NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

qmtv This could have been so much better. Acting sucks. Especially the guy playing the doctor, the worst ever. Plot/screenplay sucked. Dialogue sucked. Music is OK. Kills OK, not great. They should have killed the kid. Another crappy actor. Effects sucked. Cinematography was OK, not great. It's got atmosphere. Some moments, but that doesn't make a movie. Ending sucked, one of the worst. This could have been so much better. Acting sucks. Especially the guy playing the doctor, the worst ever. Plot/screenplay sucked. Dialogue sucked. Music is OK. Kills OK, not great. They should have killed the kid. Another crappy actor. Effects sucked. Cinematography was OK, not great. It's got atmosphere. Some moments, but that doesn't make a movie. Ending sucked, one of the worst.

conedust I've seen director Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead several times over the years. Perhaps strangely, this pecking persistence doesn't reflect any deep affection on my part. Though Gino De Rossi's infamously grisly gore effects carved lasting scars into my teenage cortex, I've always found it a rather dull film, overall. Absent the esteem in which so many veteran genre fans hold City of the Living Dead, I'd probably have written it off long ago.I know, of course, that one shouldn't expect brisk pacing or narrative cohesion of Italian horror films. Even allowing for that, Fulci here pushes turgid incoherence well past the breaking point. Things happen on screen because, well... Just because they do. Because the Maestro apparently thought the shot would look kind of cool that way. Which is fine. There's nothing necessarily wrong with cinematic dream logic (or even nonsense for its own sake), and while Fulci's work is hardly above criticism, only a fool would question his mastery of the atmospheric and grotesque.Basically, I'd come to view City of the Living Dead the lazy, off-day hackwork of an erratic and occasionally brilliant horror auteur. The progress of images, for instance, frequently seems all but literally random, as though the final cut had been assembled in a last-minute panic by a drunken editor with no clue as to the intended storyline. While The Beyond (1981) can be accused of similar faults - it's arbitrary in construction and the action is often risibly absurd - that film somehow sustains a captivating tone of morbid dread throughout, and Sergio Salvati's gorgeous cinematography helps smooth the narrative's more baffling contortions. Even its silliest and most clichéd moments feel of a satisfying piece, and the animating breath of Fulci's artistic inspiration never flags. City, in comparison, is a lurching, disconnected mess. The tone swings erratically from goofy camp (see Christopher George's ineradicable smirk) to knockout shock with stray chunks of meandering dead space wedged awkwardly in between. Worse yet, the images that carry us through are generic as often as they are arresting.*Or so I thought. An enthusiastic Horror Board regular recently convinced me that, despite my reservations, I owed the film one last look. To that end, I picked up Blue Underground's widely-praised 2010 restoration on Blu-Ray, settled in on a long dark night, and tried my level best to keep an open mind. Much to my surprise, I enjoyed it! Though I'll probably never call City of the Living Dead a personal favorite even where Fulci's work is concerned, it's far more engaging, creative and artistically interesting than most of the "so bad it's good" cult oddities treasured by die-hard horror fans. The splattery set-pieces are dazzling and nauseating in equal measure, Fabio Frizzi's score is a seductively psychedelic gem, and a convincingly apocalyptic final act manages to wrap things up on a relatively energetic note. If I'm not careful, I just might wind up watching it again...* While regular Fulci collaborator Sergio Salvati shot both films, The Beyond and the criminally under-appreciated Seven Notes in Black (AKA The Psychic, 1977) provide a far better showcase for his considerable gifts.

Leofwine_draca Yet another Fulci zombie film, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD has a number of differences from Fulci's other zombie flicks in order to make it enjoyable even for those who are familiar with his work. THE BEYOND was a dream-like fantasy, ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS was an old-fashioned adventure romp, while CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD is a detective story mixed in with typical zombie mayhem. Even those who are fans of Fulci's other films tend to criticise this one for its shoddy production values. In this case I am forced to disagree. I found this to be an atmospheric, intriguing film with characters I cared about (they're more fleshed out here than in other similar slices of celluloid) and at times I would even call the film scary. Firstly though, the criticisms.There were a number of elements which were uncomfortably similar to the same director's ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS, especially when the music began a slow beat and a zombie came out of the ground, which was almost exactly like the previous year's effort. The film was also rather dark which was in some cases annoying, but it wasn't too bad. The special effects weren't as pronounced as in Fulci's other films, in particular the zombies looked like they were covered in makeup instead of the fantastic, undead Spanish Conquistadors from ZFE. There was also a noticeable lack of gore (for Fulci that is - to a mainstream viewer, this would appear as sick as hell), apart from the two infamous "vomit" and "drill" scenes, and all around the special effects aren't used as well here as in Fulci's other 'masterpieces'.What we do have in the film's favour is an excellent second half, with the disappearing zombies playing tricks on our minds. These scenes are truly unnerving, especially the dead zombie in the kitchen. A very chilling scene. The acting is also good all round for a change. Catriona MacColl plays much the same type of character - a woman caught up in evil around her - as she did in THE BEYOND, but it's impossible to deny that she is a very warm and likable actress. Christopher George, star of countless cheap horror and exploitation films (THE EXTERMINATOR for example), is excellent as the typical American detective, I loved his performance. Carlo de Mejo (THE OTHER HELL) is bearded and sometimes unintentionally hilarious as the psychiatrist, and John Morghen (described once, by John Martin I believe, as the "whipping boy" of Italian horror) is creepy as the town weirdo. Michele Soavi, the guy in the mask from DEMONS, has a small role too.I don't know why this film gets so much criticism, really. It may be clichéd with all the shock scenes but they are very effective and enjoyable. I was also actually scared by some moments, which is rare for me in a horror film. To the film's credit, there are a couple of times Fulci tries something a little different from his usual formula. The death of Emily's parents is made more horrific as Fulci only suggests it by having blood dripping through the ceiling. He could easily have set up some rubber corpses but it's made all the more worse as he leaves the deaths to our imagination. Another scene - the maggot storm - appears to have been borrowed from Argento's SUSPIRIA, but it's much more over the top and effective here.There's a heavy, claustrophobic atmosphere, helped once again by Fabio Frizzi's excellent score, which is a little reminiscent of his work for ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS but otherwise stirring. The film suggests the decay - both moral and physical - of small town life very well, and has a scary, unpleasant atmosphere where nobody is safe from the zombies. Well worth seeing, this gets a thumbs up from me.

darksyde-63508 I had wanted to see this movie for years, ever since I was about ten years old. I had heard that it was one of the best hlzombie movies, had seen it on numerous "best of" lists, and had heard that it was chock full of gore. Being a gorehound,I, of course, was intrigued. I searched all over for this movie over the years, but was never able to find it. Until I came across it a few months ago on Amazon. I ordered it and eagerly awaited it. Boy, was I disappointed. This movie can be summed up in one word. Boring. The first part of the movie seemed to just drag on, with the characters doing A LOT of talking, and long shots of things that didn't have anything to do with what was going on. And i don't know if its just my copy of the blu ray or what, but the dubbing is terrible And when the zombies finally come? Its a let down. The make up for them is terrible. And the gore scenes? Their just eh. The best one by far in the entire movie is when a dead priest makes a woman's eyes bleed and then proceeds, in an extended scene, to make her puke out all her insides. All in all, I waited by years to see this movie, just to be let down.