Customer Reviews

City of the Living Dead [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(28)
1 star:		(33)

 

 

the negative reviews are missing the point as usual because this is one of Fulci's Golden Greats. of course there's some plot holes and cheesy moments but they are few and far between, and the majority of movie is all guts and gory. all good Fulci movies establish hellish creeping dread that is punctuated by beautiful women, a few laugh out loud moments (some intentional, some not) and many gorious glorious death setpieces natch

although it's not a patch on The Beyond, I love this movie from start to finish, conceding that yes the last 15 minutes of this film is somewhat sketchily presented. howver the end scenes are in keeping with the logic of the narrative to that point, and really, if you've paid attention to a relatively (for Fulci) unconvoluted plot then the last 15 seconds shouldn't leave you "scratching your head". City of the Living Dead is masterful with several classic scenes, and there's few horror directors that have such a deft and entertaining touch when it comes to conveying a sense of encroaching godless doom

CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD is a beautiful Fulci film, expertly directed and gorgeously photographed. The performances are top notch considering the genre and foreign origins of the film.

Also known as GATES OF HELL, CotLD opens revolves around the suicide of a priest which opens the gates of Hell. A woman with a link to the beyond and a reporter (Christopher George from PIECES!) are drawn into the bizarre happenings surrounding this turn of events and the blood begins to flow. And does it ever flow: from the eyes of those who are unfortunate enough to stare down the undead, from the mouths of those vomiting their entrails, from the brains of those who don't mind their head when the zombies are around, and from the cheeks of poor old Bob who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, specifically between a huge drill and a very angry man.

Needless to say, these images amount to some of the most unforgettable Fulci imagery, topping even the eyeball-piercing gore of ZOMBIE. And even better, this film is well-paced and the viewer never grows bored or distracted. Even better, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD is genuinely frightening. The gore is disgusting, of course, but this film is remarkable in that it effectively marries the gore with true fear - these zombies are scary. They're not the dull-witted, slow-moving zombies like those in Romero films, but instead creatures of pure evil who don't give you time to run away.

In summary, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD is one of those rare, delightful films that sticks with you a long while after it's ended. A Fulci masterpiece that ranks among the best of his films - probably one of the best horror films ever made and definitely one of the top five zombie films of all time. I can't wait to watch it again.

This version of Lucio Fulci's The Gates of Hell deserves better. The video itself is of high quality, but the copy is made from a very poor negative of the film. The film is scratchy and muddy making the film a chour to watch. Recently Anchor Bay has released a beautiful remastering of the film under it's alternate title City of the Living Dead. That version costs less and a MUCH better buy. Seek out that title before purchasing this version. Believe me, you will be much more pleased.

Fulci's follow-up to his enjoyable bloodbath Zombie(1979) is euro-trash sleaze on the outside but multiple viewings have revealed a surreal, scary horror film with a few good ideas, and dripping with gothic atmosphere. A priest hangs himself in Dunwitch, Mass and starts off a deadly chain of events leading up to the end of the world. Only gruff reporter Christopher George, and Medium-returned-from-the-dead Catherine McColl can stop the carnage. Some generaly haunting scenes such as when the priest's ghost appears just before someone gets kacked, and a little boy pursued by the spirit of his dead sister through the deserted streets. Once again, if you can't handle the gore, better stay clear. This features brain squashing, eyeball popping, intestine-barfing, head drilling, and a giant crucifix thrust into a guy's knads. Ouch.

Simply put, this has two must-see scenes. The first is when a couple are making out and the girl senses something wrong. They turn on the headlights and there's a zombie priest whose gaze causes the girl's eyes to bleen and then her intestines come out out from her mouth. The second, a guy who escapes previous carnage (a big Euro star, Robert Kerman from Make Them Die Slowly, Cannibal Holocaust, etc.) seeks refuge from a girl. They are about to smoke weed in the car in the garage and the girl's dad barges in. He then drills his head through, in one end out the other.

The plot centers around a priest's suicide opens the very gates of hell. This is witnessed in a seance by a group of mystics. This causes thinmgs to go awry in the city of Dunwich. A dead corpse comes back to life at the morgue, a woman gets buried alive, a zombie taunts a small boy, the dead priest arises and can make people's eyes bleed as he appatently leads the rest of the undead. The climax is dramatic, as the two protagonists showdowm with the priest and the undead underground. The ,music is incredible, atmospheric, ominous, and one part is actually lifted from Zombie, another Fulci classic. they must close the gates of hell before All Saints Day.

Lucio Fulci is a master. The picture is very grainy at, mostly at the beginning and end, and it's dark all the time because it takes place in the night. Not so much scary as ominous.

This film sets a creepy mood. The director, Lucio Fulci, also achieved this mood in "The Beyond". When I was a kid this film was forbidden to be seen. In America it was called "The Gates Of Hell". I was raised around hard core bible thumpers and they all declared this film to be banned. So ofcourse I had to get my hands on it. The film didn't need the gore. It could have been great on the mood alone. It stands as my fave zombie film. Some people just won't get it. P.S. I love the urban monkey screams in the film lol.

I lost count with how many times I covered my mouth watching this brilliant movie written by Lucio Fulci and Darnando Saccehetti * Directed by Lucio Fulci. Many people fail to enjoy it to the extent that I have enjoyed it, and I truly sympathize for them. Here's some of the reasons people hate this movie: Even though the atmosphere was downright eerie, with that old-town haunted feel to it-the light was so scarce, it made it hard to see what you were looking at during many scenes. The blood and guts in this movie was abundant, but sometimes, you can actually tell when models were being used instead of real people. The story-line was bleary and hard to follow-people much rather watch a movie that doesn't involve concentration.

If you think you can bypass these three problems everyone likes to complain about, then prepare yourself for a slow and agonizing ride into Hell. A Priest (which I think was really a Satanist disguised as a Priest) hangs himself in a Cemetery. A group of modern day witches witnessed his suicide while performing a Séance. The Mother witch interprets the vision to be a forewarning of the day when The Gates of Hell will open, and when the dead will dominate the Earth.

Apparently, the Gates were where the original `Salem was, in this Town called Dunwich. The local folk begin to realize, that ever since that Priest hung himself, that strange things began to occur. The winds, for instance, blew furiously, always on the brink of becoming a storm. Store windows break inward for no apparent reason, and house walls split down the middle. People end up missing. Dead bodies on roadsides start floating around, leaving everyone to assume that some killer was on the loose, and naturally they blame this one guy with a bad local reputation. People didn't accept the fact that they were being terrorized by forces exceeding human comprehension, until final it became so dangerous to walk the streets the radio warned everyone to stay inside their houses and keep their doors locked.

The movie starts with a good foot in reality, and slowly you are lifted from that world you have always known and relocated in a place you always thought didn't exist. I felt dizzy and misplaced after watching it. If a film can have that effect, then it's truly a commendable work of art. Try watching it a second time before passing judgement. That's the amount of times I had to watch it before I labeled it as one of my all time favorites.

...This movie was mentioned and was hailed as a classic by many and I had no idea why because I thought it was terrible.

So I popped it in and gave it another chance. And I'm very glad I did. I sat focused this time... The story was actually coherent this time , and I actually LIKED IT. I could see why this is considered a classic , it really is a good movie. I actually understood what was going on this time around , and I actually found it suspenseful not to mention this ranks as having one of the coolest musical scores since Suspira.

The reason why it doesnt get 5?..same reason from my first review
ZOMBIE GHOST!!??..ZOMBIE GHOST ARE ARE LAME!
First the scene where the zombie appears out of thin air on top of the building , then jumps down to grab the kid...that was just stupid, any zombie that can disappear and reappear ruins a zombie movie..but it's cool the movie is still good

I personally think the grossest scene in the whole movie wasn't the intestines , the drills , the brain squeezings , even the maggots...but when the the blood on the ceiling is dripping into the glass of milk on the table..for some strange reason that almost nearly made me puke.

well if you saw this and hated it give it another chance , I did and love it...but definitly check it out

Remember those Mom & Pop video stores which popped up in almost every shopping center in America during the 80's? The ones that always smelled of popcorn and plastic. I loved roaming the horror aisles of those small shops, you never knew what you would find. One of my discoveries was a flick called "The Gates of Hell". It was a great movie full of gore, and starring Christopher George as a cigar chomping newpaper reporter who races to the small town of Dunwich to try and close the gates of Hell. It seems that when a local priest committed suicide, he opened the portal to hell and if left open until All Saint's Day, it could spell the end of humanity.

Well, lo and behold decades later I pick up "City of the Living Dead" and it's "The Gates of Hell" under an alternative title. The film holds up pretty well. The acting is pretty decent for an Italian B-Movie, the haunting musical score still causes shivers, the film is shot beautifully, and the gore effects have stood the test of time. If you are fan of Italian 80's gore-horror, then you should be pretty pleased with this DVD.

The only thing I would throw out there, is that if you are looking for a "zombie" movie, keep looking. This isn't a zombie flick. Sure the living dead are in the film, but look more like ghosts covered in scabs. These aren't the slow moving undead found in a Romero flick, these entities can just sort of appear, grab a hunk of brain, squish it around a little and then disappear just as quickly. But only if you are looking for a straight-forward zombie flick will be disappointed.

"The Gates of Hell" was the name Lucio Fulci's "City of the Living Dead" was given upon its U.S. release in 1983. "GOH," which is being distributed by that infamously bargain-basement CREATURE FEATURES company, has awful, murky picture quality. Anchor Bay recently released an excellent-looking remaster of "CotLD" that not only has a sharper picture, but is also cheaper. Avoid this and stick with the real deal.