio Fulci.
But to those familiar with Fulci and his work, you know he cannot sustain a movie with just mad camera movements and atmosphere--you need gore (preferably a lot), which is sorely lacking here.
Writer Dardano Sacchetti explains that the budget was cut severely, leaving what was supposed to be an FX-heavy movie with very few electronic effects, and the plot and film suffer from it.
While Fulci's films were never shining models of narrative coherence, keeping up with "Manhattan Baby" becomes a chore.
Lucio Fulci has made a great many classic horror films, but Manhattan Baby isn't one of them.
I've got to admit that I'm not a very big fan of films revolving around Egypt at the best of times, and especially not when they're as boring as this one.
The film isn't very ambitious, and Fulci seems more than happy to simply let it wallow in its premise and this means that the story doesn't progress much, and since there isn't much in the way of interesting scenes; watching this film is a lot like pulling teeth.
The film actually begins on something of a high, as Fulci's Egyptian shoot looks good and everything seems to point to Manhattan Baby being a promising film.
And that's when everything goes downhill.Fulci's trademark is, of course, gore; and while there are a couple of gory scenes here and there, it doesn't compare with films such as The Beyond and The New York Ripper.
The fact that the film largely centres on child actors doesn't exactly help proceedings either, as Fulci showed with The House by the Cemetery that he isn't very good at casting kids, and this is confirmed in this movie with the recasting of the irritating blonde kid Giovanni Frezza.
The best sequence in the film happens near the end and sees a man being attacked by birds; but the special effects are so poor in this scene that it's not really worth watching anyway.
Overall, this movie is rather upsetting as Fulci has proved with earlier and later films that he is capable of better...but everyone's got to have a few blips in their career..
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.
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.
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.
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.
This movie is difficult to watch and follow, although it has all the typical Fulci stylings (lots of focus on the eyes, creepy music).
A little girl named Susie(Brigitta Boccoli)is visiting Egypt with her archaeologist father, Professor George Hacker(Christopher Connelly)and mother Emily(Martha Taylor)when a spooky native, with absence of eye color, places in her hand an amulet with this blue eye that is like a gateway of evil which can send the wearer through the unexplored realms of time and space.
George, blinded by blue laser blasts which shot from a cryptic symbol in a secret chamber room of the tomb he entered in Egypt, will enlist the aid of a mysterious antiques dealer, Adrian Mercato(Cosimo Cinieri)who might have knowledge as to how to save his little girl before whatever the evil is kills her.I must say that I was quite impressed with how Fulci uses Egypt in the opening of the film.
From what I understand the producers desired this, and I side with them, but Fulci seems hard-pressed in his directorial efforts to use what he had in place with the amulet and it's evil possession of a little girl, creating quite a baffling supernatural horror flick seemingly treading similar terrain in films such as "The Exorcist" & "Rosemary's Baby".
I can't say this is one of Fulci's better efforts, because it is such a mess..many often embrace such incoherency if the director splatters the screen with ridiculous gore, but "Manhattan Baby" lacks this.
Lucio Fulci's MANHATTAN BABY isn't a great movie.
Lucio Fulci made some real stinkers in his career and Manhattan Baby comes close to being the worst.
The movie gets off to a good start with some nice looking and mysterious Egyptian scenes.
Once the movie gets back to New York, things fall apart.As I wrote previously, there are some good set-pieces in Manhattan Baby.
Going in to a Fulci film, you figure you're gonna see some serious over-the-top gore (especially his trademark "eye trauma" scenes...), probably some misogynistic sexual violence or at least some decent "full-frontal", and usually a relatively entertaining plot.
Not so on all counts for MANHATTAN BABY...This one is about a girl who receives an amulet from a mysterious stranger while on vacation in Egypt with her parents.
There's the requisite struggle of "good and evil", then the end...MANHATTAN BABY is a poorly written and acted film with obvious nods to ROSEMARY'S BABY and THE EXORCIST - but with nowhere near the power or atmosphere of either of those films.
There is only one decent gore scene which is tame by Fulci standards and no nudity and or sex/sexual violence and the few "special FX" used in the film are so cheap and amateurish (even for '82) that they are laughable ("lasers in the eyes" and "stuffed birds on strings" anyone?...).
MANHATTAN BABY seems to be a film that Fulci made for a more mainstream audience, and I'm glad this does not represent the majority of his works.
For suggestions on GOOD Fulci films, try ZOMBIE, GATES OF HELL,THE NEW YORK RIPPER, THE BEYOND (among many others...).