This gruesome horror film from cult director Lucio Fulci posits a priest's suicide opening the gateway to Hell, freeing bloodthirsty zombies to roam the town of Dunwich. The main attractions are startlingly explicit special effects by Franco Rufino, including two of the horror genre's most memorable deaths. One involves perennial victim Giovanni Lombardo Radice (also known as John Morghen) having his head run through with a power-drill, and the second is the notorious scene of a woman vomiting
up all of her internal organs in a nauseating torrent of blood and guts. Fulci does manage one nice moment of splatter-free horror, as hero Christopher George struggles to free a woman who has been buried alive. As his pick-axe enters the coffin repeatedly, it comes ever closer to her face, causing the audience to wince with each strike. Aside from these scenes, though, Fulci's direction is somewhat plodding, as he substitutes slow pacing and clouds of fog for real suspense. Horror fans will still want to seek this film out, however, if only for the effects work and a familiar cast including Catriona MacColl, Janet Agren, Carlo de Mejo, Antonella Interlenghi, and Daniela Doria. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
City of the Living Dead is a film that deserves its place within your horror library. Bless your black horror loving hearts, Blue Underground! Now bring on The Beyond and Zombie please!
Teleporting Zombies! Hanging priests! Bleeding eyes! Organ regurgitation! The plot is meaningless and the characters senseless. But these are pluses for films in this cycle.
Drink less [than six beers], you'll be bored with the nonsensical plot. Drink more, you'll probably vomit when you see a girl in the movie literally puke her guts out.
You can call this a dress rehearsal for The Beyond. Not as focused and effective as The Beyond, but full of crazy over the top moments. There are enough gory killings here to make a full top then list of great movie kills. Is going to disgust you more than scare you, but it will never bore you.
June 1, 2008
Tsubaki Sanjuro
Super Reviewer
More blood and guts from Lucio Fulci. I watch this on Netflix Streaming before they jack up their rates. I saw no real point to this one. A priest commits suicide in a New England town, and opens the gates of Hell allowing the dead to rise from their graves and feed on the living. Special effects are pretty gory, with
maggots galore. But still not a top notch zombie film, so I can only dish out 2 1/2 stars.
August 15, 2011
Bruce Bruce
Super Reviewer
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