City of the Living Dead (1980)

A reporter and a psychic race to close the Gates of Hell after the suicide of a clergyman caused them to open, allowing the dead to rise from their graves.

Director:

Lucio Fulci

Writers:

Lucio Fulci (story and screenplay), Dardano Sacchetti (story and screenplay)

Stars:

Christopher George, Catriona MacColl, Carlo De Mejo

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Christopher George	...	Peter Bell
Catriona MacColl	...	Mary Woodhouse (as Katherine Mac Coll)
Carlo De Mejo	...	Gerry
Antonella Interlenghi	...	Emily Robbins
Giovanni Lombardo Radice	...	Bob
Daniela Doria	...	Rosie Kelvin
Fabrizio Jovine	...	Father William Thomas
Luca Venantini	...	John-John Robbins (as Luca Paisner)
Michele Soavi	...	Tommy Fisher
Venantino Venantini	...	Mr. Ross
Enzo D'Ausilio	...	Sheriff Russell's deputy
Adelaide Aste	...	Theresa
Luciano Rossi	...	Policeman in apartment
Robert Sampson	...	Sheriff Russell
Janet Agren	...	Sandra

Storyline

In the small New England town of Dunwich, a priest commits suicide by hanging himself in the church cemetery which somehow opens the gates of hell allowing the dead to rise. Peter, a New York City reporter, teams up with a young psychic, named Mary, to travel to the town where they team up with another couple, psychiatrist Jerry and patient Sandra, to find a way to close the gates before All Saints Day or the dead all over the world will rise up and kill the living.

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Plot Keywords:

bleeding from the eyes | zombie | suicide | drill through head | grindhouse | 

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Taglines:

From the bowels of the earth they came to collect the living...

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

6 May 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

Twilight of the Dead

Filming Locations:

Incir De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dania Film, Medusa Distribuzione, National Cinematografica

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min 90 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Michele Soavi: The Italian film director appears as a young man whose date (Daniela Doria) vomits up her internal organs and then has the back of his skull ripped out.

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Goofs

Mary could not have been buried alive as she would not have survived the embalming.

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Quotes

Peter Bell: Hi, officer. I'm looking for Sergeant Clay. Is he in there?
Policeman outside apartment building: And who are you?
Peter Bell: Oh, my name's Peter Bell. I'm with...
Policeman outside apartment building: Don't tell me. You're a newspaper reporter. I can smell you guys a mile away.
Peter Bell: You're right. I'm actually a journalist. Listen, there's a rumor going around your station house that some young woman died mysteriously in an apartment up on the third floor and I was wondering if I can talk to Sergeant Clay about it to investigate more about this mystery.
Policeman outside apartment building: There's no mystery around here....
[...]

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Alternate Versions

The version released by Anchor Bay Entertainment is the complete, uncut version, containing all the gore and violence.

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Connections

Referenced in The Hunt for the House on Cuckoo Lane (2011)

User Reviews

chilling and surreal...

This film is probably an accidental masterpiece, but a masterpiece nonetheless. Fulci is one of my idols, but I don't think he was a really good filmaker. It was his lack of coherency and almost childlike need to gross you out that made his best films so beloved. Gates of hell is the best of the lot. The film is basically one long wierd, surreal treatise one death and the horror of violent death in particular. Listen to the layered, terrifying soundtrack - wind howls, babies scream, stones grind, skulls break... The much talked about gore is not just gore but completely outlandish, brilliantly excecuted (no pun intended) operatic set pieces that come out of nowhwere and are truly, deeply repulsive. The prog rock score is just as yummy. The non linnear plot creates one of the best pieces of horror/surrealism I've ever seen. The ending is blood chilling because it doesn't make sense. See this movie more than once and realize it's so called faults are part of the reason it's so goddamned great!