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 Katriona MacColl)
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:

The Dead Shall Rise And Walk The Earth

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

6 May 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

City of the Living 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

It was filmed in a hot, hazy, muggy, 108 degree weather.

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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

Theresa: You don't deserve help! You're a comic book version of a detective, Sergeant!
Sgt. Clay: Well, you look better in your mug shot, you know. The great Theresa. The master medium. Yeah, for you it's all in the book of... of... what's it called?
Theresa: Enoch.
Sgt. Clay: Yeah, Enoch. According to you, this poor girl is dead because of a book that was written 4,000 years ago. Correct?
Theresa: That's right. I would find a such an unusual paradox of tremendous appeal terribly stimulating, if I were a sleuth. Enoch provides the explanation...
[...]

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Connections

Featured in The Cinema Snob: City of the Living Dead (2017)

User Reviews

Fulci's splatter film inspired on H.P. Lovecraft about the dead coming back to life at Dunwich

This is a genuinely frightening story with correct utilization of images-shock , skill edition and eerie images . Lucio Fulci's main great success along with ¨Zombie 2¨ , is compelling directed with startling gory visual content . It's a creepy horror film plenty of brutal frames and gory events. Fulci's horror film about the dead coming back to life on a small location of Dunwich with inspiration on famous novelist H.P. Lovecraft . A journalist named Peter Bell (Christopher George), a psychiatrist (Carlo De Mejo) and a psychic named Mary Woodhouse (Catriona MacColl , Fulci's fetish actress) race to close the Gates of Hell after the suicide by hanging of a priest caused them to open , allowing the zombies to rise from the tombs . Gory, gruesome , pretty repellent , and ghastly gory-feast in which the stumbling flesh-eating stiffs are relived by an ancient curse .

Chilling Italian terror flick full of screams, shocks, chills, thrills and lots of blood and guts . Astonishing , mesmerizing , very repellent , and scary mess in which the living dead are reanimated and committing horrible murders . This is a classic excruciatingly terror film in which the intrigue,tension, suspense, horror appears threatening and lurking in every room, corridors , cellar , morgue, streets, cemetery and many other places . Watch for the great highlights as the alive burying and the pick-axe coming dangerously close to her head ; as when a drill punctures the face an unfortunate young -a Fulci's mark who repeats ad nauseam - and clergyman's mesmerizing stares making eyeballs bleed . And as always brief appearance of Lucio Fulci, in Alfred Hitchcock cameo style , as Police Inspector and a young future director of terror movies , Michele Soavi as hapless victim . Good make-up and special effects by makeup artist named Rufini replacing the usual maestro Gianetto De Rossi. Produced on a tight budget by Giovanni Masini and the same Fulci . Moody photography Sergio Salvati on location in Fort Lee, New Jersey, New York City, Savannah, Georgia, USA . Eerie musical score composed and conducted by Fabio Frizzi in Goblin style. The motion picture is realized by one of the most controversial filmmakers of terror movies ,Lucio Fulci , in his ordinary style with flaws and gaps but is professionally made because being a skilled craftsman . Reviewers are divided over booth the morals and talents of Fulci (1927-1996) who sometimes directed under the alias ¨Louis Fuller¨. For some critics many of his movies are cruel and shockingly violent , yet their gory surface often conceals religious, social commentaries or intelligent issues. Whether he should be viewed as a cheap sensationalist or just a genius Fulci has a loyal fan base and undeniably has an important and unique influence on the terror genre , creating great works on a low budget such as proved in ¨The Beyond¨, ¨Manhattan baby¨, ¨Gates of Hell¨, ¨Island of the living dead¨, ¨New York ripper¨ , among them . This is one more imaginative , though imperfect horror/splatter picture in which the camera stalks in sinister style . It's just one long unrelenting guts-feast and passable budget horror movie that still packs a punch for those who appeal to be terrorized out their wits . This gore-feast that tried to disguised itself under many other titles as ¨City of living dead¨ will enjoy to Lucio Fulci aficionados.