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City of the Living Dead

Play trailer Poster for City of the Living Dead R 1980 1h 32m Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
41% Tomatometer 17 Reviews 56% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
A newsman (Christopher George) and a prematurely buried woman (Katriona McColl) confront the living dead in Massachusetts.

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City of the Living Dead

Critics Reviews

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Anton Bitel Little White Lies Mar 13, 2024
like the fog that constantly shrouds Dunwich, there is something obscure and impenetrable about Fulci’s horror, creating its own uncanny vibe of hermetic irrationality. It’s both strange and maddening. Go to Full Review
Bryce Hanson Horror Movie Talk Aug 27, 2025
3/10
I can’t say that it held my rapt attention, but it did have some good moments. This is a great movie to watch with friends, preferably under the influence of some kind of substance. In my case sitting alone, sober, It was not super enjoyable. Go to Full Review
James Kendrick Q Network Film Desk Oct 6, 2023
2/4
an extremely gory, narratively nonsensical mishmash of effective Gothic atmosphere and an amateurish desire to be as gross as possible Go to Full Review
Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Sep 8, 2023
2.5/4
Lucio Fulci never quite possessed the poetic eye or storytelling prowess of his fellow giallo practitioners Dario Argento and Mario Bava, meaning his movies usually gained their notoriety through shock sequences alone. Go to Full Review
David Nusair Reel Film Reviews Oct 24, 2020
1/4
...filmmaker Fulci delivers an amateurish and entirely momentum-free endeavor... Go to Full Review
Bill Gibron PopMatters Oct 5, 2018
The gore moments in The City of the Living Dead are like guitar solos in a rock song - the crowd expects them, the material often needs them, and a great artist like Fulci can create the kind that stick with you long after the concert is done and over. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Robert P @Superbad 3 days ago City of the Living Dead = a *2.5* star Movie! See more Ollie W @RT90619198 Sep 9, 2026 The storyline isn’t easy to follow and is mostly nonsensical. The soundtrack is ok. The end footage was lost and the director couldn’t afford a reshoot so he made do with footage he already had. It means the ending is just rather abrupt and random and inexplicable. The zombies are somehow strong enough to crack open peoples skulls with their bare hands. It’s a trashy silly film. See more Hector I @Hector1184BC Jan 25, 2026 Shot just after Zombie, Fulci fully embraces horror, a genre he had only lightly explored until then. The film seems to unfold in two phases. At first, it feels incoherent: the story constantly shifts characters and locations, the acting ranges from laughable to catastrophic, and the plot loses all importance. Yet, despite its flaws, the film has a raw power. The monsters are surprisingly effective, frightening, and extremely violent. The kills are brutal and unflinching, showing everything, even what you never wanted to see. This Carpenter-esque atmosphere, this relentless drive, gives the film a nightmarish quality, reminiscent of In the Mouth of Madness but less controlled, harsher, more extreme. How you experience it depends on your taste for nightmares: carefully crafted or chaotic? Fulci’s giallo roots shine through the excellent soundtrack, which is perhaps the film’s saving grace, grounding the chaos in a hypnotic rhythm. See more Justin T @RT08580778 Jan 23, 2026 There was absolutely no attempt to make this film good. They made it gory instead. They also managed to throw in a maggot rainfall! If you don’t pay attention to the talking scenes and enjoy the sick bloody gore then this is a perfect little nightmare. If you like a story and hate exploitation films then you are looking at the wrong movie. Head drilling, amazing ending, maggots, pointless story, and a creepy priest - you got all of that! See more Nick O @Nicki1985 Jul 30, 2025 The first installment in Fulci’s “Gates Of Hell Trilogy”, which means zombies, gore and you guesses it…More Gore! See more Liam D @Mediawatcher2003 Jul 30, 2025 While it has gorgeous cinematography and solid atmosphere. The beginning of The Gates Of Hell Trilogy has an incomprehensible plot, stiff acting and good but pointless gore, it also has one of the confusing endings I’ve seen in any movie See more Read all reviews
City of the Living Dead

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Movie Info

Synopsis A newsman (Christopher George) and a prematurely buried woman (Katriona McColl) confront the living dead in Massachusetts.
Director
Lucio Fulci
Screenwriter
Lucio Fulci, Dardano Sacchetti
Production Co
National Cinematografica, Dania Film, Medusa Distribuzione
Rating
R
Genre
Horror
Original Language
Italian
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 11, 1980, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
May 2, 2017
Runtime
1h 32m
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