CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD (1980 - HORROR / ZOMBIE FLICK / END OF THE WORLD FLICK / EUROHORROR FLICK) *** out of ***** OR 6 out of 10
(For a town in the middle of New England, that place sure looks like Italy...)
CAST: Christopher George, Catriona MacColl, Carlo De Mejo, Janet Agren, Antonella Interlenghi, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Daniela Doria, Fabrizio Jovine, Michele Soavi, Luca Venantini, Adelaide Aste, Venantino Venantini, Robert Sampson.
DIRECTOR: Lucio Fulci
(WARNING: Some SPOILERS and compelling reasons not to dismiss All Saint's Day - straight ahead)
IT'S LIKE THIS: Our next "31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN" review is an Italian EuroHorror flick called CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD. Although, quite honestly, "city" might be a bit of an exaggeration, since this shithole doesn't look like it has a single building taller than three floors, and seems to cover an area roughly commensurate with your basic Sam's Club parking lot. However, I have a feeling that SHITHOLE OF THE LIVING DEAD may not quite have that certain ring the makers of this flick were looking for.
The place is called Dunwich, and is supposed to be somewhere in Massachusetts (by way of Rome, Italy), based on how often its residents talk about how their town is built on the old foundation of Salem, the location of those infamous witch trials from centuries ago, and how their ancestors were the witch-hunters themselves. If the town I lived in had as fucked-up a history as Dunwich's, I'd bring it up as little as possible, folks. Don't you jackholes have anything else to talk about? Apparently not. Tip: this is not a factoid I would brag about.
Anyway, as our story opens, we see a sinister-looking priest with way too much dark eye make-up creeping through Dunwich cemetery. He is Father William Thomas (Fabrizio Jovine), and he doesn't look like he's here to visit anyone's grave. Nope, it's looking like he wants his own grave - as in, to stay permanently. Sure enough, Padre Thomas takes out a length of rope and gets real acquainted with the noose end of it. In other words, he hangs himself from the nearest tree, folks. This action is followed by creepy guitar music that can only mean Father T. has triggered something supremely shitty. Sure enough, just a few feet away, a corpse starts to do a little peek-a-boo action through the dirt.
Ooooooooooo-weeeeeeeee-ooooooooooooo!
Cut to a couple of states away in New York City, where some sort of seance is going on in a brownstone. And, from the looks of it, it's a real doozy. It is presided over by the loony-looking Theresa (Adelaide Aste), who sports the biggest afro I've ever seen on a white person. Of all the whackjobs attending the seance, the most important to our story is the lovely (but also quite wacky) Mary Woodhouse (Catriona MacColl), who is apparently a psychic whom Theresa is using to access the "beyond." And when Mary makes a connection with the hereafter, Theresa starts whispering: "There's the contact! Mary's made contact! Don't break the chain! It's critical to Mary! Don't break the contact!"
Turns out the other participants need not worry about the breaking the chain, because Mary does that for them - after screaming like a banshee, then flinging herself away from the table, and landing on the floor where she flops like a freshly-reeled-in salmon. Then she... dies. Yes, folks: dies. At that point all the other seance participants gawk defensively at Theresa, all like: "What? She broke the chain, not us. Give her the stink eye!"
In the ensuing scene, an NYC detective straight out of Central Casting essentially calls bullshit to Theresa and company's story of how Mary died. Theresa could care less what this pissant thinks, though, and basically calls him the biggest ass-clown she's ever seen in her life. And since Theresa's a loon who's clearly led, um, a colorful life full of mega-ass clowns, that is saying something about our jerk detective. Before he can slap some cuffs on her for being a mouthy mega-biyatch to a New York law enforcer, a fireball erupts in the corner of the living room accompanied by ominous growling sounds, making everyone come thisclose to crapping their pants.
Ooooooo-weeeeee-oooooo!
Cut to a few days later, when Big Apple reporter Peter Bell (Christopher George) comes snooping around Theresa's apartment to get the scoop on Mary's death. One of NYPD's finest who happens to be guarding the "crime scene" essentially tells him to check out the cemetery where Mary is about to be buried instead. Now, could he kindly fuck off, please? Our cop has a box of donuts to eat.
Peter, being your average NYC media bloodhound (well, maybe a little dumber than the norm) takes the cop's advice and hightails it to the cemetery, where in a thoroughly believable and 100% logically-defensible plot twist, he finds out that Mary isn't dead, after all, and is about to buried alive in her coffin. I guess the process of "embalming" wasn't embraced in New York City until after 1980. Long story short, Peter tears through Mary's coffin and rips her out of it. How's that for a "meet-cute"?
Later, Mary, Peter, and Theresa have an afternoon tea that is probably one of the more awkward reunions in movie history. I mean, if I passed out in a trance, and my friend had me declared dead and nearly buried alive, I might be a little miffed, too. Imagine if NYC at that time actually had competent funeral staff that knew about embalming? I'd hate to be a fly on the wall for that particularly messy "ooops!" moment. Anyhow, Mary gets over whatever urge she might have to slap the living shit out of Theresa. Mary tells her that, while under her trance, she saw... a priest with waaaaay too much dark eye makeup hang himself from a tree in a cemetery located in a town called... Dunwich. And, somehow, that very suicidal act opened... the Gates of Hell!
Oooooooooo-weeeeeeee-oooooo!
Don't ask me to explain Mary's logic because this is, after all, a EuroHorror flick. Looking for logic in these movies is like trying to find a nun in a whorehouse. I mean, I'm sure that many other priests have committed suicide before Father Thomas did, but I guess they weren't special enough to trigger the swinging wide open of the Gates of Hell. Anyhow, Theresa goes on to say that some book called "Eibon" predicted that this would happen, and that they have to travel to Dunwich to close the Gates of Hell before All Saint's Day rolls around. According to "Eibon AKA The Apocalypse For Dummies" if those gates aren't shut by then - all of the dead, worldwide, will rise and basically, uh, eat the Earth. Or something.
Ooooooooooo-weeeeeeeeee-oooooo....
Before you know it, Peter and Mary are hitting the road for Dunwich. Theresa conveniently stays behind because, I guess, she doesn't do long road trips. Or maybe she's just smart enough to have someone else do the heavy lifting. Or maybe she just knows she's starring in a EuroHorror flick, and that these things don't usually end well (ahem) so why not just enjoy the last few days of a zombie-free Earth and fuck the shit out of that detective she was raking over the coals earlier.
Finding Dunwich turns out to be harder than either Mary or Peter thought. To be completely honest, though, these two seem to have about eleven brain cells between them and a combined IQ of about five more than that, so for all we know Dunwich was probably just on the other side of the George Washington bridge but these numbnuts kept driving around it in circles for days. Eventually, though, after what seems like an eternity and a half, our not-so-intrepid duo finally do arrive in Dunwich. And that's when CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD gets even weirder. If that's possible...
Ooooooooo-weeeeee-oooooooo.....
Not long after rolling into the shithole they've been looking for, Mary and Peter make the acquaintance of local psychiatrist, Jerry (Carlo De Mejo), and his girlfriend/patient, Sandra (Janet Agren). You're probably wondering about how a shrink can run around and cavort openly with someone he is treating on a professional basis. Let me assure you that this particularly bizarre ethical transgression is the least fucked-up thing you will see in this movie.
Anyhow, Jerry and Sandra tell Mary and Peter that strange things have been happening in Dunwich ever since Father Thomas self-checked out (and I don't mean at the grocery - which didn't exist in 1980). For starters, Emily Robbins (Antonella Interlenghi), a local tart and another one of Jerry's patient/girlfriends (yes, our boy Jerry gets around), was found dead with a look of horror on her face. And local pervo Bob (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) gets a drill forced through the side of his head by a crazed local man. And a teenage couple named Tommy and Rosie (Michele Soavi and Daniela Doria) disappear without a trace while making out close to the graveyard where Father Thomas killed himself.
Ooooooooooo-weeeeeeeee-ooooooooo....
Then, as if things weren't bad enough, Jerry and his pals get a terrified call from John-John Robbins (Luca Venantini), Emily's little brother, who tells them that Emily in zombie form basically stormed the house and ripped apart their parents - and he barely managed to escape. So much for that homecoming at the Robbins abode, eh? Realizing they're running out of time (finally), Jerry, Mary, and Peter hightail it to the cemetery to dig up Father Thomas' body to, I guess, question it on how to put a stop to this Gates of Hell nonsense. Meanwhile, Sandra takes John-John back to her house to pull a "Theresa" - in other words: hide with her head between her legs until this apocalyptic shit blows over.
But will it blow over? Will Jerry, Mary, and Peter be able to destroy Father Thomas' body before All Saint's Day begins? Will destroying Father Thomas' body even work? And will Sandra and John-John be safe locked up in her house? Is anyone in Dunwich safe? Will our heroes be able to shut the Gates of Hell? Is the world destined to be overrun by the living dead? How will all this end?
One word: Oooooooooo-weeeeeeee-ooooooo!
BUT SERIOUSLY: To be completely candid, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD (or PAURA NELLA CITTA DEI MORTI VIVENTI in its native Italy) is a very cheesy film. It suffers from many of the setbacks that plague EuroHorror films: thin characters, illogical plotting, silly dialogue, shoddy special effects, sloppy dubbing, hammy performances, and low production values.
However, if you were to ask me to list my choices for "Top 10 Horror Movies With The Most Effectively Frightening Atmospheres", CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD would be among them - right next to classics like ALIEN, THE SHINING, DAWN OF THE DEAD, SUSPIRIA, and PHENOMENA, among others. Despite all its technical and narrative shortcomings, this is one genuinely frightening and unsettling film.
Recently, we reviewed another EuroHorror flick by Italian auteur Lucio Fulci, the vastly overrated and inexplicably over-praised THE BEYOND AKA L'ADILLA (review # 570). That film, for some reason, gets a lot of love for its allegedly surreal and dreamlike atmosphere. The truth is, it is only sporadically effective and even then not enough to get a passing rating of average (**1/2 out of *****). CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, on the other hand, seems to get far less acclaim, despite actually being a much, much more effective horror film.
Unlike THE BEYOND, this film actually creates truly frightening scenes and setpieces that build upon another in such a potent way that rising tension is easily made and sustained - right all the way up to its strange, bizarre, yet somehow also perfectly fitting ending. In CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, the dread is so thick you could write your name in it, and while many things in the script seem random and inexplicable, it all somehow ends up making some sort of sinister sense. It's a shame that Fulci was unable to recreate this "nightmare logic" in THE BEYOND. My theory is that he simply tried too hard with that film, instead of just going with his storytelling and cinematic instincts.
Catriona MacColl was also the lead in THE BEYOND and THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, the two other films in Fulci's unofficial "Gates of Hell Trilogy". In all three films, MacColl is saddled with a thin character that is essentially a caricature, but she is enough of an actress and a presence to keep her heroines from blanking out with the audience. Her natural likability and beauty always shine through. Christopher George is somewhat of a genre vet, having starred in PIECES, GRADUATION DAY, and DAY OF THE ANIMALS, and essentially plays Peter with a breezy nonchalance that helps offset the increasingly oppressive atmosphere of the proceedings.
Carlo De Mejo and Janet Agren tackle their roles of Jerry and Sandra with enough conviction to make us interested in what happens to them. To this day, I always cringe at Sandra's fate - mainly because it is so abrupt and unexpected. Quite frankly, I was really hoping she'd make it through the movie. Then again, though, this is a Lucio Fulci movie - and no one is safe.
One of the reasons CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD works better than THE BEYOND is because, despite their cliched nature, the characters are engaging enough to hook us for the ride. Mary, Peter, Jerry, and Sandra are also reminiscent of the two lead couples in INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS 1956 and 1978, who similarly found themselves in the middle of some terrifying, inexplicable events taking over their community - and tried to investigate, and ultimately, escape them.
Much credit should also go to Fabio Frizzi's haunting, creepy score that goes a long way in setting up this film's air of decay, desolation, and inescapable doom. Frizzi's score blends elements of Fulci's similarly-atmospheric and effective effort from the same year, ZOMBIE (review # 88), and the band Goblin's score for George Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD (review # 87) from the year before in 1979. Frizzi's music is somehow both sad and scary, at the same time. I doubt CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD would be as effective without it.
In the end, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD has too many technical flaws and typical EuroHorror weaknesses to keep it from rising from a rating of Above Average (*** out of ***** OR 6 out of 10) - but its singularly unsettling atmosphere of impending doom is one that few other horror films have. Had Fulci been given a higher budget and more polished script, this could easily have been a major classic. As it is, it's one of Lucio Fulci's better and more effective horror flicks.
