kclipper Review of City of the Living Dead

City of the Living Dead (1980)

One of Lucio Fulci's goriest films is full of human atrocity.

[7/10 · 12 August 2011]

This is one of the best of Lucio Fulci's Italian gross out horror films during the exploitation era. Going under the U.S.A. title, 'The Gates Of Hell', a priest hangs himself and subsequently opens up a doorway to all sorts of unexplained evil happenings in the town of Dunwich (a purely Lovecraftian city built during the Salem witch trials). Christopher George is a reporter investigating the phenomena who has two days to find Dunwich and close the portal before the dead will rise to overrun mankind on All Saints Day. This is the classic Fulci barf-o-rama with some really putrid and well-directed scenes that stand out including, but not limited to; A woman mistaken for dead and buried alive awakens just before George desperately hacks away at the coffin with a pickax, A girl bleeds through the eyes and vomits up intestines, a boy gets a drill through the head in a graphically brutal scene, thousands of maggots come pouring in through a blown out window, and plenty of brain-ripping define this sick gorefest. There is a very well constructed underground catacomb where the climax takes place, and the gloomy musical score does it justice. Fans of Fulci's 'Zombie' and 'The Beyond' will consider this a gem, anyone else will probably look the other way.