gavin6942 An archaeologist (Christopher Connelly) opens an Egyptian tomb and accidentally releases an evil spirit. His young daughter (Brigitta Boccoli) becomes possessed by the freed entity and, upon arrival back in New York, the gory murders begin.Dardano Sacchetti collaborated with his wife Elisa Briganti on a script originally titled "The Evil Eye". The film's title was later changed to "Manhattan Baby" which was an attempt to evoke "Rosemary's Baby". Sacchetti described it as "an attempt to do a technological piece. I was attempting to approach themes that were no longer classic or traditionally Gothic. I was trying to bring horror in a different direction." Sacchetti and Briganti were not pleased with the film's finished product, with Sacchetti stating that "when the producers decided to cut three-quarters of the budget, some of the special effects could not be realized, and the film was ultimately very poor." Sacchetti says the extended opening scene in Egypt was added as an afterthought to "give the film an international feel." The film would end the partnership between Lucio Fulci and producer Fabrizio DeAngelis. Fulci disliked the film himself saying he had no choice in making the film as DeAngelis was obsessed with it. Fulci commented that it was "a terrible movie; I'd venture to describe it as one of those setbacks that occur as you go along" Italian horror fans will recognize young Giovanni Frezza, known for "House by the Cemetery" and "Demons". They will also probably disagree with the negative assessment those involved seem to give the film. It is really quite god, and the gore effects are right up there with Fulci's best work. There is one scene that has a high-pitched noise I could do without, but all in all this is an under-appreciated part of the Fulci legacy.

Scarecrow-88 Do you ever, after sitting through the viewing experience of a film, ask yourself, "What the f-k did I just watch?!" Well, I can relate after watching this mind-boggling Fulci effort, replete with bizarre images and unusual death sequences. A little girl named Susie(Brigitta Boccoli)is visiting Egypt with her archaeologist father, Professor George Hacker(Christopher Connelly)and mother Emily(Martha Taylor)when a spooky native, with absence of eye color, places in her hand an amulet with this blue eye that is like a gateway of evil which can send the wearer through the unexplored realms of time and space. Yep, sweet, innocent little Susie has been chosen as the portal for "evil eye" to inflict death and destruction to those within her path. Her father decides, of course, to explore an Egyptian tomb, despite warnings from the locals that it contains a curse, unaware that he would trigger a room that opens the evil eye around Susie's neck with only terror awaiting. Returning to Manhattan, those near Susie find themselves in grave danger and somehow she must remove the evil using her as a method of travel. George, blinded by blue laser blasts which shot from a cryptic symbol in a secret chamber room of the tomb he entered in Egypt, will enlist the aid of a mysterious antiques dealer, Adrian Mercato(Cosimo Cinieri)who might have knowledge as to how to save his little girl before whatever the evil is kills her.I must say that I was quite impressed with how Fulci uses Egypt in the opening of the film. From what I understand the producers desired this, and I side with them, but Fulci seems hard-pressed in his directorial efforts to use what he had in place with the amulet and it's evil possession of a little girl, creating quite a baffling supernatural horror flick seemingly treading similar terrain in films such as "The Exorcist" & "Rosemary's Baby". The film, in my mind, is a collection of bewildering supernatural occurrences. The amulet actually opens a doorway which sends one poor soul, a clown who works at a newspaper with Emily, from the Manhattan apartment to Egypt! One strange sequence has Susie's brother Tommy(Giovanni Frezza, whose dubbing never ceases to make me cringe)entering a metaphysical doorway of some sort, with cries for help to his blind father on a mirror going unanswered. He later informs his parents that he has taken a journey, with someone from another realm actually giving him an artifact across a riverbank. There's a photo taken of Susie, by her baby-sitter Jamie Lee(Cinzia de Ponti), which only displays the ominous amulet worn around her neck. George later gives the photograph to a colleague of his, whose well versed in the mythology and history of Egypt..studying it one night in the library, he's attacked by a cobra and the photo vanishes, returning to Susie's hand! There's an amusing death sequence to a security guard in an elevator. There's a weird discovery of what exactly happened to Jamie Lee..blood collects on the Hackers' wall with a corpse's hand exploding through. The bird attack on Mercato at the end is quite a loony highlight. I found the use of blue light quite exhilarating. and Fulci's camera-work, despite the crazy plot(s), is as effective as ever(..even if he has a love-affair with the zoom lens). The scene towards the end, where Mercato attempts a transference where the evil would move from Susie's body into his, as she lies in a hospital in a worsening state, is quite a sight to behold..I particularly found the unusual fluctuating heart murmuring amusing. Nothing can quite top the Egyptian sand found in Susie's bedroom! Not to mention the scorpion, in a glass container, which appears when Susie opens her desk drawer. Or, the X-ray, taken from Susie in the hopes of finding out what is causing her "sickness", revealing the image of a cobra! I can't say this is one of Fulci's better efforts, because it is such a mess..many often embrace such incoherency if the director splatters the screen with ridiculous gore, but "Manhattan Baby" lacks this. All you really have is lunacy in abundance, with little sense to make of it all.

The_Void Lucio Fulci has made a great many classic horror films, but Manhattan Baby isn't one of them. It's actually quite amazing just how dull and un-involving this Egyptian thriller really is. I've got to admit that I'm not a very big fan of films revolving around Egypt at the best of times, and especially not when they're as boring as this one. The film isn't very ambitious, and Fulci seems more than happy to simply let it wallow in its premise and this means that the story doesn't progress much, and since there isn't much in the way of interesting scenes; watching this film is a lot like pulling teeth. The film opens in Egypt during a dig. The film actually begins on something of a high, as Fulci's Egyptian shoot looks good and everything seems to point to Manhattan Baby being a promising film. However, after the archaeologist accidentally (naturally) releases an evil spirit and travels back to America, there are some murders. It's not long before he finds out that the evil has possessed his daughter, and she is the culprit. And that's when everything goes downhill.Fulci's trademark is, of course, gore; and while there are a couple of gory scenes here and there, it doesn't compare with films such as The Beyond and The New York Ripper. Speaking of those two eighties films; this was released around the same time, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if this film was made merely as an afterthought...as that's certainly what it feels like. The fact that the film largely centres on child actors doesn't exactly help proceedings either, as Fulci showed with The House by the Cemetery that he isn't very good at casting kids, and this is confirmed in this movie with the recasting of the irritating blonde kid Giovanni Frezza. Brigitta Boccoli is slightly better in a more prominent role; but that really isn't saying anything. The plot is put together through unrelated and nonsensical scenes, and many of these are boring and annoying. The best sequence in the film happens near the end and sees a man being attacked by birds; but the special effects are so poor in this scene that it's not really worth watching anyway. Overall, this movie is rather upsetting as Fulci has proved with earlier and later films that he is capable of better...but everyone's got to have a few blips in their career.

movieman_kev Susie Hacker, the daughter of an archaeologist, gets possessed by an malicious evil spirit after her dad accidentally unleashes it from it's Egyptian tomb, that also leaves him temporarily blind. Being a big fan of Lucio Fulci, I didn't mind, let's just say the looseness of the plot, quite the opposite I expected the plot not to make much sense and be full of holes. What I didn't expect was the film's disconcerting lack of the gooey red stuff. When one watches a Fulci film, one expects certain things to happen and the gore to flow. But aside from a few VERY few instances, they never happen in this movie. We're left with an overly long badly dubbed film, which while still interesting to watch for huge fans of the director, is still pretty boring at times. It seems to me that Fulci's films can be separated by this film. Look at the films before this one "Don't Torture a Duckling", "The House by the Cemetery", "The Beyond". "Lizard in a Woman's Skin", "New York Ripper", and other classics. Now look at this film and the ones that came after such as "Conquest", "The New Gladiators", "Cat In the Brain", and others. Fulci entered his third period of films with this one and it wasn't for the better.My Grade: D- DVD Extras: An 8 minute interview with Writer Dardano Saccheti; Talent bios; and Theatrical trailer