Reel Horror

City Of The Living Dead asin: 6305840024

A.K.A.-The Gates of Hell

This movie looks pretty good for being from 1980. It is a foreign film so the domestic version has some of the voices dubbed over to eliminate the Italian accents. This movie is directed by Lucio Fulci so you know it will have some great gore scenes.

It seems this is supposed to be set in the U.S. Part of the movie takes place in a city called Dunwich. It is in this city where a priest hangs himself at the start of the movie. A group a people at a different location are holding a séance and one of the women there has a Psychic connection with this priest before he dies. This woman, Mary, apparently dies of fright following that incident.

A reporter, Peter, appears on the scene looking for news on the priest's suicide. He is in the graveyard where Mary is being buried and hears her screaming from inside her coffin. Since he is a nosy reporter he approaches the coffin and busts her out. She is alive, not a zombie, she was just never really dead.

Meanwhile strange things are starting to happen. People are disappearing and structures are unexplicably being shaken and damaged. The town's local bad boy, Bob. Is a suspect since townsfolk think his mother was a witch and Bob is seeing a girl who's father hates him. I think the whole point of having Bob involved in the story is just so we can see him die his awesomely gruesome death by way of a drill right through the side of his head.

A local shrink, Jerry, and his patient, Sandra, also notice the strange happenings and disappearances and also that the priest has been roaming around undead, taking victims. Eventually they meet up with Peter and Mary who have figured out that the priest's suicide has caused the gates of hell to start opening. They must lay the priest to rest for good before the gates fully open. So they head to Dunwich to locate the priest's grave and put an end to the rising of the dead.

The story seems to rely too heavily on the actors shoulders for getting the messages across at times. Fulci is not the greatest writer but he sure knows how to treat your eyes. Quite a few memorable scenes of fright, gore and well, worms. The undead in this movie look pretty unique as far as any other zombies go. They just seem to be covered with slimy dirt mostly, oh and worms. Did I mention there's a lot of worms in this movie?

If you like Fulci you'll like this movie. Not his best but it's a good watch. Fans of foreign horror should find this one pretty pleasing as well. I liked the movie enough to recommend that anyone who can at least tolerate a foreign flick should watch