Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

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.

Aaron1375 First off, "Manhattan Baby" is not a very good title for this movie. There is no baby, though the film does take place in said city. Which is not very surprising, Fulci loved New York often filming scenes and such there even when the city itself was not prevalent in the plot. He also did not get permission to film there for the most part, hence the strange zombie scene on the bridge where the zombies are in a area not really known for having all that many people and traffic below was normal. Here the film starts in Egypt as a archaeologist proceed into a tomb that is cursed with one brave soul. Is this brave soul to become a lifelong friend of our hero? No, but he got the point of the film. While dad is exploring his daughter is handing money over to a woman who apparently went to "The Beyond", another of Fulci's films, perhaps his best. This woman had the creepy eyes and they played recycled music from that film throughout this one which either indicated the two films were somehow related, or they skimped on the music budget. They return to their home in New York where the dad is blind then better in a flash and the daughter and son are both acting strange. Part of the problem with this film, they indicate only the girl is being taken over, yet the boy too seems kind of strange. So we have the dad who refuses to believe anything strange is happening when one of the mom's coworkers simply vanishes and sand is left behind and we have a pointless scene of a security guard being killed in boring fashion. Where is the gore? Not much in it with the exception of the bird attack at the end, which at least the best kill was saved for last. Having very little plot worked for "The Beyond" as it had better pacing, kills were never all that far apart. Here the film drags, one to many shots of eyes, I realize it is his trademark, but here it just seems silly at times. This one just did not do it, it needed an explanation, all I know is that the medallion the girl had was somehow doing rather pointless things. Why? Who knows. The babysitter disappears and the boy seems partly responsible and seems to be just as possessed as the girl, but this is not explained either. Still, it had a nice flair and set up some interesting things, it just fails to deliver a really good payoff other than the bird attack. Then it ends in a generic fashion. I enjoyed some of the other supernatural horror films of Fulci's, but this one kind of ends up being pointless as while leaving things unexplained in "The Beyond" worked, it hinders this film.

Bezenby So, what's the worst Fulci film you've sat through? Is it Sweet House of Horrors? Well, that had some gore in it at least. Or it Aenigma? That one had some women in the scud, and a picture stabbing itself. Or is it Conquest? Well, I reckon that one is a classic myself, because it's got drug snorting werewolf men in it.Nope, for me it's Manhattan Baby. I've sat through 14 of his films now, and even his later period films like the deranged Cat in the Brain are more entertaining than this. It's taken me three viewings to get a handle on what story there is, and it does have some positive aspects, but Fulci completely fumbles the ball on this film.It starts off really well, in Egypt, where Christopher Connelly is doing some sort of dig into an ancient tomb. His wife and daughter, meanwhile, almost immediately fall into Fulci's nightmare world, when a blind (like the Beyond) woman hands the kid an amulet. Connelly, on the other hand, breaks into the tomb only to get his guide killed and himself blinded by purple laser beams (eh?).This is all atmospherically done, but the moment the family return to New York, the film slips its moorings. Strange things begin to happen, like Tommy, Connelly's son, walking into a cupboard filled with light. But it's okay, because a few scenes later he's back, and nobody really cares anyway.That's the main problem with this film. Fulci goes for the same disjointed series of scares that worked so well in The Beyond, but here manages to completely arse up just about every scene but making it either too inexplicable, too tame, or just too stupid. Sometimes the kids are terrified by what's happening, and yet other times they think it's some sort of game. Plus, there's almost no linking between the scenes whatsoever, no attempt to let the audience in on what's happening, until that last twenty minutes, and by that time I swear you'll be beyond caring. The final insult is that the ending is as lame as a one-legged donkey.There are some positive aspects to this film that raise the rating slightly. The cinematography is uniformly excellent, the Egyptian scene is a great way to start the film, and there's a couple of scenes that do genuinely work, like the Psychic rolling about on the floor, screaming in Connelly's daughter's voice.I'd love to know if this was the film that Fulci intended, because I don't reckon it is. There's too many hints that something went badly wrong in production, like the disjointed story or the recycled soundtrack (from the Beyond).Only to be viewed as a person familiar with Fulci's work. I'd hate to see some unsuspecting horror fan's reaction to this mess.

mglasson For Fulci fans, this may be a bit disappointing considering the pace and the lack of heavy gore, but this is not to say that nothing strange or ominous happens during the course of the film. In fact, i thought some of the random and strange deaths were good payoffs in their own right (i had to rewind a few of them to see if I missed something - turns out i didn't). Manhattan Baby really plays out like a poor sibling to "The Beyond:" an evil curse is unleashed and people start dying in strange, inexplicable ways while story coherence takes a backseat. This movie even features a lot of the same music used in The Beyond, but the similarities don't end there. As is characteristic by Fulci, there is ample coverage of the actor's eyeballs in extreme close-up overused to a comical effect and features its share of poor dialogue, wooden acting and some over-the-top characterization as well. All the same, this was a noble attempt on the part of Fulci and screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti to try something different within the horror genre and not rely so much on the bloodletting. While I wouldn't call this a runaway success, it tends to work on its own terms and is very enjoyable indeed.