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City of the Living Dead More at IMDbPro »Paura nella città dei morti viventi (original title)

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194 reviews in total

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33 out of 46 people found the following review useful:
Nightmarish Vision, 11 October 2000
Author: marquis de cinema from Boston, MA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Paura Nella Citta Dei Morti Viventi/City of the Living Dead(1980) was Lucio Fulci's followup to his international breakthrough and ultra violent zombie classic Zombie Flesh Eaters(1979). Fulci ups the ante in violent imagery compared to Zombie(1979). Unlike Zombie(1979), The Gates of Hell(1980) focuses more on atmosphere and dreamy landscapes then on story. The film begins and ends with the scream of the main actress. The opening scene is done with some skill.

The scene where the hanged priest is superimposed between the iris of Mary Woodhouse is brilliant. There is a medical element that is prominent in all of the director's horror films. After all, Lucio Fulci at one point studied to be a doctor and spent some time in Medical school. Lucio Fulci has a small cameo as a hospital examiner. The zombies look cool and creepy.

The Gates of Hell(1980) has some flaws in it. one flaw is the sometimes erratic editing. Another flaw is that there are a few dull moments that offset the film's brilliance. Also, it has the look of a film that went through a rushed production. Finally, the ending seems as if it was put together in the last second.

Sergio Salvati did an excellent job as the director of photography. Although some scenes are too dark, most of the film is still well photographed. The scenes with the camera moving around town are eerie with its light blue white fog and empty streets. The shots of the underground cemetery is one of the film's eeriest parts. The camera in The Gate of Hell(1980) as in Fulci's other horror films forces the audience to take a hard long look at the carnage occuring on the big screen.

The make up effects are done with flamboyance by Gino De Rossi as Gianetto De Rossi was not available to do the effects. The Gates of Hell(1980) would be the first in a three film series of gothic horror that included L'Aldila/The Beyond(1981), and Quella Villa Accanto al Cimitero/The House by the Cemetery(1981). Anchor Bay Entertainment did the best job they could possibly do with what seemed to be an average print. The Gates of Hell(1980) like many gothic novels were thought of as barbarous and crude. Lucio Fulci's next feature, The Beyond(1981) would focus more completely and fully on atmosphere and pure imagery then The City of the Living Dead(1980).

Paura Nella Citta Dei Morti Viventi(1980)'s refusal to have a linear plot and its violence are some of the things that divide audiences and critics like with many of Lucio Fulci's work. After the success of Inferno(1980) in Italy, there were many people who would use the film's non linear structure as a guide line for their films. Fear is the main theme of The Gates of Hell. It is fear that brings about the demise of different characters from the film. The movie was a way for the audience to attempt to overcome their own perosnal fears.

There are four outstanding set pieces in this flick. First, the semi realistic sequence where a woman pukes out her guts. Second, the drill through the head scene. Third, the buried alive sequence which pumps the tension like a ballion until its pops. Finally, the rising of the dead in the underground cemetery.

Catriona MacColl does a good job in what was the first of three films that she would do for Lucio Fulci. This is the third film along with The Exterminator(1980) and Enter the Ninja(1981) that Christopher George suffers a violent death. Christopher George adds a sense of humor to the film's gloomy landscape. Daniela Doria really was puking out something out of her mouth as you watch that infamous sequence(this makes her a brave actress for doing this scene). The drill scene is one of the most cruel and realistic death scenes that the director has ever filmed.

City of the Living Dead(1980) has many things in common with Don't Torture A Duckling(1972). One, the murderers in the two films are priest. Two, the non conformist are blamed and brutally murdered by the victim's family or friends. Three, the film takes place in a desolated and isolated town. Four, in both films a reporter and a blonde woman are the main protagonist.

The Gates of Hell(1980) also has some similar qualities with Phantasm(1979). First, the cemetery is the main source of evil. Second, a member of the local church is the cause of the evil doings around town. Third, the two films focus more on set pieces then on character and plot. Finally, The Gates of Hell(1980) and Phantasm(1979) are played out like a nightmare where a person has entered and is unable to exit.

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24 out of 29 people found the following review useful:
First class gorefest from the notorious Lucio Fulci., 14 April 2002
Author: Infofreak from Perth, Australia

Like most of Fulci's horror movies and Italian horror in general, plot and logic take a back seat to gore and stunning visual set pieces. I don't think that 'City Of The Living Dead' quite reaches the heights of Fulci's best ('The Beyond') but apart from a few dull patches it comes closer than you would expect. The simplistic story, which tips it's hat to H.P. Lovecraft, is really just an excuse for another zombie move, and regardless of his shortcomings, Fulci certainly came up with some of the most repulsive and horrible zombies ever, so this is essential viewing to fans of the genre. The movie includes two unforgettable gore sequences ( the drill and vomit scenes), a chilling scene in a graveyard, and an odd, unexpected ending. Recommended to fans of Italian horror. Others might be puzzled if they haven't experienced the style/period before, it's quite a trip!

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30 out of 41 people found the following review useful:
Gore galore!, 11 December 2001

Author: HumanoidOfFlesh from Chyby, Poland

"The Gates of Hell" is another masterpiece directed by one of the best horror directors Lucio Fulci.Fulci,who sadly died in 1996,was a real artist.Anyway this film concerns a priest committing suicide and opening the gateway to Hell,allowing the dead to rise from their graves and feed on the living.Christopher George("Pieces")tries to stop them.The gore effects made by Gino de Rossi are excellent(maggots,rotting flesh,lots of squished brains etc.)Giovanni Lombardo Radice gets an electric drill through his head,and there's also a notorious scene of woman(Daniela Doria)vomiting up all of her internal organs in a really nauseating torrent of blood and guts.The plot is weak,but the film is highly atmospheric and imaginative.Again brilliant director Lucio Fulci created a masterpiece of pure horror!10 out of 10-not to be missed.

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22 out of 32 people found the following review useful:
One hell of a gory film!, 15 July 1999

Author: Dan Grant (dan.grant@bell.ca) from Toronto, Ontario

Lucio Fulci is a horror icon. He may not be as well known to many film goers in North America as his iconic status was cemented some twenty years ago, but if you like films by Wes Craven and M. Night Shyamalan and even David Fincher, then you can look at Fulci and say that his work has inspired some of theirs. This is the firs film that I saw of Fulci's and it was when I was a teenager and didn't appreciate a film like this. All I saw in it was a blood and gore soaked film with some really violent deaths. How can one forget the drill to the head? To this day, I still think that actor was actually killed on the set? They really did put the drill bit through his brain and captured it on film for artistic integrity.

I am obviously kidding of course, but is the effect the film will have on you. Films like this are brutal and disgusting and if you like horror films that are high on gore, then Fulci and his counterpart, Argento, are the best in the business. I have always found Italian splatter films to be awe inspiring. They are so much more creative than your typical American horror films. That has changed into the new millennium, but there is still nothing like this on the market. Fulci's films, like Craven's 70's films, would be edited and chopped to bits before anything like this would ever be released. And that is a travesty as the vision and the creativity involved in making a film like this not only takes gusto, it takes talent. Fulci is about as good as they come for this genre.

This is what I wrote in my original review of the film. This is when I was in my mid 20's. I have seen the film recently and obviously my appreciation of the film has increased.

"Gates To Hell ( English translation ) is very amateurishly made. It is lacking in the acting and the directing is choppy. But what this film is and what it does is it epitomizes horror and terror. There are really disgusting scenes of brains being eaten, guts being puked up, a drill to the head ( one of favourites ) and lots of blood, guts and tissue. This film uses the fear of religious unknowns and uses that fear brilliantly. It shows us and truly makes us feel what it must be like to feel pain. Real pain. Not the comic violence that you get from Jason and Freddy. But real disgusting terror as you watch people die in heinous ways."

Times change and now I love the film even more. Fulci is a visionary genius and his Gates to Hell is one of the most innovative horror films to come out of any country. This is a must see for every horror fan.

I am just learning about Italian horror. But if this is what the horror genre is all about, then I want to see more of it. Fulci is one of a kind and I don't think there will be another like him. This is his best work. Check it out.

9/10

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12 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
excuse me sir, you seem to have left the portal to hell open..., 13 January 2005

Author: owlman-1 from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Some films have articles, essays, even books dedicated to explaining how great they are. As a teenager it only took one simple sentence to put City of the Living Dead on my list of films I needed to see..."A woman pukes up her own intestines".

Sadly, at the time the UK censors didn't see the funny side of this, and the other delights contained in this film or it's companion The Beyond, so I didn't get to see them until much later. In some ways I can say COTLD does live up to it's reputation (it IS pretty disgusting) but in others, well, if The Beyond is pleasingly, nightmarishly surreal (and to me it is) COTLD is one of the most bafflingly illogical films I've ever seen.

The story involves a psychic and a journalist rushing to close a portal to hell that's been opened by the suicide of a priest (how? why? how should I know, I only watched the film and that didn't help! The priest comes back as an undead overlord, but was this his intention?). I say rushing but in fact their journey is rather leisurely. Apparently saving the world isn't as important as stopping off for lunch on the way, which is rather odd as they're against the clock on this one - the portal must be closed by All Saints day.

You may think that's a small thing to notice in the film except - and I'm about to give away the ending - they get there TOO LATE to close the portal! Before entering a graveyard for the final showdown with the undead priest they note that it's already All Saints day, they've blown it, yet the film continues into it's climax and a good vs evil face off from which our "heroes" think they're emerging victorious? You idiots! You already knew you blew it, what on earth is going on here?? Then there's the infamous final scene. Supposedly the films disjointed, inexplicable ending is the result of the last bit of footage being damaged and lost for ever, and what you do get is something you really have to see for yourself to (dis)believe. They certainly don't make 'em like that anymore.

If it's gore you want you certainly won't be let down by the drillings, gouged heads, zombie attacks and of course A WOMAN PUKING UP HER OWN INTESTINES, but overall this film is slow moving, and with that ending (for gods sake, that ENDING!) more than a little frustrating.

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8 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Tripe, 30 December 2007

Author: gunzar from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I'm not a critic and this is my first post so bear with me. I am a huge horror fan and have wanted to see this film for years, so when I finally picked it up I was more than a little excited. More fool me, because I don't think I have ever been so disappointed and bored with a film in my whole life.

To start with the acting is absolutely atrocious even by horror standards, and the fact that its dubbed is no excuse. I've seen trees with a wider range.

The first half of the film is so boring I almost fell asleep. I tried drinking heavily to see if it would make it better, but sadly it was to no avail. When the action finally started it was roughshod and handled badly, and the plot was ridiculous.

The one good scene was where the creatively named "Bob" met his demise, but it came about because Bob, for reasons known only to himself, had hidden in the garage of the father of a girl he had kidnapped, raped, and tried to kill. Way to go Bob.

The last part of the film involved our heroes traveling underground to face the villain of the piece, and it was so underwhelming I actually thought there was more of the film to come.

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11 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
City of the Living Dead, 31 August 2006

Author: Scarecrow-88 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Moronic gory exercise about a priest who hangs himself in a Dunwich graveyard resulting in the opening of gateway(s)to Hell. How this comes to happen is anyone's guess. I'm guessing it's the significance in the location. In folklore, Dunwich was built over the ruins of Salem..the witch's playground. Now, how hanging yourself in a graveyard in a town once housing witches is one thing, but how a priest's suicide unlocks the gates of hell is another. If Fulci would just take the time to explain the reasons why a priest's suicide could do such a thing, I might be a little closer to accepting this poor excuse to throw up gore scenes and supernatural hocus pocus. The zombies are incredibly photographed, but understanding how they come to be and why the priest brings them back to life confuses me. Okay, this priest hangs himself, comes back as some sort of ghoul who finds victims, scaring them to death. Once they are dead, the victims come back as zombies pulling brains out of poor people's skulls while their backs are turned. Some actually come from thin air, I'm guessing because they represent some sort of fear, but trying to come up with answers to all this foolishness was tiresome. Some perv named Bob gets a drill all the way through his skull thanks to a vengeful father whose daughter was almost molested by him. The film has a woman psychic who actually dies during a séance where she sees the priest kill himself..how she awakens and why are a mystery. Anyhow, she gets a reporter to take her to Dunwich to find the remains of the priest before "ALL SAINTS DAY" because if he arises, the dead will walk amongst the world to feed on flesh..they do already, but that is beside the point. You know, thanks to a psychiatrist who lost his girlfriend to the priest's fear(..and comes back as a zombie), the three find the burial tomb of the priest, but it is too late since ALL SAINTS DAY had begun. Oh well, Fulic just abandons that whole line letting the priest die anyway when he gets a cross thrust through his stomach as his torso burns to ash(..and so are his relatives who rise momentarily to moan a bit). The film is so incomprehensible and badly conceived, one should simply watch for all the bloody effects like one of the priest's victims who vomits up her intestines. Have a nice day.

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9 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
Great gorefest with atmosphere to burn, 12 December 2005

Author: fertilecelluloid from Mountains of Madness

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I consider "Zombie", "The Beyond" and "City of the living Dead" (aka "Gates of Hell" aka "Twilight of the Dead") Fucli's masterpieces; and although "The House By The Cemetery" is more thematically similar to the last two, it is weak in comparison.

"Gates" is simply a great gorefest with atmosphere to burn. The Fabio Frizzi score is catchy, as always, and frilled with dread and a certain awe. The film, which is set in the town of Dunwich, has a strong Lovecraftian flavour, and is beautifully shot and lit by Sergio Salvati.

A scene in which a young woman vomits up her own intestines is pure Fulci, as is the scene where Bob (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) has his head drilled until his brains spew out. The violence is ultra-graphic and entirely convincing in its fantasy context. The director's fetish for rotting flesh, creepy crawlies and open wounds rancid with disease is gloriously showcased in this fine poem to death, decay and the restless dead.

There are not too many amateurish dialog exchanges, either (a fault with many Fulci films), and the plot is so simple it never becomes convoluted.

Fulci had a single-minded attitude towards on-screen mayhem that lifted his films into the realm of high crimson art. This is a great starting point for the Fulci-curious and a must-have for the serious fan of explicit, atmospheric horror.

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4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Gore! Gore! Gore!, 2 August 2006

Author: Phantasm01 from Somewhere

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

No figure in the horror film genre is as divisive as Lucio Fulci. After watching one or two of his films, viewers tend to move into one of two camps. One side hails Fulci as a master of terror, a man who upped the gore quotient in his films while creating wonderfully atmospheric pictures. For these people, Fulci is right up there with the likes of Dario Argento as one of the best filmmakers ever to emerge from Italy. The other camp sneers at these claims, pointing to the plodding pace of his films, the use of extreme gore to camouflage plot holes, and the director's inability to draw good performances out of his cast as evidence of mediocrity. Initially, I enjoyed Fulci's films, specifically "Zombie," "The Beyond," and "The New York Ripper" because I did not know any better. When I came on the scene, you went to Fulci to feed your craving for gore. What a difference a few years exploring the genre makes! While I will not go so far as to remove Uncle Lucio from my play list altogether, I have seen enough of his films to realize he is not a cinematic genius. He is at best a good director, at worst an abysmal one, and there are plenty of examples of bad film-making in this director's filmography.

"The Gates of Hell" aka "City of the Living Dead," however, is one of the good ones; a gore soaked classic that finds Fulci at the height of his powers. It's a mess of a film about a bunch of unfortunate souls mixed up in the strange goings on in a little town called Dunwich. As we learn in the opening sequences of the movie, a priest hangs himself in a cemetery and, either willingly or unwillingly, opens a portal to Lucifer's lair. At the same time, a sance in New York City causes Mary Woodhouse (Italian exploitation veteran Catriona MacColl) to learn of the priest's horrific action. She screams repeatedly and then promptly dies. When the cops show up to sort out the mess, flames shoot out of the floor and the psychic in charge of the sance launches into some arcane hokum about a certain ancient tome, the Book of Eibon, and the danger it presents to humanity. A reporter by the name of Peter Bell (Christopher George) also arrives on the scene hoping to grab the scoop of a lifetime only to find the cops closemouthed about the nonsense going on in the apartment. Stymied, he heads off to the cemetery to see Mary's grave--those funerals sure take place fast in the Big Apple--only to discover that Woodhouse is very much alive.

In Dunwich, strange events start popping up with frightening regularity. A mirror shatters and a wall cracks in half at a local tavern, scaring the bejeezus out of the town drunks. Local shrink Gerry (Carlo De Mejo) soon finds himself caught up in events when a few members of the tin foil helmet brigade show up and start rambling about the dead rising from the grave. Of course, he thinks they're nuts at first until people start disappearing. A couple of kids out for a night of smooching run into the deceased priest in a scene you'll never forget, and a few other wretches meet nasty ends as we learn that, indeed, the dead seem to have risen for a quick stroll. Not only are they tearing the living to shreds, they also can pop in and out of reality at the drop of a hat, spray clouds of maggots through windows, and generally make a real nuisance out of themselves. By the time Bell and Woodhouse arrive on the scene to join forces with Gerry, Dunwich is about to burst at the seams. Oh, I almost forgot: a local weirdo named Bob (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) runs around trying to avoid taking the blame for the disappearances. The movie ends on a completely pointless note.

Pointless might be the best word to describe this Fulci outing, since the plot is as thin as an onionskin, but "City of the Living Dead" is one of his most notable films. Thanks to an atmosphere of pervasive doom so thick you could cut it with a knife and gore ramped up to levels that stagger the imagination, this movie is a must see for the die-hard horror fan. Truly, Fulci outdid himself with this nihilistic picture. Two of the gore scenes in particular, the drill bit through the head and the notoriously grotesque gut puke (called "The Devil's Spew" on the chapter selection!) will leave you gasping for breath. Heck, this movie even sports a couple of nifty scenes where people start bleeding from the eyes! Oh yeah! It's great, chunk blowing fun that requires multiple viewings to take it all in. The rest of the film might make you wince as well, but for different reasons. Fulci's famous eye zooms are here in full force, as is an annoying kid character by the name of John-John whose participation in the idiotic conclusion should require a doctoral dissertation to discern its meaning. Too, the dialogue and acting generally tank. But who cares when you've got gore spraying across the screen every five minutes?

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Pastaland Chunkblower classics 3#, 5 June 2011

Author: Kaliyugaforkix from Canada

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

**1/2 The first time you come face to face with the sour nature of exploitation horror can be a revelation, especially when 'Friday the 13th' flicks are the hardest stuff around. The filth caked, maggoty realm that Fucli conjures in his hellish visions of End Times is beyond such limited hard R queries. Sorry Jason.

Soiled & foul in a really dedicated way, Gates of Hell possesses a palpable pulpy texture that's slimy & almost pungent through the screen. Sergio Salvati's washed out colors speak of a spoiled planet, where rot & decay are commonplace now that the world is past its sell-by date, the ripest possible conditions for Apocalypse. The dialogue & characters are pathetically easy to ridicule but Fulci brought a doom- laden spirit of nihilism to these drive-in flicks that wasn't as simple to laugh off; it's that grim austerity that took his ridiculous gore scenes to uncomfortable, sado-porn heights too. Unlike 'Zombie's undead, the metaphysical ghouls of Gates (I refuse to call it'City of the Living Dead') aren't bound by reality's rules, appearing at will like sadistic specters to feed on pink brains- its that sense of cosmic inevitability, ready to descend at any moment in any crazy manner, from zombie hordes to pneumatic drills- life is arbitrary & cruel beyond reckoning in Lucio Fulci's clumsy shoestring nightmares. No wonder then the Lovecraft references to cursed Dunwich or forbidden texts such as in 'The Beyond', secret trans-dimensional doorways to hidden yet omnipresent evils in both.

That said, Gates of Hell remains more of a dry-run for the kind of cultivated irrationality that 'The Beyond' was & as such is far cruder and jarring than that later giant WTF moment. Its scene after scene of dramatically inert chit-chat, empty narrative with form & structure like 'The Beyond' but without nearly the same fluidity & grace, enlivened occasionally by set pieces of stunning repugnance amidst all the choppiness.

Fulci's favorite whipping girl Daniela puking up her intestinal track, literally spilling her guts while her boyfriend watches in horror will always remain in my top ten of the most disgusting movie moments EVER.

The village idiot Bob skulking round a wind swept dirt road early on, staring with suspicious eyes as the camera pulls back to reveal lonely countryside establishes Dunwich post-hell loosing, where nature itself is in uproar against outer-realm invasion & the cozy town itself is already half deserted, desolate. One other such moment occurs when our semi-heroes, Peter & Mary (now finally met up with the alarmed denizens of Dunwich) are deluged by a storm of squirming maggots, the Horseman of Pestilence name-checked as wriggling worms pulse in sacks of vile putrescence. Inspired heights like this though are undermined by scenes of dull psychoanalysis, painful small talk & meandering. In a way though it just adds to the dislocation, unrelated loops of inconsequentiality punctuated by more reality rending. The climatic descent into the bowels of the earth especially is the kind of old-time baroque of many past genre efforts, cobwebs & coffins & catacombs, only updated with a fresh coat of 80's sensationalism that makes it all far less hoary, restoring maybe some of the thrill these kinds of motifs originally aroused in less jaded audiences.

As it stands though, that foreboding sense of pulsing menace & defeatism remains (as well as lovely Fulci regular Catriona Macoll as Mary, bleeding from her eyes in the movie's twist on Catholic iconography) in the tradition of Fulci's best Gothic cheddar operas, anticipating the fulfillment of the schema set here a year hence with L'Alida ('And you shall face the sea of darkness & all that dwells therein....')

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