The House of Clocks
A gang of ruthless thugs intent on robbery prey upon a seemingly harmless elderly couple, Vittorio and Sara. The simple plan turns into a terrifying nightmare, as Vittorio's antique clock collection mysteriously turns back time. Now the hunters become the hunted and the old couple becomes a vengeful, malevolent force.
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- Cast：
- Keith Van Hoven , Karina Huff , Paolo Paoloni , Bettine Milne , Peter Hintz , Al Cliver , Carla Cassola
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Reviews
Wow! Such a good movie.
People are voting emotionally.
Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay
It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
Seen this movie 3 times now and I think of this as a middle of the road horror movie from Lucio Fulci. Meaning I wouldn't put this on a list with the best of Fulci movies, but I wouldn't say it was one his worst either. One thing that is different about this movie compared to other Fulci movies I have seen is there are only a few gore scenes in this movie. For this was made for Italian TV rather than theatres so the violence, while still present is not as powerful as other Fulci films. Three dope-smoking young thieves are aware of this isolated house where some rich elderly people live. So they trick their way into the home to steal from these people, but the robbery goes horribly wrong as the elderly people are killed. This is when the mystery of the clocks within the house take shape and unfold a nice little horror story with some nice twists along the way.
Certainly not one of Fulci's greatest films, and definitely one which runs out of steam before the end, House of Clocks is nevertheless well worth seeing for its striking central conceit and the title location itself, a sinister Gothic mansion full of clocks of impressive and odd old clocks. The mansion is owned by a crazy old couple who murder their relatives and servants when they fail to live up to their standards. A trio of trash decide to do a home invasion on these weird old coves, and get a lot more than they bargained for.At an important point in the story, the old couple are killed and their clocks stop when they die (like My Grandfather's clock!); then they start running backwards. The dead are resurrected and the killers get killed. Or do they, as time keeps spinning back and forth, in and out of dream-time. The film finally suggests that time is not linear, can flow (as the quantum physicists tell us) in either direction, but in Fulci's unnerving vision in all directions is a violent death. Not that any of the characters deserve much better, as this every-which-way time travel is entirely populated by monsters. Some of them are old and rich, some of them are poor and young; all of them are irredeemably nasty.La Casa nel tempo is certainly hokey at times, and the currently available UK DVD is appallingly dubbed - but there's more going on here than in your average B movie horror, some of it is lovingly filmed (mostly the clocks), there's some campy laughs and some truly gory moments. Give it a go, if you've got the time...
Come on, you can't really say this movie is lame. It has an original story and a surreal atmosphere for a start that give the movie an unsettling feel.The story goes like this: 3 wannabe burglars break into an isolated villa and kill the occupants. The 2 elderly occupants are really sadistic killers and have quite a shock in store for the burglars. The old man with his collection of clocks turn back time and soon the burglars are running for their lives.The acting isn't quite up to scratch and there is a cruel scene involving a cat that in my opinion makes the lead teens truly unlikeable.Apart from that then you can look forward to a great setting and location. (The villa is lovely but appears dark and unsettling as soon as night falls.) Also on show is Fulci style gore. A maid is literally gutted when the elderly folks find out about her snooping around. You can give a hand to the poor teen thats just had hers stabbed! And, about a dozen shotgun blasts end up hitting everyone. I couldn't believe this was made for cable!The movie doesn't intend to be amazing, yet the surreal story and the twisted ending notches it up considerably. Just give it a watch. You may be pleasantly surprised. 3 out of 5.
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.
