Also known under the title The Gates of Hell, this 1980 film has Catriona MacColl as a psychic named Mary Woodhouse (a reference to Rosemary’s Baby perhaps?) and Christopher George playing a reporter named Peter Bell. During a séance, Mary has a vision of a priest that commits suicide and the opening of a gateway to hell.
She must find a way to close it before a full-blown zombie apocalypse takes place, and teams up with Peter to find the location of the priest's death. The two race toward the inevitable showdown with the living dead, and in a nod to H.P. Lovecraft, Fulci has the priest commit suicide in a cemetery in the small New England town of Dunwich.
Typical of any film by Fulci, there will be two things: a plot that moves about as fast as the walking dead and at least fifteen zooms into gratuitous gore. The real star of the film is the gore set pieces and in this movie we get a power drill through a man’s head, a woman buried alive, and the infamous scene of a girl vomiting up her own innards. She needs a toothbrush, stat! Sadly, there isn’t too much more to recommend this film. Yes, there is a lot of fog swirling around (apparently that’s all you need for atmosphere), and the film is competently photographed, but the story is so uninteresting and the actors are all sleepwalking through their parts. I was struggling to stay awake.
Although the film isn’t that engaging, it’s fantastic looking thanks to the top-notch job by Blue Underground. Details levels are impressive, even through all the fog, and the ever challenging dark scenes are nicely reproduced. On the audio side, the English soundtrack is clear, although the Italian dub doesn't fare as well. The Italian track is a little hollow and muffled sounding, but it is there for those who want a more “authentic” experience of seeing it the way it was shown in cinemas in its homeland. The English subtitles are presented in that odd manner where they appear on the side of the screen of whoever is speaking, and it can be jarring to have to track the text around the screen if you are watching it with the subs on. There are also Spanish and French subtitles included if you are in need.
If the feature itself isn’t enough to satisfy you, there is a boatload of bonus materials here. The prime piece of meat here is the making of retrospective documentary that I found more interesting than the actual film. It’s a nice look back at the production of the film with a good bit of behind the scenes footage and the usual assortment of talking head interview segments. There are also separate interviews with, Catriona MacColl, Italian horror and thriller staple Giovanni Lombardo Radice, and cast and crew members reminisce about working with Fulci in a compilation of clips. A poster and still gallery is also included with a collection of trailers and radio spots to round things out.
Zombie had made a fair impression as Italy’s answer to Dawn of the Dead and Fulci loves bringing dead people back to life. City of the Living Dead would be the first film in the loosely connected “Hell” trilogy, with The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery coming in the next few years. Thanks to Blue Underground, City of the Living Dead has new life in a great looking transfer, some great bonus material, and is a real treat for gore hounds that can handle slow moving films.
Film Score: 2/5 Disc Score: 3/5
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