A trio of armed robbers, Tony (Keith Van Hoven), Paul (Peter Hintz)
and Sandra (Karina Huff), are on the run from the police, when they decide to force their way into a remote mansion in the Italian countryside,
hoping to rob the place and hide out there for a while.
They find the home filled with various antique clocks, which belongs to a sinister elderly couple who, unknown to them (but known to us), are actually far worse than the armed trio and the house is hiding a number of dark secrets.
But they subsequently get into a brawl with the couple and the gardener (played by Fulci regular Al Cliver), and the robbers end up shooting them all dead. After which ghostly goings on start to happen.
Time seems to stand still and even goes in reverse. As they try to leave, they find the house surrounded by an impenetrable ghostly fog and are attacked by vicious guard dogs, which force them back inside.
They then find all the clocks in the house have stopped, the old couple and gardener re-appear and proceed to attack them. They find dead bodies in part of the house and when they try making a break for it, they find themselves being attacked by zombies, that rise up out of the ground.
Directed by Lucio Fulci, this was originally filmed for the Italian Cable TV market as part of a proposed mini-series of haunted house films Fulci was making with Umberto Lenzi, that subsequently got shelved. This one, like many other Italian horrors from the late 80s, is a bit of a mess plotwise and not particularly engaging and was typical of how dull the Italian film industry had become by this time. As you're actually left wondering if any of it actually happened, owing to the bizarre ending.
Not one of Fulci's best, though definitely not his worst either. But one I can only recommend to die-hard Fulci fans, or the morbidly curious.
