Plot
In the town of Dunwich, a priest
commits suicide which opens the gates of Hell and sets about a terrifying
chain reaction of events which, if unstopped, will lead to the dead rising
up from the grave. A psychic in New York has the terrible vision of these
gates opening and, with the help of a reporter, heads to Dunwich to
investigate.
Review
The first entry in infamous Italian
director Lucio Fulci's Gates of Hell Trilogy, City of the Living
Dead is like the marmite of horror films. You're either going to love it
for it's outlandish approach and the gory set pieces or you're going to hate
it because it makes not a blind bit of sense and can be hard to follow at
times. There's little in the way of middle ground here but I'm going to try
and take it, although I
don't quite get the love for City of the Living
Dead as I do for some of Fulci's other films.
Heavily censored for many years in the
UK because of it's content in the wake of the 'video nasties' scandal, it
wasn't released uncut until 2001 but now everyone is able to enjoy this in
it's original form.
Let's get the awesome stuff out of the way with first though.
I'd question anyone who says that this doesn't ooze some ether-worldly
atmosphere. City of the Living Dead reeks of doom from the opening
scene with the village of Dunwich alternating between gusty winds and being
drenched in fog. The atmosphere is constantly brooding, with Fabio Frizz's
superbly-ominous soundtrack highlighting the impending terror that will be
unleashed upon the Earth. It's a living nightmare, with each frame of the
film ready to burst out from the screen and grab a hold of the audience.
There's always unease and always the feeling that something nasty is
literally just around the corner. And this is usually the case, with a
variety of zombies which seem to appear and disappear at random (one of many
plot holes) as well as the priest, who has now turned into some kind of
demonic preacher who can make eyes bleed through his gaze. They didn't call
Fulci 'The Godfather of Gore' for no reason and City of the Living Dead
contains some of his most memorable moments as the nightmare comes to
horrifying reality for some of the characters. We've got a couple of unlucky
victims who have their brains ripped out by having their heads crushed and
there's the aforementioned eye-bleeding moments. But the film's two major
gore set pieces are some of the most visually-disgusting but
outstandingly-produced set pieces you're ever likely to see. The first
involves a girl puking up her entire digestive system and intestines out
through her mouth - it needs to be seen to be believed if you can 'stomach'
it. The second involves a pervert having a drill slowly inserted into the
side of his head by an overly-protective father who thought he was trying it
on with his daughter. The scene looks frighteningly realistic and total
credit must go to the special effects team who give the illusion that
everything witnessed is a continual shot. Possibly the most effective shock
scene in the film is the one which doesn't need gore to work and that's when
Catriona MacColl's psychic character is presumed dead at the beginning of
the film and buried alive. Anyone with a remote fear of this should be
advised to stay well as it's claustrophobic and unsettling in it's
depiction.
But this is where the problem lies and it's a common theme across Fulci's
output. The film makes little sense. I can understand the film working as a
simple collage of nightmarish visions designed to replicate the randomness
of dreams but he could at least make an effort to get everything to gel
better than it does. Literally all the story you need to know is from the
opening ten minutes or so when the priest hangs himself and then the physic
tells everyone that the gates of Hell have been opened. City of the
Living Dead seems to just go on that bone alone and it's not enough to
really keep it from struggling along at times, especially when there's
nothing supernatural happening on screen. The flimsy story simply serves as
a loose connection to a series of gruesome set pieces. We never find out why
one man's decision to take his own life spells death for the rest of
humanity. We never know why these zombies are able to transport in and out
of locations at will. The ending also makes no sense whatsoever -
understandable given that they ran out of time to do re-shoots - but I can
only review what's in front of me! And as an end product, the final 'twist'
in the film is ridiculous. No more so than the characters have just survived
a confrontation with the undead priest. Speaking of which, the characters
suffer from the same fate as the story in that they're thinly-written and
poorly constructed. Both Catriona MacColl and Christopher George do alright in
their roles but they play second fiddle to the horrors around them and the
robotic dialogue does them little favours. They've also clearly had to re-dub their
voices over the soundtrack which adds a bit of jarring to the sound,
especially when some of the dubbing is a little over-the-top. They're the
only standouts from the cast which features many unnecessary minor
characters who serve little purpose other than clog up the screen and
provide extra ammunition for the zombies to rip apart (for instance the
whole sub-plot with the pervert could have been easily removed).
Verdict
I'll go out on a limb and advise
people to check out Fulci's far superior Zombie Flesh Eaters (to give
it the UK title) before they decide whether they want to venture into his
other works. City the Living Dead works purely as a nightmarish
journey with some excellent imagery, an amazing mood and some of horror's finest gore moments.
But aside from the gruesome gloss, there's little substance and I'm sure you
could tear the film apart if you tried to piece it all together coherently.
