Paura nella città dei morti viventi (City Of The Living Dead) (The Gates of Hell) (1980)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Tsubaki S

  
  You can call this a dress rehearsal for The Beyond. Not as focused and effective as The Beyond, but full of crazy over the top moments. There are enough gory killings here to make a full top then list of great movie kills. Is going to disgust you more than scare you, but it will never… More
  You can call this a dress rehearsal for The Beyond. Not as focused and effective as The Beyond, but full of crazy over the top moments. There are enough gory killings here to make a full top then list of great movie kills. Is going to disgust you more than scare you, but it will never bore you.

• Bruce B

  
  More blood and guts from Lucio Fulci. I watch this on Netflix Streaming before they jack up their rates. I saw no real point to this one. A priest commits suicide in a New England town, and opens the gates of Hell allowing the dead to rise from their graves and feed on the living.… More
  More blood and guts from Lucio Fulci. I watch this on Netflix Streaming before they jack up their rates. I saw no real point to this one. A priest commits suicide in a New England town, and opens the gates of Hell allowing the dead to rise from their graves and feed on the living. Special effects are pretty gory, with maggots galore. But still not a top notch zombie film, so I can only dish out 2 1/2 stars.

• Cassandra M

  
  Some films have articles, essays, even books dedicated to explaining how great they are. As a teenager it only took one simple sentence to put City of the Living Dead on my list of films I needed to see..."A woman pukes up her own intestines". Sadly, at the time the UK… More
  Some films have articles, essays, even books dedicated to explaining how great they are. As a teenager it only took one simple sentence to put City of the Living Dead on my list of films I needed to see..."A woman pukes up her own intestines". Sadly, at the time the UK censors didn't see the funny side of this, and the other delights contained in this film or it's companion The Beyond, so I didn't get to see them until much later. In some ways I can say COTLD does live up to it's reputation (it IS pretty disgusting) but in others, well, if The Beyond is pleasingly, nightmarishly surreal (and to me it is) COTLD is one of the most bafflingly illogical films I've ever seen. The story involves a psychic and a journalist rushing to close a portal to hell that's been opened by the suicide of a priest (how? why? how should I know, I only watched the film and that didn't help! The priest comes back as an undead overlord, but was this his intention?). I say rushing but in fact their journey is rather leisurely. Apparently saving the world isn't as important as stopping off for lunch on the way, which is rather odd as they're against the clock on this one - the portal must be closed by All Saints day. You may think that's a small thing to notice in the film except - and I'm about to give away the ending - they get there TOO LATE to close the portal! Before entering a graveyard for the final showdown with the undead priest they note that it's already All Saints day, they've blown it, yet the film continues into it's climax and a good vs evil face off from which our "heroes" think they're emerging victorious? You idiots! You already knew you blew it, what on earth is going on here?? Then there's the infamous final scene. Supposedly the films disjointed, inexplicable ending is the result of the last bit of footage being damaged and lost for ever, and what you do get is something you really have to see for yourself to (dis)believe. They certainly don't make 'em like that anymore. If it's gore you want you certainly won't be let down by the drillings, gouged heads, zombie attacks and of course A WOMAN PUKING UP HER OWN INTESTINES, but overall this film is slow moving, and with that ending (for gods sake, that ENDING!) more than a little frustrating. .

• Lee ?

  
  After the eerie opening nothing much happens until the last 25 minutes. But gorehounds are treated to two of the most infamous moments of violence in Italian horror movie history! Also to be commended is the constant creepy atmosphere which is ever present. The film just lacks life… More
  After the eerie opening nothing much happens until the last 25 minutes. But gorehounds are treated to two of the most infamous moments of violence in Italian horror movie history! Also to be commended is the constant creepy atmosphere which is ever present. The film just lacks life and the ending is another WTF moment... not the first for Fulci.

• AJ V

  
  A very exciting, very gory, very good horror movie, I was really impressed by the special effects and the acting in this movie. The story was pretty good too. I highly recommend this one to horror fans.

• Jeff "

  
  Lucio Fulci has crafted some extraordinary films over his career. City Of The Living is one of his last great films. City Of The Living Dead is another gore filled Horror fest and this is one of Fulci's finest films. A horror classic and a definite must see for every horror fan,… More
  Lucio Fulci has crafted some extraordinary films over his career. City Of The Living is one of his last great films. City Of The Living Dead is another gore filled Horror fest and this is one of Fulci's finest films. A horror classic and a definite must see for every horror fan, City Of The Living Dead features some of the most impressive gore sequences ever put on film. City Of The Living Dead does not disappoint in the gore department and the gore is downright disgusting. The film is one of Fulci's most haunting and inventive Horror films, and is one of his most solid films along with The Beyond and The House By The Cemetery. Like every other Italian Horror film, City Of The Living Dead has a thin plot, but it more than makes up for it with it's horror elements. Like I've previously said, this is a film that Fulci truly delivers some of sickest, most gross out gore of his career. An incredible film thats very underrated. Lucio Fulci has often been phased by Dario Argento, his rival, and thus Fulci never gets the credit he deserves. City Of The Living Dead is one of his last great films before he slowly lost his touch. City Of The Living Dead is a fine first entry to Fulci's Gates Of Hell trilogy and he would ultimately craft his masterpiece with the second film in this trilogy, The Beyond. A fun, intense ride for gore hounds, City Of The Living Dead is a definite classic of horror and is seriously underrated. Lucio Fulci is one of the greatest minds of the Horror genre, his vision is haunting, and unsparing, but thats what makes his films unique. City Of The Living Dead is a masterful work by Fulci, and his talents culminated with his follow up film, The Beyond. City Of The Living Dead has a dark atmosphere of hell on earth that is equally terrifying as the man who conjured up this macabre tale of Horror.

• Robert C

  
  What the?..... Total disapointment. Very hard to follow, poorly edited and mediocre special effects.

• Lafe F

  
  Dissappointing movie; the artwork looked so freaky and cool I bought it. Not really a zombie movie, just a series of gorey small encounters with mysterious forces of evil. The plot consists of loosely tied horrific incidents in the village of Dunwich, caused when a priest presumably… More
  Dissappointing movie; the artwork looked so freaky and cool I bought it. Not really a zombie movie, just a series of gorey small encounters with mysterious forces of evil. The plot consists of loosely tied horrific incidents in the village of Dunwich, caused when a priest presumably opens the gate to Hell, which is a freaky red cave underneath a masoleum. Quite gory, but confusing. It wasn't the masterpiece which I consider Fulci's film "The Beyond". It had one of those WTF endings like they had run out of time, budget and film in the camera.

• David L

  
  This is not my favorite Fulci movie but its one of his best and its one that I can pop in and watch pretty much anytime. It's a goofy gorefest about a small New England town which is besieged by demonic forces after a priest's suicide opens the gateway to Hell. Fulci,… More
  This is not my favorite Fulci movie but its one of his best and its one that I can pop in and watch pretty much anytime. It's a goofy gorefest about a small New England town which is besieged by demonic forces after a priest's suicide opens the gateway to Hell. Fulci, being Fulci, concentrates on the gross-out aspects of his story (a girl vomits up her intestines, a man's head is impaled by a drill, brains are squashed out of heads), but also manages to create a creepy atmosphere and even delivers a couple of decent scares. The scene in which the zombified Emily staggers toward her little brother until her eyes seem to pop out of the screen is one of the freakiest images I've ever seen! Emily's death is pretty scary as well; the priest's animalistic moaning in the dimly lit garage seriously creeps me out, as does the faceful of worm-ridden putrescence Emily receives. People have complained that this movie makes little sense. I won't argue. The concentration here is on nightmarish imagery, atmosphere and gory set-pieces, and if you know anything about Fulci, you should know that going in. The gibbon noises? I doubt Fulci honestly thought anyone would think they were ghosts howling. I think he and his sound designer just sifted through the library of sound effects and found the monkeys' cries bizarre and decided to stick them in there. Why not? Nightmares don't always make sense, so why should a horror movie? And the infamous ending? Who the hell cares what it means? The movie left me feeling creepy and disoriented, which is a success in my book. It's structured like a creepy dream from which you can't awaken, and I think we've all had dreams that made us say, "What the hell was that all about?" Overall, its fun for fans of spaghetti splatter or if your looking for a good horror movie to watch with a group of friends during the weekend

• Tim S

  
  Dark and surreal, this zombie film is one of Fulci's best.

• Pierluigi P

  
  as all Fulci films, terribly ambiguous, unpleasant and very entertaining.

• Ryan M

  
  7.0/10 For a while I had doubts about Lucio Fulci, Italian gore-master of the horror genre, understanding a darned thing about surrealism and how to truly influence the dream-logic movement. Some films simply exist to make no sense whatsoever and show us what is the… More
  7.0/10 For a while I had doubts about Lucio Fulci, Italian gore-master of the horror genre, understanding a darned thing about surrealism and how to truly influence the dream-logic movement. Some films simply exist to make no sense whatsoever and show us what is the equivalent of a dream; Fulci presents nightmares. I first saw and reviewed his "City of the Living Dead" not too long ago; and I wasn't particularly open-minded going on. Mind you, I believe this was when I was new to Fulci and didn't understand his style of intent. He just wanted to please his audience, and for a while, he succeeded. There are the films of Fulci that I hate, that I will always hate, and then there are the little films, like this one, that I am willing to give a second chance; but with different, lower expectations. So yes, I sat through "City of the Living Dead" once again and tried to see it as I saw Fulci's "Zombie"; as a guilty pleasure flick with outstanding cinematography and plenty of inspirationally gory set-pieces. This is an impressive zombie flick as long as you can abandon all logic, just like the film does, and just go with it in all its absurd glory. I liked the film; or more accurately, I enjoyed it. I know that it isn't for everyone, as it's really nothing more than what it is, but if you're willing to accept a few flaws and just enjoy yourself as I did, then I think there's a good time in store. Honestly, what does a film with the words "the living dead" in its title imply other than zombies? If you know that this film is about zombies, then you already know a little more than half of what it's about. Since Fulci likes to toy with surrealism in the form of violence, blood, brains, and tales of the undead; he has little time for characters or storytelling with true grit. Instead, he'd rather just focus on the look of his zombies; and they've never looked better. The zombies here look slightly different from the ones in "Zombie", which were very decayed and very complex make-up-wise. The zombies here almost always have maggots eating away at a limb, but Fulci's decision to focus on color schemes and lighting gives them a peculiar eerie, psychedelic feel. I admired this. It made the film watchable and even kind of fun. In short, if you enjoy the films of Lucio Fulci; then "City" does not disappoint when it comes to presenting just what the man was known for. A priest hangs himself in a graveyard from a noose. This opens up a portal to hell; allowing the dead to return to the world of the living yet again, as they have in many other films before this one. There are indeed living, breathing, very-much-alive male and female characters entrusted with the tools and capabilities to stop the undead from invading our world, but I don't feel they are worth mentioning. You know why you came to this movie; you know what you're looking for. You want Fulci and he wants you. This film essentially delivers. I was impressed by the creativity that went into Fulci's grotesque artistry. He can seriously gross you out and he knows it; but there's something artistic about the way he stages a gore scene, I kind of have to admire that. In "City of the Living Dead", you'll find outlandishly gruesome scenes, some of which include the following: a young woman puking out her own guts for a few good seconds (grab a barf bag, this one's real impressive), a man getting a drill-to-the-head, and a finale which involves the undead priest getting stabbed through the lower abdominal region, catching on fire, and dying along with his zombie army. If any of what I just described sounds interesting, then it probably is. This film appealed and entertained me because it was just so ridiculous, to the point where I could accept it. It was dream-like in its visual presentation, which is excellent, and in the end, it's 100% Lucio Fulci. Plenty of his worst films are also "100% Fulci", but this is one that I feel works and is able to entertain an audience rather than send them packing...or just-plain snoring. This isn't great or even good cinema, but escapist entertainment is what defines every inch of the film. Lucio Fulci's best films - and this is most certainly one of them - are all about how you choose to view them and how open you are to their irrational way of logic and thinking. They aren't for everyone, and "City of the Living Dead" is no exception, but I find it possible to look at them from a distance and smell the surrealism. Craft, talent, and imagination went into some of the memorable sequences from this film. One of my favorite scenes is towards the end, where the zombies begin to rise from their graves, as the characters have finally reached the end of the road; so it would seem. But never mind what I thought; where do YOU stand? I don't really know whether to recommend "City of the Living Dead" or not. All I know is that I found it to be an insane, over-the-top, undeniably badass zombie movie with style, surrealism, and Catriona MacColl. Now doesn't that sound nice?

• Anthony V

  
  One of the better Fulci movies.

• Donna D

  
  Very scary and freaky! Had to watch this with other people! lol! Great movie.

• John M

  
  It's not really coherent, but it is very gory and definitely has a dark and creep atmosphere. The gore is great, very gross and realistic. Some gore scenes are really unforgettable.

• Christopher B

  
  Another Fulci masterpiece that feels ripped right out of a H.P. Lovecraft story. Excellent atmosphere, fun characters and one of the goriest scenes I've ever seen. Viva Fulci!

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