Kaliyugaforkix ** Lucio Fulci was renowned for his gore-soaked, entrail-laden spaghetti epics, held in particular regard by some of us, accustomed to watered- down, assembly line slashers and their endless line of sequels as the totality of the horror flick experience. Dreamy and incoherent as well as repulsive & palpable, Lucio's movies are an acquired taste. To accuse him of being liberal with narrative is putting it lightly. In the world according to the maestro, insane strokes of bad luck strike with the disfavor of a sadistic god; guard dogs rip your throat out, cellar walls collapse onto hell-mouths, and jealous father's power drill craniums with demented glee. It's a mad, mad world of grisly freak accidents, usually of the supernatural variety & mankind is little more than playthings. Such a uniformed unconformity to the strictures of plot and even common sense have been used as ammunition for criticisms, but I find his wacky gutter-surrealism charming. I've had enough cookie cutter story lines and half baked scare tactics to last a lifetime. Unpredictability & restraint will never be an issue with a Fulci film and we should be glad. House of Clocks is like this. Three thugs decide to rob an elderly couple's estate and end up murdering the occupants when it all goes haywire. However, when the hundreds of clocks adorning the mansion begin running backwards, time itself begins to unravel and the victims return to life, turning the tables on their accosters with interesting results.Logic is conservatively adhered to throughout this scattershot tale, and Fulci has his usual schlock gore on hand to spice it up, though not nearly at the strength of his earlier classics, sadly. Though clearly upper tier output from his awful final phase, the inspired nihilistic vision of the early 80's just isn't there. Unfortunately too, the photography has a hazy indistinctness which apparently is a trademark of his later work, but that's small potatoes compared to the horrible dubbing which saddles the actors with ill-suited voices (like a lot of Italian genre movies) that over and under accentuate sentences constantly and sound like parodies of their respective characters.The real delight of this bizarre little ditty is the elderly duo, presented as polite, thoroughly insane geriatrics. These are your kindly grandparents filtered through the Italian sleaze ethic: upon graciously accepting the resignation of their maid, the old lady casually picks up a wooden pole and impales the woman, twisting with glee and watching her intestines un-loop .She then tosses off her gardening gloves and sashays out of the greenhouse(!?). Such throwaway moments of off-the-wall tastelessness (the screen writer also penned House on the Edge of the Park) ensure House of Clocks is, if you can stomach the slow-pacing, a decent time killer. But there are no earth shattering gore operatics here.

The_Void I'm a big fan of Italian horror maestro Lucio Fulci, but in spite of that; I put off seeing this made-for-Italian-TV movie, as I feared it wouldn't be very good compared to earlier Fulci offerings. Now that I've seen it, however, I am happy to report that with this film; Fulci doesn't disappoint! While it lacks the grandiose of Fulci's excellent Zombie Flesh-Eaters and the intrigue of his early Giallo offerings, House of Clocks still shows Fulci's talent for making horror movies, in spite of the conditions under which it was made. The plot certainly is intriguing enough, and it follows an old couple that live in a house full of the man's 'children'; namely, a bunch of clocks. The trouble starts when a troupe of pot-smoking crooks, who see the house as an easy target, decide to break in and rob it...only to find that after murdering the inhabitants; the 'children' start running backwards, and our protagonists may only have a matter of time before they meet their own gory demise...Speaking of gore, Fulci is famous for it; and this film certainly has it; but from some of the scenes, you do get the overwhelming impression that the gore is only there to satisfy his fans. Not that that's a bad thing. Like many Italian horror films, this one suffers from poor dubbing, worse acting and lots of incoherence in the script. It's easy to forgive the film for these negative aspects however as it breathes a great atmosphere and there's some absolutely great horror shots, that are sure to delight fans. That's the thing about Fulci – people see the gore and then write him off as a hack, when this isn't the case at all. This film does pretty much write itself off by the end, however, as, for some reason, Fulci has opted to tack on one of those endings that just sucks all the credibility out of the film; and on the whole it means that you will leave the film with a very sour taste in your mouth. Really, I recommend turning it off at about the 70-minute mark. Still, while the ending ruins it and it suffers from lots of imperfections; this is still a very nice horror film, and one that is very enjoyable too!

bensonmum2 A group of three unprofessionals attempt to rob the house of an elderly couple. It's an isolated place full of expensive items such as a large collection of clocks. The robbery goes all wrong and the old couple are each hit with a shotgun blast. One of the robbers notices that immediately following the couple's deaths, all of the clocks in the house have stopped. What none of them realizes is that the clocks begin to run backwards. Before the robbers realize what's happening, the clocks have turned back time and brought the couple back to life.Almost every review I've read on the internet seems to trash this movie. I don't get it. Other than Fulci's Don't Torture a Duckling and A Lizard in Woman's Skin, this is the best I've seen of his movies. The movie plays a bit like Twilight Zone meets Fulci. The story is original and innovative. Being Fulci, there is a certain amount of gore to be found (for example, an endless stream of entrails pouring from the maids stomach after she's been stabbed with a sharpened stick), but it never goes over-the-top. I found more tension here than in most of Fulci's films. Most of his work seems to be based on how to gross-out an audience. Here, he lets the story take center stage.A lot of the reviews I've read complain about the ending. I'll not give it away, I'll just say that it has a nice irony to me that I found satisfying. The three robbers are, after all, bad people. It's only fitting that they should not get away.The House of Clocks was apparently an Italian made-for-TV movie. They certainly don't make TV movies like this in America.

tuco73 What a shame that a director with lot of talent such as FULCI did something awful like this! Please carefully avoid this idiot and boring movie, or you might start to change your opinion on the film maker of NON SI SEVIZIA UN PAPERINO, 7 NOTE IN NERO, etc. The absurdity of the plot (time going back after death, for a couple of old stupid murderers, who look like some lovely grandparents) pairs with the absurdity of the situations and the atrocity (I mean lack of skills) of acting and dialogues. Maybe Fulci was in need of some money and was offered an interesting budget, but all the same, it is a movie BEYOND any limit of decency. VOTE: 2/10.