City of the Living Dead (1980)

 

Hello there, mr Fulci. Glad we meet again in gruesome detail during this tale. This one might not be as well known as 'Zombi' or as entrancing as 'The Beyond', but it still is one of those gorefests you need to see if Lucio Fulci's style is something you appreciate. 

During a séance in New York, young medium Mary sees how a priest hangs himself in the grounds of a cemetary. This shocks her so much that she seemingly dies on the spot. The town where the priest committed suicide is called Dunwhich, and strange things start to happen. People are getting bizarre visions to the point where it is unclear whether or not they are real or just figments of their imagination. 

Then again: a cracking mirror and rupturing wall are pretty solid happenings, even if the local bartender shrugs it off. I haven't even mentioned the decomposing baby some weirdo discovers when he is about to hump his blow-up doll in a dilapidated house. 

Yes, this is that kind of a film. Also: the residents of Dunwich already look pretty weird without the supernatural stuff going on. 

Back in New York, reporter Peter is fascinated by the death of the young medium and wants to find out more. He discovers she isn't really dead and frees her from her coffin just in time. They then decide to head to Dunwhich, because the priest's suicide will open the gates of hell on All Souls Day, which is only 48 hours away. Meanwhile, things get worse and worse in Dunwich, as people die inexplicably and afterwards they return to kill more denizens. Mary and Peter now have to find the priest's grave and end the horrors before all the world will be consumed... 

As with nearly all Fulci projects or Italian genrefilms of the era, story isn't the strong suit of this endeavour. Heck, it's the most basic of plots, which just serves to lead us from one setpiece to another. But there are several scenes that are pretty darn memorable. There's the rain of maggots, in which the poor actors are pelted with living maggots at high speed. You can tell they had a tough time with this one. There's the completely out of the blue murder of a man with a powerdrill to the head; the girl who sees the priest and then proceeds to vomit up all her intestines; the final showdown in the catacombs which is perfectly eerie... This is Fulci's trademark: creating visceral scenes that stay with you.

Yes, once again mission accomplished.

The acting, as usual, is a very mixed bag and it isn't helped by the sometimes wonky dubbing. Yes, again a staple of his work. Catriona McCall  and Christopher George are really good as Mary and Peter and Carlo de Mejo as Gerry the psychiatrist does a good job, but a lot of the other actors are hamming it up to eleven. Especially the people in New York are pretty awful, but luckily we don't spend too much time with them. 

The film also doesn't waste time with elaborate set-ups and gets to the creepy stuff pretty rapidly. You won't be bored during this one, even if it is rather slow. 

So all in all, this is a pretty fun film in Fulci's repertoire. It isn't as influential as 'Zombi' and 'The Beyond' is by far the more memorable and well shot, but this one does have more than enough to keep you engaged. So check it out if you're up for this sort of thing.