City of the Living Dead
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Movie Reviews of City of the Living Dead
Movie Review: Good Creepy Italian Gore
Summary: 3 Stars
Remember those Mom & Pop video stores which popped up in almost every shopping center in America during the 80's? The ones that always smelled of popcorn and plastic. I loved roaming the horror aisles of those small shops, you never knew what you would find. One of my discoveries was a flick called "The Gates of Hell". It was a great movie full of gore, and starring Christopher George as a cigar chomping newpaper reporter who races to the small town of Dunwich to try and close the gates of Hell. It seems that when a local priest committed suicide, he opened the portal to hell and if left open until All Saint's Day, it could spell the end of humanity.
Well, lo and behold decades later I pick up "City of the Living Dead" and it's "The Gates of Hell" under an alternative title. The film holds up pretty well. The acting is pretty decent for an Italian B-Movie, the haunting musical score still causes shivers, the film is shot beautifully, and the gore effects have stood the test of time. If you are fan of Italian 80's gore-horror, then you should be pretty pleased with this DVD.
The only thing I would throw out there, is that if you are looking for a "zombie" movie, keep looking. This isn't a zombie flick. Sure the living dead are in the film, but look more like ghosts covered in scabs. These aren't the slow moving undead found in a Romero flick, these entities can just sort of appear, grab a hunk of brain, squish it around a little and then disappear just as quickly. But only if you are looking for a straight-forward zombie flick will be disappointed.
Movie Review: Ignore the mixed reviews - give it a shot
Summary: 3 Stars
You can tell by the incredibly mixed reviews it garners that this film is, as far as it goes, fairly controversial, and a source of both contentedness and discontent among horror fans. I was pleasantly surprised at how entertaining it turned out to be.
CLD is an Italian/American co-production, having a little something of American narrative coherence (sort of - at least there is a story line to follow, unlike with a fair number of Italian horror flicks) and a lot of the schlockiness of 80's Italian and American horror. The sound track is pretty scary and unnerving (except for some strangely out of place jungle noises), and there are some pretty darn gory scenes of brains being dug out of skulls and intestines being urped up.
Some would give this movie four or even five stars. I guess I'm only giving it three because I'm comparing it to movies like Susperia and The Thing which were made around the same time, and which are far better pics. Still, if you like schlock, gore, creepiness, and / or Christopher George, this film is for you - above average compared to many of its counterparts from that era, and more effective than most horror movies made nowadays. I'm giving nothing away here - promise: the last five seconds are particularly controversial among horror fandom. I usually hate these kinds of endings, but it seemed appropriate and, frankly, not unpredictable for this type of movie.
Enjoy the ride, and don't let other people's misgivings about the ending deter you from watching what is a pretty fun flick.
Movie Review: A cut above Fulci's other work, no masterpiece, but a decent nightmarish quality to it...
Summary: 3 Stars
I usually hate Fulci's work (in fact, some of his films I truly despise, like Cat in the Brain and New York Ripper), but I had never seen this one in its uncut, letterboxed version. I had seen the VHS copy when the film was retitled The Gates of Hell, but that wasn't letterboxed and was cut for American release.
It was good to see the film in its original form.
This film is no masterpiece, but it's generally a cut above Fulci's other work. The dialogue is unbelievably bad, the acting is atrocious (Fulci does a cameo like he did in other films of his, and he actually gives the best performance in the film), some of the motivations of the characters are laughable, but the film has a cool nightmare quality to it. The final third of the film is very effective, as it has hardly any dialogue and you can concentrate on the visuals, which are quite good for a low budget Italian horror film like this. City of the Living Dead also contains some of Fulci's most famous/infamous gore scenes ever, including the "drill to the head" scene and the "puking scene". Both are unsettling and visceral as hell. Fulci also draws out the tension to an extreme degree (especially in the drill scene).
If you're interested in Fulci, rent this one and Zombie. They are his best films. Fulci is not a genius (as many of his followers claim), but he could occasionally could make some decent films.
Movie Review: Uneven, But Effectively Nightmarish
Summary: 3 Stars
Of Fulci's Zombie "trilogy", City of the Living Dead (aka Gates of Hell) is usually considered the red headed stepchild of the bunch. The dialogue is often hilariously bad; the plot is almost nonexistent and the ending is a terrible, tacked on mess. Still, I like this more than The Beyond or Zombie---mostly because this one lacks the slow spots of those films. It also, because of its non-linear plot, maintains an effectively illogical and nighmarish tone from start to finish. And give Christopher George some love here. Saddled with some uncomfortably bad dialogue, he still makes for a charismatic hero. That is, until he gets his brains scooped out. The only thing that bugged me about this is the fact that the zombies are even more of an afterthought here than in the Beyond, with most of the scary set pieces revolving around the reanimated/ghostly Priest. Also, they are more "ghosts" than actual zomibes--with the ability to appear and disappear at random. Curious also that these "ghost zombies" aren't cannibalistic, but instead get their kills in by scooping out the brains of their victims with their hands.Movie Review: Inconsistent but ok
Summary: 3 Stars
Well I bought this with the hopes it would be a great zombie film to add to my collection. It's not terrible but it's not great either. If you're looking for a zombie movie with masses of the undead running the streets doing they're thing this isn't that movie. I was hoping for a romeroesque film with an Italian touch. It's basically an occasionally gory horror film with very little zombie action until around the 45 minute mark. Even than it's not much. Don't get me wrong the gore sequences are great. The music is great. Hell, even after thinking about it the story is great too. It does drag on a little though. To me it's just not really a zombie movie. If you collect these kind of movies than buy it. Amazons price is decent enough to take a chance. But if you like to see zombie after zombie fill up your screen check out the original "dawn" or one of my recent favorites "nightmare city". I'm watching "hell of the living dead" now. 10 minutes in and I already hear goblin playing. It's going to be a hell of a ride. Meet me over at that review and I'll tell ya what it's like.