CityoftheLivingDead

City of the Living Dead (1980)

Recently I had the misfortune of finally watching a Fulci directed horror film that I really didn’t like. So having also watched this one as well I’m using this review to cleanse my palate of that rather bad movie. City of the Living Dead is the movie that followed up Fulci’s Zombie and does so nicely. The movie opens with a priest hanging himself in a cemetery. This cemetery belongs to the small town of Dunwich, which was built on the ruins of Salem. Because of all the bad mojo that went down in Salem with the witches being burned the priest’s suicide allows the gates of hell to open. It is up to a psychic named Mary, a reporter named Peter, and a psychologist named Gerry to save the world and close the gates before we are all doomed. Unfortunately the dead have already started to walk the Earth and aren’t too keen on being sent back.

This is an excellent movie with an exciting plot that keeps the action and the gore coming at the audience for the duration. From the first disturbing scenes of the priest committing suicide till the bizarre freeze frame ending that leaves the audience guessing I was fascinated and more importantly entertained. The story also does a great job of setting up certain memorable scenes like the suicide or the scene involving the character of Mary being rescued from the coffin (great scene!). The cast is top notch and includes Catriona MacColl (Mary), Giovanni Lombardo Radice in the small role of Bob, and genre legend Christopher George. They all are great in their roles, but I especially wanted to mention Radice. His role as Bob is very minor, but he is so damn good in it that he steals all the scenes he is in. Plus he has one of the better deaths, which is always important in a horror film.

It’s a Fulci movie so of course we need to mention the gore. There are two really great death scenes in the movie that everyone who has seen the movie always remembers. The first is the demise of Radice’s character Bob, who meets the wrong end of a drill! The other is that a young woman who vomits her internal organs up thru her mouth. This scene keeps going and going, which to be honest I got a real kick out of. I’m afraid what that might say about my character; actually no I’m not. And for just plain gross out credibility there is another scene with a room full of flying worms that is just disgusting and fun! Anyway in addition to the killer effects this movie also boasts some of the great visuals that dominate much of Fulci’s work as a director. In particular there is a scene early on where the death of the priest is being witnessed hundreds of miles away by the psychic Mary. Part of the scene is actually framed and viewed thru an extreme close up of her eye. It stands out as such a unique and wonderful visual that I’ve never seen before and is a testament to how much effort was put into the film.

I love Fulci movies, and this along with Zombie and the Beyond are his best efforts in my humble opinion. So without any hesitation I have to give City of the Living Dead a huge recommendation. This DVD is available from Blue Underground. For more information check them out at www.blueunderground.com

4 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer