Verdict
Summary
One of Lucio Fulci’s horror masterpieces (I think it’s better than his best known work Zombie), City of the Living Dead is a true frightfest with gore galore, and Cauldron’s new edition does the film justice.
Synopsis:
A reporter and a psychic race to close the Gates of Hell after the suicide of a clergyman caused them to open, allowing the dead to rise from the grave.
Review:
A priest hangs himself in a cemetery in the small town of Dunwich, setting the stage for the apocalypse, as his blasphemous death opened the seven gates of hell. A New York reporter named Peter (Christopher George) is in town, investigating the strange death of a psychic named Mary (Catriona MacColl), who died during a séance, and while visiting her grave as she’s being buried, he hears her screams from her coffin, and saves her life before she’s buried alive! Revived from the dead, Mary has visions of the apocalypse, and she seems to foresee the end of all things, and so with Peter and another man – a psychiatrist named Gerry (Carlo De Mejo) – they try to stop the end of the world before All Saints Day when the dead will crawl out of their graves and eat the flesh of the living.
One of Lucio Fulci’s horror masterpieces (I think it’s better than his best known work Zombie), City of the Living Dead is a true frightfest with gore galore. Its inventive gore set pieces (one is a scene where a woman vomits her guts out, another has a guy getting drilled in the head) are enough to make this a cult classic, but Fulci’s mastery with mood, lighting, and dread are fully prevalent in this shocker. Added to the fact that Gino De Rossi’s make-up effects are stellar and Fabio Frizzi’s score sets the tone, and you’ve got a keeper here.
Cauldron’s new 3-disc edition of City of the Living Dead comes in a handsome package that offers the 4K disc, a Blu-ray, and a special features disc on a Blu-ray. the film, quite simply, has never looked or sounded better, even outshining the Blue Underground Blu-ray edition from some years back. With unique artwork, and a ton of new features, plus archival features, this release is packed with material to keep a fan busy for hours and hours. I’ve enjoyed Cauldron’s releases, and this one ranks as one of their best.
Bonus Materials
- New audio commentary with film historian Samm Deighan
- Archival audio commentary with film historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
- Archival audio commentary with actress Catriona MacColl moderated by Jay Slater
- Archival audio commentary with actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice moderated by Calum Waddell
- Zombie Kings: Interview with Massimo Antonello Geleng
- Requiem for Bob: Interview with Giovanni Lombardo Radice
- On Stage: Q&A with Venantino Venantini & Ruggero Deodato
- Catriona MacColl Q&A
- Fabio Frizzi Q&A
- The Meat Munching Movies of Gino De Rossi
- Carlo of the Living Dead, an archival interview with actor Carlo De Mejo
- A Trip Through Bonaventure Cemetery
- Catriona Maccoll video intro from 2001
- Image Gallery
- Plus more archival extras and other surprises!
- Double sided Blu-ray wrap with artwork by Matthew Therrien
- Optional English SDH subtitles
- Seamless branching – watch in English Language w/ English credit sequences and watch Italian language w/ Italian credit sequences.
- UHD (feature film) 4K (2160p) presentation with Dolby Vision™ HDR (HDR 10 compatible)
- Blu-ray (feature film) 1080p presentation
