Nightmare City
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Movie Reviews of Nightmare City
Movie Review: A Fantastic "bad" Zombie Movie
Summary: 4 Stars
Incubo sulla città contaminata (a.k.a. Nightmare City - 1980) is the latest film I've seen in my attempt to review every zombie/vampire/undead movie. Nightmare City is one of the better and more enjoyable of the "bad" Zombie flicks. The basic story is that a reporter and his nurse wife trying to survive a Zombie attack in their city. Meanwhile, a bunch of generals stand around a room full of blippy computers and other military guys fly around in a helicopter while people are getting killed all over the city. At this time I am not very familiar with Umberto Lenzi compared to the other Giallo directors (Fulci, Argento, etc.), but after seeing this movie I'm curious to look into his other work.
What strain of zombie are these that attack the Nightmare City? These are radioactive zombies that range from having a few scabs to having full facial masks that make them look like an army of Toxic Avengers. They're fast moving zombies; but, of course, they suddenly become the slow and lumbering zombies when they're after the protagonists. These zombies are also weapon wielding, organized, and well planned murderers. They really like to drink the blood, and only a head shot will kill them. They can solve problems, but (fortunately) can't talk. I give them a high zombie score of 8/10.
There is a fare share of the required zombie film gratuitous sexism and nudity. It starts with a 20-something women getting groped by a creepy guy three times her age. For some reason, several minutes of the movie is taken up by watching a television production of girls dancing in leotards to dentist office "muzak". It leads to a good (but somewhat illogical) zombie attack, though. A good way for zombies to kill women seems to involve ripping their shirts open (more on this below). A gratuitous sexism and nudity score of 7/10.
The gore involves the flow of `red red krovvy'. There isn't much in the way of guts, but the bright red paint is plentiful. To make up for the lack of innards, the violence is quite graphic. It might verge on comical to a more seasoned zombie film fanatic, but I could imagine a more sensitive viewer reacting to the violence in Nightmare City. I'll admit that there were a few moments where I cringed, and there were also a few moments where I yelled at the TV, "Awesome!!!", but I won't spoil those who readers who haven't seen the film. I'll just say one word: Decapitation. Being generous (and comparing to other Italian zombie movies from the same era), this movie rates a decent gore/violence score of 8/10.
The movie was a bit slow in the beginning, and had it's slow moments through out; but overall it kept my interest the entire time. It will definitely be one of those films that will be better viewed with friends who enjoy cheering and jeering at old horror films. On the boredom scale (0 being insomnia curing, 10 being '78 Dawn of the Dead) Nightmare City gets a 7/10. That being said, I do think the movie would have been much better if it had ended three minutes before it did. Instead of going with a depressing "Night of the Living Dead" type of ending, they decided to have a total cop-out ending.
The dialogue gets a 5/10 for being pretty standard zombie flick dialog. +1 for a terrible overdub into English and +1 for the required synthesizer soundtrack (yes, in a zombie film those are plusses). Overall, especially in comparison to other Gaillo zombie films of the time, Nightmare City gets a solid 8/10 in my Zombie movie scale.
FOR FUN: While watching the movie, I came up with the "Nightmare City Drinking Game" (rules and language cleaned up for amazon editors, but feel free to modify). As mentioned, the zombies in this film have a penchant for ripping open women's clothing whilst in the act of attacking them. That is only part of the story. The zombies seem to have three main methods for killing their victims: stabbing people in the neck, biting people in the neck, and (for some reason) stabbing women in the breasts. So, here's the drinking game. Every time a person gets stabbed or bitten in the neck, take a swig. Every time a women gets stabbed in the "chest", take a shot. Every time the reporter's wife starts philosophizing or criticizing modern society, take two shots. Every time there's an "awesome" moment (you'll know them when you see them) take a shot and a swig. Have fun!
Movie Review: Solid Zombie flick by Umberto Lenzi
Summary: 4 Stars
It seems every zombie flick in the 80s followed the format of George A. Romero or Lucio Fulci and sometimes a little bit of both, but Nightmare City offers up a decent twist on zombie flicks, but not totally original.
Nightmare City while not one of the greatest zombie movies ever made has to rate as one of the most fun movies I have ever seen. When it comes to the career of Umberto Lenzi I wouldn't say he was a great filmmaker, but the guy does know how to create a fun time.
If you are looking for George Romero style zombies well you will not find that here in general. The best way to describe the movie is you take a little bit of Romero's Night of the Living Dead and a lot of Romero's The Crazies and you have Nightmare City.
These zombies are unlike most you have ever seen; first up the zombies can fly planes, drive cars, use guns, knives and axe and various weapons to stab their victims and to top it all off these guys don't walk at a slow pace they run full speed ahead.
The screenplay by Antonio Cesare Corti, Luis Maria Delgado and Piero Regnnoli won't win any awards for great writing, but it gets the job done I suppose. The concept is fairly decent; a radiation spill at a Nuclear Power Plant is what turns people into zombies.
What saves Nightmare City is the amount of action; there are very few slow moments. Like this movie or not I can't see anyone saying it was boring. The stretches in the zombie attacks are quite brief so due to that dealing with the script is a lot easier.
Considering the time this movie was made it's actually not very gory believe it or not. Don't get me wrong there are some rather gory moments. Body parts are being cut off, an eye being ripped out and zombies having their heads blown off. So Nightmare City does feature some gore. But in general most of the gore scenes are quite tame. Due to the fact so many people are killed there are more scenes with a lot less gore than there are with.
Your more casual fan of the horror genre will be impressed with the gore level, but the more hardcore fans might be a bit let down that most of the zombie action features only a little gore except for a few scenes. What I can say is when Nightmare City goes for gore it pretty much delivers on it.
There were some problems with the movie, which Umberto Lenzi explains on the DVD. He had some problems with one of the producers wanting a more Romero or Fulci style zombie movie. And that's not what Lenzi wanted to do. He also doesn't really refer to the characters as zombies, but later on he does. Go figure.
I can see how somebody might not see this as a zombie movie, but it does follow the structure of a zombie movie; though it does stray at times. Even though Lenzi sometimes refers to it as a zombie movie and other times he doesn't, it's still more of a zombie movie. Some people die and that's the end of them. Sometimes they themselves become zombies. That is the only problem the lack of a clear direction.
As I stated earlier Lenzi takes a little bit of Night of the Living Dead and a little bit of The Crazies and makes one hell of a fun zombie flick. As much as I liked the movie it's not one of the very best zombie movies ever made, but the zombies here are some of the toughest you'll find.
Umberto Lenzi isn't a great filmmaker by any means, but he's one of those guys that just knows how to craft a really fun and enjoyable movie. I would probably rate this as his best flick, but his most fun for sure. On the DVD Umberto Lenzi takes himself a little too serious. He tries to make the movie sound more intelligent than it actually is.
Overall Nightmare City is a fun movie that offers a decent twist on how a zombie movie is done even if it does take elements from other movies. There is enough action to hold the viewers attention. The highlight of the movie features zombies going on a killing spree in a hospital is the movies most memorable scene. The last few minutes, which are set at an amusement park, are surprisingly solid with some decent tension and a nice twist.
Movie Review: ALERT! Channel 5 News Flash!
Summary: 4 Stars
From the scattered and mottled composition of Nightmare City, I have gleaned the following intriguing facts:
(A) Radioactive Zombies are not like ordinary zombies; Radioactive Zombies are capable of piloting planes and wielding weapons of virtually any description.
(B) Radioactive Zombies do not look like ordinary zombies; Radioactive Zombies wear normal clothes, suits and ties, and look like someone dumped large buckets of pigeon excrement all over their heads and faces.
(C) Radioactive Zombies disregard the consumption of human flesh in favor of non-polite exsanguination.
(D) Radioactive Zombies have absolutely no regard for the institution of physical fitness and will brazenly slaughter aerobics instructors in the middle of a television broadcast.
Nightmare City occurs in the wake of some undisclosed radioactive spill, the result of which is a horde of blood-crazed maniacs. The city authorities are waiting for the return of the renowned professor sent to investigate the spill; however, when the professor does return he does so in an unmarked plane with no apparent flight plan. The professor himself leads the initial disgorge of zombies from the plane, attacking the military and airport personnel. AHHHHHH! The zombies prey upon the hapless and stupid humans, stabbing their victims and tearing open their throats to release geysers of spurting blood.
Unfortunately for Nightmare City, the protagonist is a sanctimonious reporter. The reporter flees from the airport massacre to interrupt an apparently very popular aerobics show to report the horrific events via a "special news flash" on Channel 5. The news flash is canceled, however, when the watchful military intervenes. The reporter disgustedly resigns his post. Meanwhile, the blood-crazed radioactive zombies have invaded the station and have begun to violently exsanguinate the aerobics instructors. Is nothing sacred?
Even worse than the forced cancellation of everybody's favorite aerobics show, the zombies are spreading their radioactive contagion to their victims. Sweet Jesus, the unthinkable carnage. The reporter manages to reach the local hospital, where he collects his wife and sets out with the intension of raiding for fuel and provisions and ostensibly fleeing Nightmare City; in the process of doing so, however, the reporter and his wife decide to pause for roughly ten minutes while they smugly wax philosophical and self-righteously condemn the race of man for his cruel disregard and technological trespasses. This gives the zombies just enough time to catch up, and the reporter and his wife subsequently lose access to the provisions as well as their vehicle.
At the end of the day, Nightmare City is stupid, disoriented, and lavishly violent, and since those are three qualities that I myself greatly appreciate, I have thenceforth bestowed upon the tangled mess called Nightmare City a rating of 4 stars.
Movie Review: A Solid Horror Film
Summary: 4 Stars
First off, let me say that this is as solid of an 80's Italian Horror flick as you can find. I will skip the synopsis as i'm sure that is already the easiest info to find on this page. Basically, this is not your typical 'zombie' flick. It actually at times feels more like an action/horror flick than a 'zombie' one. Initially, these are victims of a radioactive spill who go on a killing/cannibalistic rampage, rather than people who have died and come back to life to feast on the living. Yes they do eat people and Yes those people come back to life to kill more. These 'zombies' do run and carry on enough intelligence to use knives, guns, etc...to kill their victims.
This edition of the DVD is the uncut version, so there are great gore scenes. I wouldn't say the gore is gratuitous when compared to other movies in this sub-genre, but it is a healthy amount. Sticklers to this genre, in other words, people who need thier zombies to be traditionally slow-moving and non-thinking, will not enjoy this movie. But if you have an open mind and are equally interested in a good mix of horror, action, and cheesy B-movie material, then this is a good buy for you.
I give it 4 stars because its a solid movie...it's not exactly BURIAL GROUND, but it carries it's own value. Surprisingly, the plot and story development is good material for a movie in this sub-genre. The ending is great, unexpected, and totally different from anything I have seen in movies like this, while at the same time being cliched in other films.
The reason this movie doesn't get the whole 5 from me, is that I feel it would have been alot better off as a more traditional Zombie flick. Not to be a stickler, I don't mind if the zombies can run and use weapons but these zombies were using weapons as if nothing was wrong with them. It's like they just have some kind of green algae on their face, and all of a sudden, they went psycho. They could have looked a little more 'zombied' up. I mean, I know that Umberto Lenzi didn't want to do stereotypical zombie makeup, but at least make them look more like that dead one on the military base with the worm coming out of it's eye. To sum it up: If you have about 20 bucks to spare and are in need of an interesting, reliable pick for when you have a few friends over to drink and poke fun at some good 80's Italian Zombie B-Movie CHEESE, then this movie is a necessity. I would, however, view some Romero, Fulci, Bava among others first to fully appreciate this one.
Movie Review: LENZI'S zombie's are original!! GREAT little zombie flick!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO SAY THIS ISN'T A TRUE ZOMBIE FLICK,because the zombie's in this movie arn't really dead they are living people who have been exposed to some type of toxic chemical that kills there blood cell's and makes them crave more blood.kind of like vampire/zombie but leaning way more towards the zombie genre.the makeup & style of LENZI'S zombies are much different than ROMERO'S OR FULCI'S zombies(which is somthing he did on purpose) thats one of the main reasons this movie is good because its original,NOT a carbon copy!!!no disrespect to the great FULCI or ROMERO they are geniuses(..)! its just that its nice and refreshing to see a different view of the zombie genre especialy when it was made back in the early 80's ("the hieght of zombie mania")anyway there is no BLUE PRINT for zombies no one ever said that zombies have to be dead(..)!my opinion is if you have got mass amounts of vicious blood thirsty mutated people that will only die from a bullet to the head or fire and there chasing you down and killing everything in its path,ID SAY YOU GOT YOUR SELF QUITE A ZOMBIE PROBLEM(..)!YES THIS IS A REAL ZOMBIE FLICK(..)!not your normal average everyday zombie flick but a great little zombie flick none the less(..)! saying this isn't a zombie flick is like saying that "SHOCK WAVES" & "28 DAYS LATER" isn't a zombie flick(..)!ZOMBIE FANS HURRY UP AND GET THIS AWESOME DVD IT HAS A COUPLE OF REAL COOL EXTRA'S GET IT BECAUSE GREAT LITTLE B ZOMBIE FLICKS LIKE THIS MAY NOT BE EASY TO FIND ONE DAY(..)!P.S.thanks for such a goofy cool and original zombie movie Mr Lenzi(..)!