Paura nella città dei morti viventi: City of the Living Dead

From the bowels of earth...

Having been one of the lucky bastards who spent his weekends browsing through several video rental stores, I'm talking 70's & 80's here, I can firmly state the VHS era allowed an entire generation to discover hidden gems that didn't make it to your local movie theater. Like the internet is today, these wonderful rental stores, where the go to when you wanted to feast on more obscure movies.

Paura nella città dei morti viventi, AKA City of the Living Dead, is a 1980 horror zombie slasher directed by the great Lucio Fulci. While, some people would think of him as a Giallo film maker, others, like me, discovered his 80's films first, so in a way you were under the impression of a single genre film maker. Luckily, I had some really good video stores back in the day. This movie is also known as The Gates of Hell. 

Deadly reflection.

Let's play hangman!

Starred by the beautiful Catriona Mccoll (who'd later collaborate with Fulci on The Beyond & The House by the Cemetery) City of the Living Dead  is a clever zombie horror film unlike what most casuals of the genre would think. One of the many themes Fulci explores on his films is Catholic/Christina religion, and how the stereotypical vision of it can be used fictionally to convey a deeper message: Religion is violent, vicious, misleading, dangerous, and more evil than Satan himself.

So, the story has it, a priest from the small village of Dunwich, has killed himself in the local cemetery in order to open a gate to hell so that the dead can rise again and, well, kill everybody to bring eternal darkness back to life once and for all. This sacrilege is foreseen by a group of Ouija enthusiasts, thus, enabling the movie plot to exist: Find the small village of Dunwich and close the gate from hell before it's too late. Mary Woodhouse (Mccoll) & Peter the journalist (Christopher George) head to the little town to save the day only to find a doomed village full of witchcraft stories and a scared to hell population. Obviously, evil unravels, people begin to die (in the most graphic way I might add) and the ultimate battle between good and evil will decide the fate of humanity for good.

a girl comes back to life.

She's crying for life.

Unlike The Beyond, where Fulci intentionally wanted a horror movie going straight to the point without too much explaining, City of the Living Dead, takes its time to develop the story, something that allows the characters to have a more consistent presence in the film ultimately leading to a more serious horror film. When it comes to the special effects department, Sergio Salvati did an excellent job as the director of photography. Although some scenes are too dark, due to the video limitations of those years, most of the film is still well photographed. The scenes with the camera moving around town are eerie with their light blue white fog and empty streets. The shots of the underground cemetery is one of the film's eeriest parts. The camera in this film, as in Fulci's other horror films, forces the audience to take a hard long look at the carnage occurring on the big screen.

The make up effects are done with flamboyance by Gino De Rossi as Gianetto De Rossi was not available to do the effects. 

The most awesome scenes I can think of, on this film, are four. First, the accurate scene where a woman pukes out her guts (I read somewhere Fulci once studied to be a doctor before turning into his passion, hence the careful work put into the death scenes) . Second, the drill through the head scene (no further explanation needed). Third, Mary's claustrophobic burial scene and last but not least, the rising of the dead in the underground cemetery, which sort of, makes you feel how empowered the dead are and how miserable our heroes are.

 

You still like blonde girls?

Someone's got a headache.

Catriona MacColl's debut in a Lucio Fulci film is splendid, she's a natural scream queen. City of the Living Dead brings back a few elements from Don't Torture a Duckling. One, the murderers in the two films are priests (yeah! mindfuck Church Fulci's style). Two, Bob, the special needs workshop kid, is wrongfully accused of murder and brutally assassinated, just like what happened to the equivalent character in the Duckling movie. Three, the film takes place in a desolated and isolated town. Four, in both films a reporter and a blonde woman are the main characters, the more you know! haha!

Overall, City of the Living Dead is one hour and twenty minutes of pure classic horror, like the one only the 80's could deliver. No CGI, no dead teens, no viral trends, just pure gory horror with great music and just the exact amount of story telling, and if you live in a small foggy town, be careful! Go watch it now!

Here's the movie trailer: