Review of The House of Clocks (1989) by Jonathan Y — 10 Oct 2008

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...