CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD

For this new Philm Phreaks review, I'm looking at a new edition of the 1980 film "City of the Living Dead." The movie was also released as "The Gates of Hell.' I should note that this is a three disc set, with one of those being a 4K version. I don't have a 4k player, so I couldn't watch that disc, but I watched the other two, the first of which was a Blu-Ray edition of the movie. 

The film is Italian, but there is an English version on the disc, which is what I watched. This movie comes from the legendary director Lucio Fulci. I have to admit that, while I've heard a lot about him over the years, this is the first of his movies I've seen. 

The movie is also said to be inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, but I don't really see that connection. I mean, they renamed the town Dunwich, but beyond that, this is more of a Satanic paranormal film. 

I have mixed feelings about this movie. On the one hand, the story is not fleshed out as much as I would like. It's a little confusing and hard to follow at times. Also, the whole thing feels a little flat and lackluster. On the other hand, this has some amazingly creepy scenes. There is plenty of gore, that, at the time, I'm sure was really unsettling to people. It's still on a level of things like the original "Evil Dead" in terms of that aspect. 

By the time it's over, the story mostly makes sense. It's a pretty crazy ride in a lot of ways. For some reason I'm reminded a little of "Phantasm." That probably comes in with the almost surreal, otherworldly, vibe to the movie, and the fact that the story at times is somewhat confusing. Another movie that came to my mind watching this was a film that's largely forgotten, but which I really loved, "One Dark Night." A lot of the reanimated body stuff in the two movies seems somewhat similar. The two undead characters responsible for all the mayhem also remind me a little of each other. That said, that film came after this one, so if one of them was influenced by the other, it would be "One Dark Night" taking clues from this film. 

All in all, I definitely enjoyed this more than not. I mentioned that there is a second disc with bonus features. Those are pretty cool, but many of them are in Italian with sub-titles, so if you aren't a fan of that, they might not resonate with you that well. This movie is pretty crazy and holds up pretty well even today.