City of the Living Dead, (1980)

  Whilst in a seance, a young woman sees a priest hang himself in a church graveyard. This apparently, opens up The Gates of Hell, allowing the dead to walk again.

Soon, the young psychic, with help from a New York journalist, (Christopher George,) set out to find the town of Dunwich, where said suicide took place - ROAD TRIP!!!

The pair have only 48 hours, or until All Saint’s Day, to get to Dunwich, (the site of the ‘original Salem - city of witches and evil!’) to destroy the dead priest's body and close the gates of hell.

It is important to note that this film is NOT a sequel to Lucio Fulci’s 1979 masterpiece, Zombi, (or 'Zombie 2,' depending on where you are in the world,) or connected to it at all. City of the Living Dead, it seems, is the first in The Gates Of Hell trilogy by Fulci, to be followed by ‘The Beyond,’ and ‘House By the Cemetery.’

All of the classic Fulci elements are here, though, plenty of guts and gore, close-up eye zooms, writhing worms, and a chugging, dramatic score.

And unlike Zombi, this is not your typical undead apocalypse film, and as such, does not necessarily adhere to those conventions. I mean, yes, the titular ‘Living Dead’ are the recently deceased and do move slowly and silently, but also seem to, um, ‘teleport’  at will - much more like a ghost or spirit, - appearing and disappearing with ease.

As for the other ‘Rules of Romero,’ the eating of flesh is present, but inconsistent - and not necessarily a given. Also, zombism did not appear to be transferred through bites, but in fairness, no one was just bitten. And lastly, the undead can be killed with more than just a head shot. In fact, one Z is dispatched fairly quickly with a stomach stabbing!

So, again, this is not a straightforward walking undead movie. Despite its title, City of the Living Dead is more of a story-driven Italian horror movie with some zombie-like elements. A departure from the mainstream, yes, but it has some decent scares, decent gore, an interesting plot, and some engaging characters. 

Suffice to say, I dug it! But, as is typically the case, I needed the objective grading tool known as the Zombi Movie Rubric for a fair and unbiased evaluation.

    With its originality, great characters, decent acting a good film quality picking up where the pacing, and actual zombies let it down, City of the Living Dead earned itself a respectable 3.0 out of a possible 4.0! This equates to a pretty good recommendation with that one caveat - this is not your regular Zombie Outbreak movie. Go into it forearmed and you’ll enjoy it all the more.

P.S. 1970’s American TV staple, Christopher George, fresh off of The Love Boat and Fantasy Island, steals every scene he’s in!!!

Here is a nice High Def trailer from YouTube - CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD