Manhattan Baby (1982)

Manhattan Baby is Fulci's greatest instance of obfuscation. Beyond The Beyond, House by the Cemetery, or Sodoma's Ghosts, Fulci has placed aside coherent narrative altogether in favour of a hermetic world of occult connections expressed in visual, poetic linkages. It is a film that is analogical rather than logical.

What there is if a plot is best made out thus. An archaeologist, his magazine photographer wife and daughter are all out exploring some Egyptian ruins. The area being investigated is a temple older than the known Egyptian religion, when a cult dedicated to an evil and now forgotten god of darkness and destruction flourished. Opening this temple was a bad move, because the powers within infect the family by giving the daughter a strange amulet. They head back to their apartment in Manhattan, where strange phenomena begin surrounding the daughter.

Equal parts The Tenant and Poltergeist, Manhattan Baby thrives on the sheer lack of logic in the face of mystical powers. People disappear and reappear, scorpions and asps come out of nowhere, lasers shoot from thin air. In the midst of all these events, a finely woven tapestry of symbols reveals itself, particularly in eyes. Originally titled The Evil Eye (Il Malocchio), the film is full of close-ups of eyes, the archaeologist is blinded by lasers, the ghostly old Egyptian woman has totally white eyes, the amulet is shaped like an eye, and the symbol of the cult is an eye. Pits, sockets, and camera lenses expand the symbol. Images of scorpions and snakes, doorways and confined passageways, amongst others add to the visual motifs.

One influence Fulci pays homage to is Polanski, naming one of his characters after the villain of Rosemary's Baby: Adrian Marcato. It can be seen as an extension of Polanski's apartment horror, somewhere between Rosemary's Baby and Poltergeist III. The Egyptian motif brings to mind The Tenant and The Exorcist. And it can be enjoyed in the spirit of these films, as a perplexing and occult work, eschewing narrative coherence. However, as the imdb rating indicates, it is perhaps too obfuscating for some to enjoy at all. I thought it was an excellent and visually complex film, far exceeding its sister film Demonia (also about the dangers of archaeology, of the living disturbing the evil and dead). Manhattan Baby probably yields more on re-watching, although there probably isn't much intellectually, beneath the visually thoughtful surface. It's also fairly entertaining, if you can let go and enjoy the ride.

Bonus points:
"Bob" returns with a decent dub
Egyptians had lasers
Stuffed bird attack