Review of City of the Living Dead (1980) by Andy F — 25 Feb 2015

With an entire world out there full of low budget Italian horror films waiting to be explored, City of the Living Dead sounded like a good place to start.

There is no denying that City of the Living Dead is a generic low budget Italian horror film. Though City of the Living Dead is also known as The Gates of Hell, the literal translation of its Italian title renders it named Fear in the City of the Living Dead. Either way, the film uses the Living Dead title to capitalise on the success of George A. Romero's many films under that name. Considering that director Lucio Fulci is also the director of the film Zombi 2 which was marketed as an unofficial sequel to George A. Romero's horror cult classic Dawn of the Dead, it is not the first time he has done this. But the film could not have less to do with anything by George A. Romero, it is simply another.

City of the Living Dead hides nothing. It is a film which is very limited by the formula of its genre and does not even attempt to transcend them. There are no characters in the film, just a bunch of people being dragged through witchcraft waiting to be killed in gruesome ways. So getting any sense of connection to them is unlikely because the film is shorter on characters than it is on narrative. But then again, you don't go into a film like City of the Living Dead for its story when as a low budget Italian horror film it all succeeds based on its technical aspects. The slow pace may get in the way of this at times, as well as a lot of the pointless dramatic plot points in the narrative, but all in all City of the Living Dead is a sporadically entertaining horror film. I wouldn't say that as a whole it was good simply because all it had to boast about was a series of dark and gory imagery thrown together into a story with a loose narrative to it, but City of the Living dead certainly has enough effective moments for it to succeed as a guilty pleasure with the correct market.

True to its roots, most of the gimmicks in City of the Living Dead come from its shameless use of blood and gore. With the high point of the film being the quality of the makeup effects in the film. Though it does not tackle a more common zombie approach at the title would suggest, the body horror nature of the film is very exploitation style in the right way. By today's standards, the low budget exploitation style of a film like City of the Living Dead would provide a sense of deadpan comedy to the right viewer. It doesn't render the film an unintentional comedy, it just means that City of the Living Dead goes down with the entire exploitation genre as a collection of hilariously violent low budget films. Although the laughs in the film were sporadic, they were certainly there at some key horror moments in the film. But more importantly than its comedic value is the fact that the makeup effects in City of the Living Dead are so confronting and disgusting that it is difficult to ignore the shock effect of them. Instead of throwing them at the viewer in a rushed pace, the viewer is forced to wait for them as the atmosphere builds before they are unleashed in unexpected moments. The use of blood and gore in City of the Living dead is sporadic but brutal, relentless on blood and gore and sure to move slowly so that the viewer never misses the sights for a second. There are some versatile uses of it in the film, and so even if the story is not perfect in City of the Living Dead, the priorities of director Lucio Fulci are made clear and his work is admirable especially since he finds the correct ways to divert the low budget into the production.

Admittedly, City of the Living Dead is a very atmospheric film. The dark colour palette of the film is entertaining because it casts a sense of shadow over everything. Everything in City of the Living Dead looks grim and dark without being difficult to actively see what is going on since the lighting is moderated well. The thrills are all present because of this, but a large amount of the debt is owed to the musical score. Following a more iconic style to fit in with the genre, the music in City of the Living Dead ranges between strong bass points and an eerily classic piano theme which makes it tense and horrific but also creepy, constantly alternating between them. The musical score in City of the Living dead ties into the visual elements of the film really well meaning that even though the film is not the best treat on the mind, it does a good job for the eyes and the ears of viewers who can appreciate its virtues. It all falls onto the directorial work of Lucio Fulci, and though it is not a perfect feature, it is certainly a step in the right direction for him which left me intrigued to further explore his films and in particular the rest of the Gates of Hell trilogy just to see where he went from there. His role as the director of the film is the most key aspect to its sense of success, and he produces just enough flair to show promise.

So City of the Living Dead has a powerful sense of atmosphere to it and a creative use of blood and gore which works to the credit of Lucio Fulci's directorial style. Unfortunately, the uncreative premise, slow pace and reliance more on drama than on actual horror mean that it is a sporadically effective film at best and a rather full feature for most viewers.