City of the Living Dead

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Hector I @Hector1184BC Jan 25 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 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 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 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 John C @RT25427934 02/11/2025 As a die-hard zombie fan I'm well aware of how the '...of the living dead' part of the original film's title was no longer allowed to be used, hence the franchise kind of branched off in two different directions. Either way, I also knew 'City of the Living Dead' was not cannon in whichever series of undead ghouls. However, I figured that at least it would have some sort of redeeming story which - loosely - acted like it was - maybe - in the same universe as one of the other films. Heck, I'd settle for a coherent story! I've checked other reviews and it appears that it really is a cult classic and has many fans who love it. I guess I just didn't 'get' it. I found it boring and a right mess with no real story to speak of. I gathered it was something to do with stopping the dead from rising on Halloween, or something. If you're expecting hordes of zombies terrorising humans, you'll be disappointed. The walkers do show up from time to time, but it's in ones and twos - no crowds. If it had one good point it was the gore. There are some pretty gruesome practical effects which deserve praise for their horrific realism. But that wasn't enough for me. I just found it boring. Personally, I'll stick to Romero's movies (and the 'spin off' living dead series. Oh, and was it just me or does 'City of the Living Dead' borrow some of the music from George A Romero's films? See more Dave S @RT68722908 01/30/2025 City of the Living Dead has a sporadically decent score, some inventive make-up effects, and plenty of gore to go around. However, if you’re the type who doesn’t pay much attention to music and make-up and the thought of watching a woman vomit out her own intestines doesn’t have much appeal, you may want to avoid this movie. An Italian horror film by Lucio Fulci, a second-rate Dario Argento, City of the Living Dead is problematic in a bunch of ways – the plot is incomprehensible at the best of times (including the baffling finale), the dubbing of the non-English-speaking cast is brutal, the dialogue is embarrassing, the editing is choppy, and the acting is more horrific than many of the gruesome scenes on display. Unless you’re really into movies with the Italian giallo vibe, avoid this at all costs. See more Read all reviews

City of the Living Dead

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