{"id":3707,"date":"2024-08-28T22:15:22","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T22:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3707"},"modified":"2024-10-14T14:48:30","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T18:48:30","slug":"city-of-the-living-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/28\/city-of-the-living-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"City of the Living Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"City of the Living Dead <\/strong>(1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MPM\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 93 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA Rating (extremely graphic bloody violence and gore, some language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Lucio Fulci\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Lucio Fulci and Dardano Sacchetti\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Fabio Frizzi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Sergio Salvati\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 8, 1983 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Christopher George, Katriona MacColl, Carlo De Mejo, Antonella Interlenghi, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Daniela Doria, Fabrizio Jovine, Luca Paisner, Michele Soavi, Venantino Venantini, Enzo D\u2019Ausilio, Adelaide Aste, Robert Sampson, Janet Agren.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Body Count: 15\u00a0\u00a0 AKA: The Gates of Hell (US release)<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong>\u00a0****<\/p>\n

You may have already seen Lucio Fulci\u2019s City of the Living Dead<\/strong> without realizing it. It was released as The Gates of Hell in the US in April ’83. Like most Italian-made gorefests, it carried a \u201cNo One Under 17 Admitted\u201d policy in lieu of an MPAA rating. This one is particularly sick and gross. If you ever wanted to see somebody throw up their insides, this is your big chance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I didn’t like City of the Living Dead<\/strong> the first time I saw it. I rented it from the Video Den in December \u201984 with high hopes. While I enjoyed the gore, I had no idea what was going on. It didn\u2019t make a lot of sense to me. At the time, I didn\u2019t realize it was directed by the same guy who did The House by the Cemetery which I saw that October. It took a few viewings over the years to make me a fan. Now, I LOVE IT! It\u2019s so weird and creepy. How can I NOT love it?<\/p>\n

\u00a0It all starts when Father Thomas (Jovine, Contraband) hangs himself in the Dunwich town cemetery. He\u2019s seen by psychic Mary (MacColl, The Beyond) in a trance during a s\u00e9ance in New York. She dies on the spot, presumably of fright. What could possibly be that scary? In her vision, she saw \u201c[a] city of the dead. The living dead. A cursed city where the gates of hell have been opened.\u201d When the priest killed himself, he somehow opened them. When that happens, the dead rise and walk the earth. If they\u2019re not closed by All Saints Day, \u201cno dead body will ever rest in peace\u201d. This is according to the ancient book of Enoch.<\/p>\n

\u00a0We find all this out after Mary comes back to life while lying in her coffin in her grave. She\u2019s rescued from being buried alive by a reporter Peter (George, Pieces) who hears her cries. He\u2019s there investigating her mysterious \u201cdeath\u201d. I\u2019d say he has an even bigger story now. He and Mary set off to find the town of Dunwich which doesn\u2019t appear on any map. It turns out it’s built on the ruins of the original Salem where witches were burned to death at the stake in the 17th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Meanwhile, all hell is breaking loose in Dunwich. Strange things start happening. People die in gruesome ways. People like Emily (Interlenghi, La Cage Aux Folles 3), the assistant to local psychiatrist Gerry (De Mejo, The House by the Cemetery). She meets her grisly fate at the maggot-covered hands of Father Thomas when she goes to help town outcast Bob (Radice, Cannibal Ferox), a young man regarded as a rapist by many of the locals. Hers isn\u2019t the worst death. Others get it much worse like the guy killed by a mechanical drill to the head. Fulci shows it from every possible angle. That\u2019s the money shot! Three people have their brains ripped from the backs of their skulls. Several folks fall victim to zombies. Then there\u2019s the girl that pukes up her internal organs. Basically, City of the Living Dead<\/strong> is a complete bloodbath. Who says that\u2019s a bad thing?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The narrative of City of the Living Dead<\/strong> essentially consists of a confusing series of events leading up to Peter, Mary, Gerry and one of his patients Sandra (Agren, Red Sonja) rushing to close the gates of hell before it\u2019s too late. That\u2019s the thing about these Italian-made splatter movies; they don\u2019t always make sense. In this case, it\u2019s a good thing. It gives them a nightmarish feel. Where else but a bad dream will you see a maggot attack?<\/p>\n

\u00a0City of the Living Dead<\/strong> is absolutely thick with atmosphere. The town of Dunwich appears to exist in a permanent mist. Everybody acts like they’re from another planet. The crypt that serves as the setting for the finale looks great. In fact, the whole movie is GREAT! It\u2019s effectively eerie, creepy and scary. The gore effects by Franco Rufini are top shelf and A1. The score by Fabio Frizzi augments the movie\u2019s unsettling tone. The cinematography and editing by Sergio Salvati and Vincenzo Tomassi are two of the movie\u2019s strongest assets. BTW, they worked on all three films in the GOH trilogy. Even the acting isn\u2019t too bad. I LOVE MacColl and it\u2019s always great to see the late Christopher George.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I am so glad I gave City of the Living Dead<\/strong> multiple chances. It\u2019s one of Fulci\u2019s best movies. I\u2019d even say it\u2019s something of a gore masterpiece.<\/p>\n

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City of the Living Dead (1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MPM\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 93 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA Rating (extremely graphic bloody violence and gore, some language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Lucio Fulci\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Lucio Fulci and Dardano Sacchetti\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Fabio Frizzi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Sergio Salvati\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 8, 1983 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Christopher George, Katriona MacColl, Carlo De Mejo, Antonella Interlenghi, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scary-gory-wild-i-love-it"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/City-of-the-Living-Dead-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3707"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4717,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3707\/revisions\/4717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}