31 days of Horror 2012 day 02

Paura nella città dei morti viventi AKA City of the Living Dead AKA Gates of Hell
1980
Blue Underground DVD

This is the first film from infamous Italian director Lucio Fulci that I ever saw. I found it,under the Gates of Hell title,for rent at Homeport Video out in Forts Lake Mississippi. I had never heard of it before,but on the box cover was a warning that said cause of extreme scenes of violence and gore it was recommended that no one under the age of 18 see the movie. That right there was  a huge clue that I must see this movie. I had to be about 13 at the time. Got home with the VHS through it in and sat down to watch it while I ate my dinner. At the time I had no idea this was an Italian film,and also had no idea who Lucio Fulci was. But after watching the film I knew that I must own a copy. So before returning the VHS to the video store I hooked up 2 VCRs and made myself a copy. Fast forward almost 20 years and I was in Circuit City and looking for some new horror DVDs to buy. I saw saw a DVD titled City of the living dead,and since I have always loved zombies movies I picked it up and read the description on the back of the case. It sounded kind of familiar to me,but it didn't connect it to Gates of Hell. I saw that Blue Underground had put it out,and I knew that they always did great work on their DVD releases so I bought it. Well the DVD sat on my shelf for years before I even opened it up. Then sometime in 2008 I threw it in late one night when I was looking for some thing to watch. After about 10 minutes I realized I had seen it before. So I looked it up on the internet and realized it was also known as Gates of Hell.

The film is about how after a priest commits suicide in a graveyard he opens up one of the Gates of hell. And zombies pour through this gate and invade the town. A reporter played by Christopher George finds out that the gate most be closed by All Saint's day. If this doesn't happen the zombies will end up taking over the world. Like most Fulci horror films,City of the Living Dead doesn't have the most amazing plot. But what it does have is great atmosphere and some really well done practical FX work. We get one well done scene where Giovanni Lombardo Radice gets killed by a drill to his head. Then what is one of the best known deaths in any Fulci film, when one lady ends up puking up all her intestines. This effect was done by having the actress swallow some sheep intestines and then having her regurgitate them. And it works really well. First time I saw the movie,like I mentioned above,I was eating my dinner and the gut puking part almost made me puke. One complaint I hear from most people is how the film really has no ending. This is cause the last reel of film got messed up and Fulci didn't have the money or time to re-film it. So we get a crappy non-ending ending. But if you are a fan of 80s Italian horror City of the Living dead is worth at least a rental. I know that a few years ago Blue Underground released this on Blu Ray. And at the same time put out a new edition on DVD. These newer releases have a really good making of documentary. The DVD I have is bare bones. Besides the film ,you get a trailer and a fact file on Fulci. City of the Living Dead gets a B+.