The Houses of Doom was a TV anthology series produced to hit the airwaves in the middle of The Last Wave of Italian Horror era. Each week viewers would get a spooky film about a creepy house. But Italian viewers never got a chance to turn on the TV to watch a haunted version of Love It Or List It. What happened? Directors Lucio Fulci and Umberto Lenzi delivered four feature films that didn’t come close to broadcast standards. The station shelved the series in 1989. Eventually the movies came out on home video and theatrical in certain countries. The movies are listed as TV movies on various websites and the director’s filmographies. They don’t deserve to be called a TV movies since they didn’t follow the channel’s standards. They don’t have obvious cliffhanger moments to insert commercials. The four films pack a lot horror into their small budgets. Lucio Fulci’s The House of Clocks keep the nightmares ticking away.
During the middle of the night, Maria (Captain America‘s Carla Cassola) uses a flashlight to poke around the manor. The one noticeable thing about the place is it’s full of ticking clocks. But she’s looking for more and finds it in the chapel room. A dead and decomposing couple are lying in open caskets with giant spikes driven through their throats. It freaks Maria out. The next morning the owners of the manor are busy. Vittorio Corsini (Cannibal Holocaust‘s Paolo Paoloni) has an unusual way to feed his cat. His wife Sarah (The King’s Whore‘s Bettine Milne) is working in the garden. Maria makes a bad judgement call when instead of fleeing the property in the middle of the night, she gives Corsini’s her notice claiming an illness in the family. Before she can skip out with her final paycheck, Maria gets stiffed by Sarah. We’re treat to a gruesome and graphic kill that under no circumstances would be cool for primetime TV in Rome. The Corsinis aren’t alone for too long at the massive mansion. Sandra (Demons 6: De Profundis‘ Karina Huff) knocks on the door needing to uses a phone so she get help from her friends in the area. The old couple are happy to have company for the evening. But then Sandra’s friends drop by the house. They’re armed and looking to rob the joint. Very quickly things go bloody. In the aftermath, all the clocks in the house stop and go in reverse. Even the sand in the hourglass goes back up the top. The robbers find themselves stuck in the house because of the grounds are patrolled by vicious Dobermans. They stay inside the mansion thinking somehow they’ll be hitting the road in the morning as the clocks tick away.
Just like The Sweet House of Horrors, his other entry in The Houses of Doom; Fulci gives us what seems like a straight ahead murder mystery in The House of Clocks. Before you get comfortable spotting the real killer, Fulci releases a supernatural nightmare. Both films open with someone using a flashlight to sneak around the house, but each heads to dramatically different spaces. The constant clicking of the clocks will start to unnerve the characters and viewers as the supernatural horror clicks into overdrive. The film has all the elements you expect from a Fulci film including violence and carnality. The director didn’t tone down anything to make it work for a TV audience in 1989. The House of Clocks is one of the best films he made during this later period of his career. The film’s plot doesn’t have any bumps. There’s plenty of surprises. When you think he’s given us a “happy ending,” Fulci throws out one last twist. This is far more powerful than any mere TV movie that appeases the censor. The House of Clocks is essential viewing when you go on a Fulci deep dive.
The Video is 1.66:1 anamorphic. The 2K restoration is good. The film was shot on 16mm and things get a bit grainy when the action is taking place in a dimly lit location. It still looks better than the VHS copies. The Audios is DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono for both Engish and Italian dubs. You’ll hear all the clocks ticking away without much effort. The movie is subtitled in English.
Lighting the House of Time (25:45) has cinematographer Nino Celeste explain how working as an extra on a film led him to asking the director of photography for a job.
Time and Music (28:26) catches up with composer Vince Tempera. He talks about graduating from the music academy and getting involved in soundtrack work with Fabio Frizzi (composer of Zombie) and the Bixios family. They were able to work on four or five movies a year. Plus they played live shows on the weekend. During the height of the Italian film industry, they were working fulltime. They were more rock band so they were set apart from the orchestral composers. He started working with Fulci when the director was making Spaghetti Westerns. He talks about the modern Italian film industry and how producers are eager to keep the budget money for themselves.
Working with a Master (23:56) allows 1st AD Michele De Angelis to recount his time talking with Fulci. He was originally assigned to drive Fulci to the set and the director was amazed that Michele knew his career. He talks about how Fulci was a great guy in the car and then was angry when they arrived at the shooting location. He didn’t mind the screaming. He talks about the three weeks they shot The House of Clocks. The tight budget meant things weren’t showing up on the set because of costs. He recounts how the second and third grade movie houses in Italy were shutting down when TV stations took over the airwaves of Rome and ran movies.
Time with Fulci (19:18) is FX artist Elio Terribili talking about working. He started in the film industry in 1982. He described how things worked during those days when they still shot on 35mm film. He also relates the things Fulci did on the set that upset actors and others.
Archival interviews with actor Paolo Paoloni (5:28), actress Carla Cassola (9:32) and actor Al Cliver (1:32). Paoloni’s favorite memory was hanging out with the cast and crew at night at the hotel. He broke a rib in the big fight scene. Carla shares the Lucio Fulci experience. She had never done a horror film so it interested her to see the tricks. Cliver talks about the big wind day and Fulci sat in front of the giant fan..
Archival Trailer (4:42) is from when they had put out the videotape in America.
Audio Commentary by Eugenio Ercolani, Nathaniel Thompson, and Troy Howarth has them talking about Lucio Fulci. They are all major fans of his work. They feel it is one of his most polished pieces of work.
Cauldron Films present The House of Clocks. Directed by Lucio Fulci. Screenplay by Daniele Stroppa & Gianfranco Clerici. Starring Keith Van Hoven, Karina Huff, Paolo Paoloni, Bettine Milne, Peter Hintz, Carla Cassola, Al Cliver, Paolo Bernardi, Francesca DeRose & Massimo Sarchielli. Running Time: 84 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: May 13, 2025.
