Manhattan Baby Movie Review

Manhattan Baby is a 1982 horror movie directed by Lucio Fulci and Starring Christopher Connelly
and Brigitta Boccoli.

Professor George Hacker(Connelly) is in Egypt on holidays with his wife and daughter, Susie(Boccoli). Susie meets a mysterious woman in the desert who hands her an amulet. Her father is blinded when he goes into a forgotten tomb. They return home to New York where George has to
try and get through the days being blind. His wife tries to help him, but he is bitter over the whole thing. Susie has the amulet in her bedroom. She has a premonition and she sees the mysterious woman in her dreams. She is scared by the whole thing. She sees a blue light coming from the amulet and she is very scared by it. It comes from Susie's eyes also. She finds that she is able to control her brother, Tommy. She sees him walk through a doorway a disappear into thin air.

George hears something and he comes looking for his children. He finds Daddy Help Me written on the mirror. The blue light goes into the professor's eyes. He can see something. George goes to see his friend, Wiler, and tells him about the tomb and his eyesight returns.Wiler tells him about an ancient god who was evil and cruel. They look through his books and they see the symbol from the tomb. Susie and Tommy are playing a game with their Au pair, Jamie Lee. They are making her nervous.
A snake appears.  Jamie Lee calls Susie's mother to tell her that is going on. Her mother comes home with her friend, Luke. The children have locked themselves into their bedroom. Luke tries to help to open the door. He tries, but he gets zapped by something and he disappears. There is sand on the floor. The mother sees a scorpion. Jamie Lee sees a vision of the tomb and she screams. The mother looks for Luke. We see that he is in the desert, dead.

George looks at the sand in the room. The mother wants to call the cops but George doesn't. Wiler looks through his books and he finds the symbol from the tomb.Jamie Lee takes a Polaroid photo of the two children. Nothing shows up but the amulet. She throws it away but a woman picks it up and takes it and gives it to the mother with a name Marcato and an address on it too. Wiler discovers that the sand from the room came from Egypt. How can that be? Jamie Lee goes missing. The children say that she is on a voyage. Wiler researches the symbol and he gets bitten by a snake. Susie wakes up from her sleep screaming. She holds a picture of the tomb symbol. George wonders how she got it.
 George goes to see Marcato. They show him a picture of the symbol. He tells George and his wife that Susie is in danger. George thinks that he is a crazy person. Marcato tells them to ensure that she doesn't have the jewel. They go home and search for it. They find it. George discovers that Wiler has been killed.

Marcato goes to see Susie as she has fainted but he ends up bleeding and choking. He tells George that Susie is a prisoner of the jewel. It is using her for its evil deeds. The jewel can open the gate to space and time. They hold hands and end up in the desert. They have to take Susie to the hospital. The doctors can't figure out what Susie's illness is. Marcato looks into the jewel. Tommy is alone at home when Jamie Lee's dead body comes through the wall. Susie wakes up and blood pours out of her mouth. George goes to see Maracto. He says that now Susie is okay because he has taken the curse from her and put it onto himself. He gives the jewel to George and tells him to get rid of it.
 Marcato gets  killed when his stuffed birds come back to life and peck him to death. The movie ends with George throwing the jewel into the river. We see another girl in Egypt receiving the jewel from the same woman, starting it all up again.

This was an okay movie.  I didn't love it, I have to say. I liked parts of it, but on the whole, it wasn't brilliant. It was pretty entertaining, but if you look at some of Fulci's other work, this doesn't even come close to it. I found the movie a little dull in parts and it could be slightly confusing, with a lot of twists and turns. It was worth a look, though and there are some parts that are pretty good such as the bird pecking scene, so if  you are a Fulci fan, then you might enjoy this one. I will give it a 5/10.