City of the Living Dead review
Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. For those who know me you know about my love for horror films so once a month I’m going to review and discuss a scary flick. We’ll look at the classics, some new films, and I want your suggestions on what I should review. I’ll do my best to cover all the different genres within the genre – slashers, ghosts, monsters, etc.
SPOILER ALERT! – These will be reviews so if you haven’t seen the movie you’ll want to watch it first before you read this. Let’s do this.
city of the living dead
Fulci lives!! At least here for now. It’s past time I talked about Italian horror, and one can’t do that without talking about the films of Lucio Fulci. Known for his use of gore and zombies, he’s one of the kings. I wanted to discuss City of the Living Dead as it is the first film in his Gates of Hell trilogy. I think it’s important to talk about two distinct aspects of this, and a lot of Italian horror films which is what critics and the general public think, and what horror fans think.
1980’s City of the Living Dead follows a woman who dies during a séance (but then isn’t dead and is saved after almost being buried alive) and her vision of a priest who hanged himself in another town. On All Saints Day the gates of hell will be opened so the town of Dunwich is doomed! I really don’t get that date especially since that is the day after Halloween but is never mentioned in the film. A reporter gets in on the action along with a few of the townspeople who are out to end this before it’s too late. The film is full of nasty, nasty deaths (and a swarm of larvae!) A woman’s eyes bleed and she then throws up her entire stomach. I’m talking intestines, organs and all. It’s so gross but so well done. An angry father kills a young man who was fooling around with his daughter by jamming his head into a huge drill lathe. Italian splatter horror ladies and gentlemen! The group finds the tomb of the priest and finally destroys him and saves the town. Or do they? The final scene shows a young boy they saved rushing towards them and we hit a freeze frame, then dissolve to black amid screams…
This film is not going to win any sort of awards by any stretch and most people probably think it’s awful. Guess what – they are right. Sort of. It’s very low budget and it’s got bad acting, bad voice dubbing, blah, blah, blah. Those are all accurate but that doesn’t matter. There are plenty of films out there that aren’t great but are memorable and become – as the term goes – a cult classic. A term I’m tired of using though. So, what about the good right? Plenty of it in my opinion. I watch, talk, and write about horror films so yes, I will defend them. Italian horror or giallo is very intense. Vivid colors like in the films of Dario Argento. Mario Bava’s visuals, and the aforementioned Fulci and his blood and guts! Italian horror loves zombies too. This movie starts with and continually plays a spooky piano theme that reeks horror. I’m into it from the opening credits. Good eerie visuals of windy, fog filled dark alleys. Whip pans and zooms which were staples in the 70’s. Overall just very eerie. Fantastique as I saw someone describe it. The violence is always over the top but that’s what we love. The jump cuts and almost stop motion scenes of the hanged priest are great. You thought you had tried all those amateur tricks when you were learning to use a camera, but he uses them well. We live in another place in these films. Not a real major city. One of my favorite Italian horror films in Zombi 2 by Fulci. Next up we get into The Beyond for part 2 in the Gates of Hell trilogy! Look forward to seeing you there…
Enjoy the trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z-G7Iwn3R0