![]() ![]() At the same time, a mysterious blind woman bequeaths a strange, eye-shaped amulet to his young daughter, Susie (Brigitta Boccoli). True to form, the film opens with American archeologist George Hacker (Christopher Connelly) being temporarily blinded while exploring a tomb in Egypt. There’s a surfeit, for example, of Leone-esque extreme close-ups on characters’ eyes. Like many of the earlier films, Manhattan Baby focuses almost pathologically on the eyes and damage to them. ![]() Manhattan Baby also marks the end of an era, closing out a cycle of horror films that opens with 1979’s Zombie and includes well-known works like The Beyond and House by the Cemetery-a period when the volatile Fulci maintained productive partnerships with producer Fabrizio De Angelis and screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti. Not coincidentally, Fulci’s next two projects would be effects-laden sci-fi/fantasy films. In many ways, Manhattan Baby is a transitional film for Fulci, as he moved away from the practical effects that dominated his gore films toward a more extensive use of optical effects, owing perhaps to the popularity of films like Poltergeist. ![]() The biggest surprise here-as if the sight of a man being set upon by sawdust-crammed fowl weren’t enough-is that this is practically the only gory set piece in an early-1980s Fulci film, at a time when the Italian filmmaker’s name was practically synonymous with squishy prosthetic pandemonium. “You can take my life with stuffed birds, but you shall not have my soul!” an ill-fated antiques dealer vows while being pecked to death at the climax of Lucio Fulci’s demented Manhattan Baby. ![]()
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