City of the Living Dead

Name: Paura nella città dei morti viventi
Genre: Horror
Released: 1983-04-08
Duration: 1 h 33 min
Rating: 6.2
Cast: Christopher George, Catriona MacColl, Carlo De Mejo

Original title: Paura nella città dei morti viventi

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

20K

YOUR RATING

Home Video Trailer from Anchor Bay Entertainment

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Splatter Horror Zombie Horror Horror

A reporter and a psychic race to close the Gates of Hell after the suicide of a clergyman caused them to open, allowing the dead to rise from their graves.A reporter and a psychic race to close the Gates of Hell after the suicide of a clergyman caused them to open, allowing the dead to rise from their graves.A reporter and a psychic race to close the Gates of Hell after the suicide of a clergyman caused them to open, allowing the dead to rise from their graves.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

20K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Director Lucio Fulci always carried around a bag with his trademark pipe and tobacco. One day on set he reached into his bag and found a handful of maggots (which had been used earlier to film the scene in which maggots blow in through a window). The perpetrator of this prank is rumored to be Christopher George, the film's lead actor, who did not get along well with Fulci.

Goofs
The people of Dunwich are said to be descended from "Salem witch burners", although no accused "witches" were ever burned in Salem (most were hanged).

Quotes
[reading a porno magazine]
Blonde gravedigger: Will you check her out? Talk about a "box lunch".
Gravedigger: I'm telling you, you'll end up a dirty old man reading that stuff. A pervert. A peeping tom. I saw this porno flick once. This guy in the audience got so carried away with it, he humped himself to death.
Blonde gravedigger: Yeah, but what a way to go.

Alternate versions
The British Cinema version was cut by around 1 minute to remove the drill sequence. This version was released on video in the UK before 1984, after which all videos were required to be submitted to the British Board of Film Classification. When it was finally given a video certificate by the BBFC, further cuts were made to remove the intestinal vomit scene, and the brain squashing scenes. The UK video has a total of 2m 21s of cuts.

Connections
Edited into Cent une tueries de zombies (2012)

User reviews260

Review

Featured review

7/10

One of the Best Horror Movies by Lucio Fulci

In New York, the medium Mary Woodhouse (Katriona MacColl) sees Father William Thomas (Fabrizio Jovine) committing suicide by hanging himself in a cemetery in Dunwich. His death opens the gates of Hell permitting the rise of the dead. Mary is so frightened with what she sees that she dies in a séance.

The snoopy reporter Peter Bell (Christopher George) covers the death of Mary and goes to the cemetery. Out of the blue, Mary awakes locked in the coffin and Peter hears her screams and saves her. She tells what happened and Peter invites her to go to Dunwich with him. Meanwhile in Dunwich there are weird deaths and Peter and Mary meet the psychiatrist Gerry (Carlo De Mejo) and his friend Sandra (Janet Agren) to find out the grave of Father Thomas to close the gates of Hell before All Saints Day; otherwise the dead will raise and destroy the living. Will they succeed in their intent?

"Paura nella città dei morti viventi" is one of the best horror movies by Lucio Fulci. The story is simple and does not have explanations why the death of the priest will open the gates of Hell, but the special effects are gore and gruesome. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Pavor na Cidade dos Zumbis" ("Horror in the Zombie City")

Note: On 14 May 2013, I saw this movie again on Blu-Ray. The quality is excellent, but unfortunately the original audio in Italian is not available.

On 26 January 2017, I saw this movie again on a Brazilian DVD (Versátil), but unfortunately the original audio in Italian is not available.