City of the Living Dead

Director: Lucio Fulci Year of Release: 1983 Running Time: 93 min

Widely considered to be in the top tier of gorehound favorite Lucio Fulci's work, City of the Living Dead is a supernatural horror film laced with bouts of explicit gore. Set in the sleepy New England town of Dunwich, a local priest commits suicide and opens he gates of hell, unleashing all sorts of ghastly chaos upon the residents as a psychic tries to seal them and put a end to the horror. One of Fulci's strengths as a director is creating an appropriate atmosphere to suit the film and in that regard COTLD is one of his strongest efforts. The film oozes Gothic style and a feeling of impeding doom permeates. Another strength and claim to fame is his incredible use of gore, in that respect, COTLD has several set pieces that are notorious among gorehounds, particularity the nauseating entrail vomiting scene. Has a horror film the result is less successful; there are some genuinely frightening moments and the atmosphere is top notch, but the pacing is painful, leading to quite a few boring, shoddy stretches; likewise, while Fulci films are rarely known for their compelling characters, the ones featured here, not to mention the acting are particularly wooden and completely uninteresting. All in all I didn't have an enjoyable time watching City of the Living Dead, it was pretty dull save for the aforementioned strong points, although die hard fans and Fulci devotes will want to check it out.

Rating: 2/5

The most widely circulating and available edition and is the Blue Underground dvd.