City of the Living Dead(1980)Paura nella città dei morti viventi(original title).In the small New England town of Dunwich, a priest commits suicide by hanging himself in the church cemetery which somehow opens the gates of hell allowing the dead to rise. Peter, a New York City reporter, teams up with a young psychic, named Mary, to travel to the town where they team up with another couple, psychiatrist Jerry and patient Sandra, to find a way to close the gates before All Saints Day or the dead all over the world will rise up and kill the living. Written bymatt-282... Synopsis City of the Living Dead(1980)Paura nella città dei morti viventi(original title)
Movie Title: City of the Living Dead(1980)Paura nella città dei morti viventi(original title)
Run Time: 93 min
Rating: 6.1 / 10
Genres: Horror
Release Date: 1 May 1983 (USA)
Director: Lucio Fulci
Writer: Lucio Fulci ,Dardano Sacchetti , more credit ... and other credits
Actor: Christopher George,Catriona MacColl,Carlo De Mejo
A priest is hung in a cemetery, opening the gates of Hell. In another part of the world, a woman is struck dead in the middle of a séance. Zombies abound, and what is more fun to watch than a movie full of zombies?
"City of the Living Dead", or more literally "Fear in the City of the Living Dead Men", is one of Lucio Fulci's classic zombie films. And I want to be up front with you: I have a really mixed feeling about it. If you like Italian horror, you will probably like this movie. If not, it might be a little more difficult to digest.
Do not get me wrong: there is a lot of really good gore and horror here. A priest hanging himself in the opening scene is always a plus. There is a scene where a woman vomits up her own internal organs (and, according to insiders, she was actually vomiting up warm sheep entrails she had swallowed). Backs of skulls are torn off. So, if you are into that, you are going to like this one.
My main issue comes from the film quality and the close-ups. Something about Italian horror (maybe all Italian films) seems to require the film quality to be very poor. This film was shot in 1980, but the film quality is something that Americans were no longer used to by 1970. So, for me, seeing a quality that is incongruous with the time it was shot just leaves me feeling cold. I can watch a poor quality film or a black and white movie, but if you are using equipment that is outdated, I feel I am being let down. (I have to say, Blue Underground has made a world of difference bringing the quality up to speed -- those old VHS copies are junk.)
My issue with the close-ups revolve around the entrails-vomiting scene. You have an actress who (allegedly) is actually puking entrails. Yet, we get an extreme close-up so we do not see them splatter on her or the surroundings. And the scene is cut every few seconds, giving the impression she just has mouthfuls she is spitting out. If you are going to do all out, give the actress the film coverage she needs.
But anyway, those complaints aside, I must again say: if these things do not bother you, you will like this. Even the music is very appropriate. It sounded to me very much like something from "Day of the Dead" (though this came out first), so it is very zombie-esque in its themes. Modern films owe a debt to the groundbreaking of Fulci (though he still owes a debt to Romero).
I am not going to tell you to go out of your way to find this one or to buy it, or even to rent it. There are other films I think need to be seen first, and some obscure ones I would rather suggest (recent foreign horror films I enjoyed include "The Maid" and "Dust Devil"). But this is, certainly, a film that must not be ignored: any true horror fan must know Fulci, and no zombie fan would have a complete life without this film under his/her belt.
The above review was written after my first viewing years ago, and I now have a fuller appreciation for Fulci and his work. I also need to give credit to the amazing Catriona MacColl and to Giovanni Lombardo Radice (I had forgotten how big his role was). The criticisms I made are fair, though if I wrote the review from scratch today, I would not have been so negative.
