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Italy
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1980
Directed by Lucio Fulci
Starring
Christopher George
Catriona MacColl
Carlo De Mejo
Color
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93 Minutes
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Not Rated
Format: DVD (R0 - NTSC)
Blue Underground
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Compared
to such zombie classics as Dawn
Of The Dead (1978) this supernatural splatter
film from Italian director Lucio Fulci is pretty
lame stuff. I tend to think of it as Village
Of The Teleporting Dead (Featuring A Couple of
Squishy Gore Scenes). A lot of horror movie
fans seem to like it, however.
In
the New England town of Dunwich, a priest commits
suicide just as noted New York psychic Mary Woodhouse
(House By
The Cemetery's Catriona MacColl) foresees
the event. Claiming one of the seven Gates of
Hell will soon be opened, she collapses, has a
seizure and is declared dead. Only Mary really
isn't deceased rather in some kind of weird
catatonic state brought on by her last vision.
Mistakenly buried alive (without, for some inexplicable
reason, having been autopsied and embalmed) she
awakens trapped in a coffin only to be rescued
at the last moment by a newspaper reporter, Peter
Bell (Grizzly's
Christopher George, in one of his last roles).
The journalist's interview with Mary had been
forestalled by her untimely 'death'; by sheer
luck he heard her screaming from inside the coffin
while visiting her gravesite. Recovering incredibly
quickly from this ordeal Mary describes her visions
of a town called Dunwich "a city of
the dead... The living dead" where
a priest hanged himself in a cemetery. One of
her kooky psychic friends proclaims this a key
event in a 4,000 year old prophecy wherein one
of the gates to Hell is opened, bringing the dead
back to life with a hunger for human blood. If
the gate is not closed by All Saints Day then
mankind will be overrun by the zombies. The only
way to stop this from happening is to go to Dunwich,
locate the grave of the priest and do... something.
(It's not really specified exactly what they need
to do at that point. Normally you'd think that
little detail might just be important...) Of course
All Saints Day is less than 48 hours away. Together,
Peter and Mary drive to the town to investigate.
Meanwhile,
in Dunwich itself, all sorts of strange and ominous
shit is going down. People are disappearing without
a trace. Others are found dead
including the girlfriend of town psychiatrist
Gerry (Carlo De Mejo).
Rumors are floating around that the suicide of
Father Thomas unleashed dark supernatural forces,
somehow related to the fact that centuries ago
Dunwich was the site of witch trials. Gerry doesn't
believe this nonsense; the cops think that the
village idiot (Giovanni Lombardo Radici, Cannibal
Apocalypse) is behind it and start looking
for him. The skeptical shrink is soon confronted
with incontrovertible evidence that what is happening
cannot have a rational, scientific explanation...
At
this juncture things make progressively less and
less sense, to the point of one not really caring
what's going on. We are treated to some moody,
nicely-lensed shots of a deserted town (hardly
a "city") at night, along with bleeding eyeballs,
cheesy zombies that can dematerialize, a possessed
woman vomiting out her own innards, a storm of
maggots, a particularly nasty use of industrial
arts equipment and various characters getting
the back of their skulls ripped out. The abrupt,
extremely confusing ending will leave you massively
underwhelmed... I sat there scowling, totally
perplexed. That's it???
City
Of The Living Dead
(AKA The
Gates Of Hell) is a textbook example of both
the strengths and shortcomings of Lucio Fulci
as a horror film director. He does a fine job
of establishing and maintaining a creepy, nightmarish
atmosphere on very little money.
A couple of the set-pieces are memorably shocking
and revolting, notably the "Devil's Spew"
sequence (actress Daniela Doria really regurgitated
sheep's entrails on camera!) and the demise of
Radice's character, who gets a power drill through
the skull in a scene that defined seat-squirming
movie gore back when Eli Roth was still watching
Saturday morning cartoons in his pajamas. Where
Fulci fails is in his chronic self-indulgence
and inability to tell a coherent supernatural
horror story. Gore effects that work at first
are undercut by shots that linger just a little
too long or by going in for an even tighter close-up,
revealing the gag. (The stomach-churning "Spew"
sequence is incredibly effective until ruined
by the inclusion of a painfully obvious prosthetic
head.) The script makes very little sense, with
plot elements lacking any consistent rhyme or
reason. The same can be said of the characters'
actions... What do our protagonists do when the
window bursts open and a cyclone of maggots deluge
the room? Do they even try to run through the
door? No, they just stand there like dumbasses
so Fulci can get close-ups of the actors with
live, wriggling worms glued to their faces.
It's
stupid stuff like that that has kept me from ever
being a loyal fan of Fulci's body of work. I like
a number of his individual films, particularly
his gialli, but in the main I think he's
overrated.
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City
Of The Living Dead was originally released
on DVD by Anchor Bay back in May of 2000 but has
been out of print for about two years now.
In February 2007 Blue Underground reissued the
title using the same transfer, menu screens and
cover art. Basically it's exactly the same disc
as the Anchor Bay version only missing the packaging
insert card that reproduced the film's Italian
poster (under the title Paura Nella Cittΰ Dei
Morti Viventi). It's nice and all that BU
has made the film available again but I wish they'd
have used different artwork and/or menus to make
their version more distinct.
The seven year old transfer
(1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced) totally blows away the
crappy VHS versions that folks had to make do
with until the DVD format came along
it's certainly grainy but otherwise commendable
in every way, with sharp detail and solid colors
that serve the many dark/night scenes well. (Check
the underground crypt sequence at film's end for
the best testimonial to this.) Two English-language
audio options are provided; 5.1 Surround and Dolby
2.0 stereo, which are clean and clear if otherwise
not particularly distinguished. Extras include
the theatrical trailer, two U.S. radio spots (using
the Gates Of Hell title) that play to a
series of production stills, and a step-through
text bio of Fulci. 6/20/07
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