Very well executed

Just perfect...

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Three lowlife punks are trapped in a posh villa while trying to rob it and become at the mercy of the murderous owners whom have the power to stop and reverse time via their mystical clocks."The House of Clocks" is one of four films made for the Italian cable TV series House of Doom. Lucio Fulci himself would direct two films for the series (the first being "The Sweet House of Horrors"). Director Umberto Lenzi would also direct two films ("House of Witchcraft" and "House of Lost Souls"). Unfortunately the finished films were deemed too violent by producers and were never aired.Al Cliver is mostly memorable for starring in exploitation and horror films such as Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2, The Black Cat, The Beyond and Demonia. Here he plays a semi-blind handyman. Karina Huff, who is actually English, went on to appear in Fulci's "Voices from Beyond" (1991) and Luigi Cozzi's "Demons 6" (1989).This is by no means a terrible film. No one would deem it Fulci's best, but given the limitations of working in television, it seems rather good. I much prefer it to Argento's "Do You Like Hitchcock?", for example.

Lucio Fulci is one of the most important Italian horror film-makers for sure but by the tail end of his career the quality of his output got pretty bad. The House of Clocks falls into this bracket unfortunately. It would only be fair to say that part of the issue in this one was that it was a made-for-TV production, so it was of a noticeably lesser budget than he was used to. Production values are consequently bargain basement in every respect, which does nothing to help this film in any way. Interestingly, despite being a made-for-TV movie, it seemingly was never actually shown on television due to its explicit violence. There are several cheap gore sequences punctuated throughout and do at the very least alleviate the tedium at least to some extent. The story is about three thieves who break into the house of an elderly couple. Trouble is, these oldsters are psychopaths and their house of clocks has supernatural powers with the ability to reanimate the dead.The story is certainly unusual enough to garner at least some credit. But it's just not really executed in a very good way at all. For the most part it's kind of tedious in actual fact, while it never looks anything other than cheap with very little in the way of atmosphere. By the late 80's the Italian film industry was struggling financially and it's certainly an indicator that the man who made so many good to excellent genre pics ended up working on a low quality TV production such as this. Overall, this one can really be recommended to Fulci completists only.

Lucio Fulci, infamous for his explicitly violent and downright gross films, surprises his fans (and probably his opponents even more) with this tense and mainly story-driven tale of terror. It is and remains a Fulci effort, so the House of Clocks does contain more gore than your average horror film but still it's awkward not to constantly see eyeballs getting poked out or throats being torn to pieces. This was a movie produced for TV-distribution (which probably also explains the gore-limitation) and script successfully attempts to go for supernatural tension. The House of Clocks revolves on 3 lowlife crooks that plan to rob and home-jack an obviously wealthy elderly couple living in an isolated mansion. This couple, however, isn't as indefensible as they look as they have a bizarre clock-fetish and they keep dark secrets hidden in their basement. When the robbery goes terribly wrong, and all the couple's beloved clocks suddenly stop and turn back; the crooks face unimaginable terror and payback. The film bathes in an uncanny atmosphere and Fulci makes great use of the cool scenery. I can't give a scientific explanation for it, but there's something naturally eerie about a collection of ticking clocks. The idea of showing seemly harmless old people who then turn out mentally deranged isn't exactly new, but it still works and it definitely unsettles you. Near the end, the plot-holes become bigger and bigger and the abrupt plot-twists are disappointing. So, hopefully, the very good first hour of House of Clocks already makes a positive impression on you before the ineptness begins to show. To me it did. Other disadvantages include wooden acting and a very bad case of English dubbing (the DVD I tracked down at least). This is definitely a movie worth checking out in case you're an Italian horror fanatic. For the fans of the more outrageous Fulci-work, he made "Cat in the Brain" one year after this and that certainly is one of the sickest movies ever.

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.