Review of City of the Living Dead (1980) by Andy P — 07 Apr 2008
This is one of the few Fulci movies I like. Atmospheric, dreamy, bizarre, and the gore is awesome. The plot doesn't make a lick of sense; one of the major plot points is that the film takes place in the cursed town of Dunwich, built on the ruins of Salem, but last time I checked Salem is still a town.
It also has some awesome scenes where logic goes COMPLETELY out the window, like when the guy tries to get the living woman out of the coffin she's trapped in by pickaxing it (!) and almost axing the womans face too.
Or that part where that random weirdo character Bob (the one that earlier tries to have sex with a blow-up doll in an abandoned house) has his head powerdrilled by some random chick's overly angry dad.
That scene not only has nothing to do with the central plot of the movie, but it makes negative sense! Anyway, it's gory, stylish fun. The reason this one gets marked down more than The Beyond and House by the Cemetary is because the ending is absolutely awful.
It's quite obvious that they didn't have a filmed ending, so they try to gloss over that with some really sketchy editing that tries to turn an originally non-scary scene into a "final scare".
What you have is probably one of the worst endings in any movie ever. Which is a shame because the rest is a top-notch (well, for these kinds of movies) Italian gore-fest.
This review of City of the Living Dead (1980) was written by Andy P on 07 Apr 2008.
City of the Living Dead has generally received mixed reviews.
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