‘If those gates are left open, it could mean the end of humanity…’
Anyone who has seen any of Italian horror director Lucio Fulci’s films will know that he is very much repulsive horror first and plot second. Zombie Flesh Eaters is probably his most well-known film in the UK, and while everyone who has seen that film can remember the ‘eyeball scene’ (don’t look it up if you’re easily disturbed), you’d be hard pushed to find someone who could tell you anything about the narrative. If anything, City of the Living Dead, the first in Fulci’s infamous Gates of Hell trilogy, has even less plot than his other films…
When Father Thomas (Fabrizio Jovine), a Catholic priest, hangs himself in the cemetery of a small village church, he opens up a gate to hell that threatens to spill over on All Saints’ Day (never ever has he ever felt so low). Meanwhile, Gerry (Carlo De Mejo) and Sandra (Janet Agren) attempt to close the gate. All of this is secondary, however, to people bleeding out of their eyeballs, having their brains gouged out through the ball of their skulls (this happens a surprising number of times), and a guy being drilled to death for the sin of sleeping in someone’s car. It’s a bit much.
What I will say about Fulci’s franchise starter is that when you imagine what a video nasty from the ’80s would be like, this is what you should be imagining. It’s still shocking and tough to sit through in places today, whilst simultaneously being fairly cheesy and well… 80s. The acting ranges from competent to bad, but the visual effects are phenomenal (a scene in which a woman sicks up her internal organs will stay with me for a long time), and Fabio Frizzi’s wonderful score has no business being this fantastic for a film this cheap.
City of the Living Dead is a visceral, memorable horror experience that could only have been made by Lucio Fulci in the ’80s. I’ve not even mentioned the scene in which 22 pounds of live maggots were flung towards the entire cast using a wind machine – a true golden age for freaky cinema.
