DVD Spotlight: Dawn of the Dead (Ultimate Edition).

Dawn of the Dead (Ultimate Edition) (1978)
DVD Release Year: 2004.
Released by: Anchor Bay Entertainment.
Region: 1.
Starring: Ken Foree; Gaylen Ross; Scott H. Reiniger; David Emge; Richard France; Jese Del Gre; James A. Baffico; Rudy Ricci; Tom Savini.
Directed by: George A. Romero.
Colour/127 Minutes/NR (US Theatrical Version); Colour/139 Minutes/NR (Extended Version); Colour/118 Minutes/NR (European Version)

Years after the initial outbreaks of the dead coming back to eat the flesh of the living, society is now quickly breaking down. The media is failing. Marshall law has been declared and the population has been ordered to leave the big cities and go to shelters. Fran (Gaylen Ross), a television-executive, and her traffic reporter boyfriend Stephen (David Emge), conspire to escape the chaos in a news helicopter with their friend Roger, a member of the Philadelphia police SWAT team. Along for the ride is Peter (Ken Foree), also a SWAT team member, whom Roger has just befriended after Peter was forced to kill a fellow team member who had gone nuts. As they make their escape the reality of limited fuel and food, and an immediate need for shelter hangs over their heads. They set down on the roof of a large mall. They discover that it's still with power and containing everything they need to survive. The only catch is that they need to clean it out of the resident zombies (former shoppers returning from the dead and back to their half-remembered daily routines) and to secure it from any other zombies, or less than honourable survivors, trying to get in and take the mall for their own.

After both The Crazies (1973) and Martin (1977), while good films, failed to really draw, Romero decided to do go full-on towards a sequel to Night of the Living Dead, which he had been planning to do for years anyway. Unable to get the funds from investors domestically, Italian film maker Dario Argento managed to find the project investors in exchange for international distribution and editing rights. With a $1,500,000 budget to work with Romero decided to go bigger and bolder than he had previously done in Night. Still, even back then, this was not really a big budget film, and like most of Romero's films, you see a lot of blood, sweat and tears in the finished project.

Bigger and bolder was indeed where Romero went. The film is very much intended to be both a rip-roaring, gory, comic book action picture, but it also expands on the themes explored in Night. The plot is actually pretty much the same, just on a grander scale. The farmhouse in Night is traded up for the mall. The internal conflicts between the survivors in Night are played out this time more so between our heroes and a gang of savage bikers who have been surviving on the road, pillaging for what they need. Racism rears its ugly heard early on as cheap housing in the poor parts of the cities, mostly occupied by Blacks, Hispanics and other minorities are raided by the police and national guard, trying to enforce martial law -- which in turn has given some bigots the idea that they have free reign to bust some heads to get the job done. Romero expanded his reach in this film, also taking on consumerism at its worst excesses. The zombies walking comically around their old stomping grounds in the mall is such an obvious visual metaphor that he might as well be hitting you over the head with a club with the words: "today's spoiled consumer is no better than a zombie". The amorality of the media depicted here, and its never ending spiral towards becoming more and more like a big business than an unbiased way to inform the public and keep the government honest, is sadly prophetic. Romero has never been all that subtle about what he believes and has no problem showing it to you with even less subtle ways, such as depicting rotting corpses getting their heads blown off. I'll always love him for it.

And speaking of gore and grue, a then up-and-coming Tom Savini shines here in his debut. Tons of fluorescent fake blood (keeping with the comic book feel Romero wanted) splatters everywhere. Mostly simple but effective make-up jobs, with some stand-out appliances for special zombies, manage to work very well on-screen. The combo of both amature performances from non-professional extras in the zombie roles, and Savini's effects, create characters that stand-out despite the fact that the zombies don't have lines, and when it's all said and done, these were low budget effects. But who can forget the nurse, nun, or sweater zombies? The zombie that steals Roger's gun? The obese zombie? The flat-headed chopper zombie? The Hare Krishna zombie? They help with the black comic undertone the film has going on as well, and they are part of the memories people take away from the film as a whole.

There are so many great scenes to talk about. Every fan will have their own personal favourites. There are several for me. Take the moment they fly over a horde of rednecks and national guard, out hunting zombies, pretty much for sport. It seems like the aftermath of Night of the Living Dead is playing out down there in its final, grand scale. How about the opening where the mass media is in total chaos? There is a real sense of panic and despair. Fran is correct in saying "we're blowing it ourselves". Perhaps the one real true scene of total horror in the film is after Roger has died and the rest of the group wait for him to come back as a zombie. Nobody wants to face what must happen next. In the background on TV, the last remains of the media -- now just so-called "experts" yelling at each other and the audience -- rise to a fever pitch; a frenzy; a craze. Everyone including the viewer has been given the final verdict: it is all over, there's no going back to the old world. They can no longer pretend everything is going to be all okay. It builds so perfectly and it grips me every time.

The soundtrack, although quite different between different cuts of the film, is an iconic blend of library tracks, cues, and songs from Italian progressive rock band Goblin, hired on by Argento. What can you say about it that does it justice? The original music and library tracks range from the traditional spooky horror stuff to electronic rock, heartbeat-like pulses, and daffy elevator music, the latter used to great effect in the actual mall scenes. There are as many variations of the soundtrack out there, it seems, as there are versions of the film, in both official releases and fan-compiled projects. Much like Popol Vuh in Herzog's version of Nosferatu, Vangelis' score for Blade Runner, John Carpenter with Halloween, and just about everything Ennio Morricone has done, it's a soundtrack I grew up listening to. It's always with me, there in my head.

I said previously that the best performances, over all, in the original three Dead films were found in Day of the Dead. I stand by that, but for me the leads in Dawn are far more enjoyable. Here the main characters are painted in slightly broader strokes, and done so on purpose to better bluntly put forward Romero's ideas. Fran is a modern, independent woman. She takes her job seriously when co-workers are fine with keeping out-of-date rescue station information on the air just to keep people watching, even if it means people are going to be sent to their deaths. She is very much the moral center of the cast and the most humane. Also of note is how much she resents being treated like a weak link by her male companions. She's determined to be treated as an equal and to hold up her end, even with a looming pregnancy to deal with. A true feminist in the best sense of the word. Peter is a take-charge, no-nonsense man, who is practical and coldly logical about the situation they are in. He is smart, tough, and a survivor with a solid moral core of his own. He's the strength of the group. Roger is also much like Peter, but he's also irrational, impulsive, and he's quickly losing it. His overconfidence and reckless behaviour is his ultimate undoing, and it puts the rest of the group in a bad situation after he is bitten by zombies. Stephen is caught between being there for Fran and being one of the guys. Deep down he's unsure, incompetent, and like Roger, he puts the group in danger. In his case it's because he can not let go of the mall when the bikers break in. Fran and Peter ultimately survive the mall because they can let go of it in the end. The "good life" the mall provided them is a dream; a falsehood; a trap, better left to the dead.

If one still finds oneself wanting after picking up this box set, I'd suggest inventing a time machine and going back to play a zombie extra in the original shoot. There is really no base not covered in the discs you get here. Much like Night of the Living Dead, this film has a long history of various mangled VHS cuts and some dodgy fly-by-night DVD releases. What we get in the three different cuts here will most likely interest and satisfy everyone. The US theatrical version is just that. This was previously released in a single-disc edition by Anchor Bay and retains all the same extras. The commentary, like most of Romero's, is casual, informative and fun over all. Love, affection and pride shine through from all involved. It, or something close to it is the cut most of us probably first watched and fell in love with. Still fairly epic in length, it better balances action and slow moments. The "extended version" is sometimes considered the "director's cut", which is false. Romero's preferred cut is the theatrical cut of the film. This cut is over ten minutes longer and was put together for the Cannes Film Festival. Romero has said that an even longer version once existed (over three hours!). Here the film has more of everything. More media chaos, more zombies, more mall footage, and generally just a lot more padding. As much of a treasure trove this is for rabid fans like myself, I can still honestly say the theatrical cut is superior. The extended cut takes a long time to get going and establish the main cast, and there are bigger lulls in action. Also of note is how much more library music is put in here instead of the Goblin soundtrack. However, one scene here -- an extension of the scene where our heroes encounter fleeing police officers while they try and steal a helicopter -- really should have been left in the theatrical version. The commentary with this version (producer Richard Rubinstein) is a tad dry and follows nothing going on on-screen, but it covers so much about the production and marketing, that's worth at least one listen through. The European version is very different in tone and length from the other versions. Called Zombi overseas and edited for the Euro market, this is Dario Argento's 118 minute cut, that guts the film of most of its humor, character development, and social commentary in favour of more action and a much faster pace. Here, most of the library music Romero used is dumped for more Goblin. However this is not an abomination, as many of the action scenes were extended, and other scenes used alternate edits, so for completests, this is a gem -- even if it's a bit of a tarnished one. Still, even if the film loses most of its impact in this cut, one can see how it directly influenced the Euro zombie horror craze (and mostly bettered every film to come from it). The actor commentary here is fun and light-hearted. Even more amusing is the confusion they sometimes have watching this cut, at first not realizing scenes they mention having fond memories of have been shortened or dropped altogether.



The documentaries disc is worth a separate review all its own (really, all the discs here could be separate reviews if I had the time). The Dead Will Walk is a new doc, seventy-five minutes long, and brings back the principles from the cast and production. A lot of this stuff is already covered in the commentaries, but this doc is a quicker way to absorb all of it, as well as the ton of extra info presented. It's a bit of an information overload, but a fantastic one, and no doubt Anchor Bay's best in-house produced doc. Roy Frumkes' Document of the Dead, a student film from 1989, is feature length, and much more about Romero and how he makes his films. It does not exclusively focus on Dawn of the Dead. In fact Martin and Two Evil Eyes pretty much get equal time here. Not as strong as The Dead Will Walk, but it's interesting and worth having. The on-set home videos is a rough, behind the scenes look at the production of Dawn, but it's a lot of fun and has commentary to guide you through what you're seeing in this 16mm footage. The Monroeville Mall Tour is a brief Greg Nicotero-shot film of Ken Foree and other cast members giving a tour of the famous mall, where the majority of the film is set and was shot, to fans. Fun stuff, and a nice book-end to one of the best DVD box sets ever produced, for one of the best films ever made.

DVD Information:

Disc One: US Theatrical Version
Video: 1.85:1.
Audio: DTS 5.1; Dolby Digital 5.1; DD 2.0 Surround; DD 2.0 Mono.
Subtitles: English.
--Commentary by George Romero, Tom Savini and Cris Romero.
--2 theatrical trailers.
--3 TV spots.
--9 radio spots.
--Posters, lobby cards and advertising gallery.
--Romero bio.

Disc Two: Extended Version
Video: 1.85:1.
Audio: Dolby digital 2.0.
Subtitles: English.
--Commentary by producer Richard Rubinstein.
--Monroeville Mall commercial spot.
--Production/behind the scenes/memorabilia stills.

Disc Three: European Version
Video: 1.85:1.
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1; DD 2.0 Surround; DD 2.0 Mono.
Subtitles: English.
--Commentary by actors Emge, Foree, Reiniger and Ross.
--1 Italian and 2 German trailers.
--2 UK TV spots.
--Poster & still galleries.
--Argento bio.

 Disc Four: Documentaries
--The Dead Will Walk (1:15:04).

--Document of the Dead (1:31:37).
--On-set home videos (with Audio Commentary from Zombie Extra Robert Langer) (13:25).
--Monroeville Mall Tour (11:28).

DVD Spotlight: Day of the Dead (1985).

Day of the Dead (1985)

DVD Release Year: 2003.

Released by: Anchor Bay Entertainment.

Region: 1.

Starring: Lori Cardille; Terry Alexander; Jarlath Conroy; Joseph Pilato; Richard Liberty; Sherman Howard; Gary Howard Klar; Ralph Marrero; John Amplas.

Directed by: George A. Romero.

Colour/101 Minutes/NR

Years after the zombie apocalypse has taken place, the undead now have overrun the world. Some of the last human survivors (a small combination of civilians, scientists and soldiers) are hiding in an underground army base in the Everglades, where the scientists are trying to both look for a solution to the zombie problem, as well as make contact with other survivors. The soldiers are there to protect them. However, there is a need to capture "live" zombies in order to do tests on them. This is costing the soldiers their lives, something they are not too keen on. The two civilians, John and William McDermott (Terry Alexander and Jarlath Conroy), the helicopter pilot and a drunk in charge of the radio respectively, are just keeping their heads down as tensions escalate.

There is division even between the two lead scientists. Dr. Sarah Bowman (Lori Cardille) just wants to find a "cure", or at least find some way to put an end to the zombie threat, as well as support her emotionally unbalanced boyfriend, Pvt. Miguel Salazar (Anthony Dileo Jr.). However, Dr. Matthew "Frankenstein" Logan (Richard Liberty), who has obviously gone bonkers, wants to find a way to actually control the zombies and use them. Because of this he's been burning through test subjects. However, he does keep one prized subject "alive", that being "Bub" (Sherman Howard), who has displayed an ability to learn and recognize things and concepts from his past, before he turned into a zombie. Logan thinks he's on the verge of a breakthrough.

But their time is short, and the fuse on the new military commander, Capt. Rhodes (Joseph Pilato), is even shorter. The previous commander has just died, and now Rhodes is in charge and not as interested in putting his men at risk for experiments that have failed to produce any real results. He wants to cease the look for a cure and find a way out of the hole they are in. He's quickly turning into a mad dog under the stress, and his men are no better. They seem like they are bottom of the barrel National Guard recruits rather than trained soldiers. Slobs, who don't trust Miguel to do his job (even making racist remarks towards him) and leering at Sarah, as she's the only woman in the base. It doesn't help matters when Rhodes starts to suspect Logan is up to something. And he is: Logan has been running out of regular zombies from outside the base to do his tests upon, and has been using the bodies of the recently dead soldiers to keep things going...

Day of the Dead is the most looked-down upon of Romero's original trilogy, and indeed there's not a lot that's new here from the previous film Dawn of the Dead. It's the same situation, but much worse. Society is totally gone now. Hordes of zombies walk the streets. The last people alive are very close together and isolated from the outside world. Tensions are as high as can be. Racism and sexism find a fertile breeding ground, and the zombies continue to wait, and wait. Eventually they will get in because the humans will leave the door open. Deep down the last survivors know it, and that only makes things more desperate for them. There is no hope anymore but to escape and live out their lives somewhere.

Romero and crew were faced with having a substantial amount of their budget cut from the film (from about 7 down to 3.5 million), so much of the original story got thrown out. This film was actually intended to be an epic to rival Dawn of the Dead. The subplot with Bub, and Dr. Logan learning to control the zombies was to be a much larger part of the original film. But most of that was lost, and sadly critics focused more on the scenes of stressed-out people yelling at each other in an underground bunker. Not enough action, not enough zombies. It's too bad, as I think Day deserves much better. The actors are good. This may be the best acting in any of Romero's zombie pictures, actually. I bought into each performance. Everyone is stressed and dealing with it in different ways. Sarah is not only being strong for herself, but for Miguel, who has fallen into a nervous breakdown. The soldiers are scared and have become mean, alcoholic bullies. Capt. Rhodes is a despot. Dr. Logan is clearly insane beyond reason. The civilians, John and William, have isolated themselves from the rest in an effort to hold on to their humanity and sanity. The zombie, Bud, is like an innocent child, and seeing part of his past humanity coming back to him through Logan's encouragement is touching (and heartbreaking when he discovers Logan's corpse later on).

Also of note are the locations used and the make-up effects. Much like the mall in Dawn was perfect, the underground facilities near Wampum, Pennsylvania, were exactly for what they needed here. The cast truly feels walled-in and isolated in this storage facility, full of the remains of a now collapsed society. They are in effect living in a tomb. The abandoned cities above ground are no better for them, as the scenes shot on location in Florida are just as claustrophobic when the walls of zombies show up. The effects work from Tom Savini and Gregory Nicotero are really quite impressive and only highlight why there should have been more zombie scenes in the film to spice things up ("Dr. Tongue" from the opening is a jaw-dropper in more ways than one!). There is, at least, a hell of a lovely slaughter when the zombies do finally make their way into the base. And Bub should also be mentioned here: he really comes alive with a perfect melding of physical performance and make-up design. He has stood out in the minds of fans over the years, and the "smart zombie" concept has lived on into Romero's Land of the Dead.

The film has gone on to have a lasting influence on the zombie horror genre, and in pop culture, although not as strongly as Dawn. But let's face it, that's a pretty big giant to slay. Anchor Bay's 2-disc DVD (also in single disc DVD and Blu-ray) is a perfect way to pay due respect to the film. The commentary track, like all of Romero's commentaries, is laid back, fun, and informative. This, along with the film looking and sounding great on DVD, is generally worth the price right there, but then you get an okay fan boy commentary from Roger Avary (writer/producer/director, who is best know for writing Pulp Fiction). Disc 2 gives you the expected extensive, and informative, documentaries and production supplements. You even get a physical extra in the form of Dr. Logan's "files", which is a fake ruled notepad with an essay on the film, artwork, and some of Logan's "notes". Sort of pointless, but good fun.

DVD Information:

Disc One: Feature Film

Video: 1.85:1.

Audio: Dolby Digital-EX 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 and DTS-ES 6.1

Subtitles: English.

--Audio commentary with writer/director George A. Romero, special make-up effects artists Tom Savini, production designer Cletus Anderson, and actress Lori Cardille.

--Audio commentary with filmmaker Roger Avary.

Disc Two: Bonus Materials

--The Many Days of Day of the Dead -- An all-new 39 minute documentary featuring interviews with writer-director George A.Romero, producer David Ball, special make-up effects artists Tom Savini and Greg Nicotero, production designer Cleatus Anderson, assistant director Chris Romero, and actors Lori Cardille, Joseph Pilato and Howard Sherman.

--DAY OF THE DEAD: Behind The Scenes -- 31 minutes of production footage from special make-up effects artist Tom Savini.

--Audio interview with actor Richard Liberty.

--Wampum Mine promotional video.

--Theatrical trailers.

--TV spots.

--Production Stills.

--Behind-the-scenes photos.

--Posters & advertising art.

--Gallery of memorabilia.

--Zombie make-up photo gallery.

--Continuity stills gallery.

--George Romero bio.

--DVD-ROM: Original screenplay and production memos.

DVD Spotlight: Night of the Living Dead (Millennium Edition) (1968).

Night of the Living Dead (Millennium Edition) (1968)
DVD Release Year: 2002.
Released by: Elite Entertainment.
Region: 1.
Starring: Duane Jones; Judith O'Dea; Karl Hardman; Marilyn Eastman; Keith Wayne; Judith Ridley; Kyra Schon; Charles Craig; S. William Hinzman; George Kosana; Frank Doak; Bill 'Chilly Billy' Cardille.
Directed by: George A. Romero.
Black & White/96 Minutes/NR

A diverse group of people find themselves trapped together in a farmhouse as the recently dead come back as flesh-eating ghouls. They must pull together in order to survive the night as the undead masses continue to grow larger outside, attempting to break into the house and eat them. The real threat to their survival, however, may very well be their own differences.

And there you have it: a premise so simple and effective for a number of reasons, both intended and accidental, that it went on to spawn four sequels, remakes, and remakes of its sequels -- not to forget the countless number of films that make up the modern zombie film genre. A lot of people who have seen other zombie films before Romero's look back and wonder what's so special about this cheap, black-and-white, indie effort from a bunch of professional local filmmakers from the Pittsburgh area, who before this were mostly making television commercials. Why would the Library of Congress select this film for preservation in the National Film Registry, as a film deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant"? Because is was a bit different and it came out at a perfect time. It was gory, violent, it had some nudity. Not really new, but at the time it was pushing limits and it was shocking, and it did a lot to define what the modern horror film was to become. It was, in a way, the next step after the era of the Universal monsters all the way to Hammer's re-imaging of those classics. People went in not expecting to see walking corpses actually eating guts, and the living shooting and beating these ghouls back into death.

The combination of both professional and amature actors, the setting, and the grainy black and white (done because it was cheaper to make the film this way, not for artistic reasons), gave the film an almost pseudo-documentary feel to it. These were not the zombies of past films. These creatures were not safe or clean. These were monsters out of nightmares -- and with a strong literary influence (Richard Matheson's I Am Legend). Some aspects of this film's success critically, over the years, really only fell into the filmmakers laps...and being smart to see what they had, they ran with it. Romero and crew swear to this day that there was no grand design for the racial subtext many people would later cite as being the most significant aspect of the film. The casting of Ben as a black male lead, who was obviously an intellectual and a humanist, trying to be rational in this crisis, was more Duane Jones doing than the actual script, which had called for a traditional tough-guy (in this case a truck driver), who would take charge, beat the monsters, and get the girl. It's so obvious it was a happy accident when we see that these young, liberal, filmmakers still had the female lead (Judith O'Dea) diminished into near-insanity within the first half of the film...a traditional helpless female victim if there ever was one, although an understandable one given what she went through. There was to be no happy ending for any character in this film other than the good ol' boy hunting parties and their brute indifference, that come to the "rescue" at the end of the film. We would learn ten years later in Dawn of the Dead, that they were just as doomed as the rest of us. Romero's nihilistic vision was born here and spread its wings in several of his still-to-come films. Like it or hate it, you can not deny the impact this film had on the horror genre, generations of people, and on a culture in general.









While officially out of print, Elite's Millennium Edition is still fairly easy to get online or by special order at your local DVD seller. If you're really lucky you can find it in a cheap bin or second hand. After the countless horrible DVD and VHS versions that have been released over the years, this is nothing short of being one of the best DVD releases outside of most of Criterion's output. Forget the colourized versions, the censored versions, and the horrible re-cut and musically abused 30th Anniversary edition. This is what you want and this is what you must own if you're a fan. You get the best possible picture and sound you could hope for. You get all the standard production and promotional-related bells and whistles. The two commentary tracks alone, both fun and casual, also provide everything one could ever hope to know about how the film came to be, how it was made, and what happened behind the scenes between the people involved. It's really eye-opening to realize just how damn good this little movie really is when Romero and crew point out every little error they made, which you've probably missed during the many times you've seen the film. The real gem in the extras is the Duane Jones interview. While audio only, it sheds some light on just why the late actor's role in the film was so effective: because so much of this man was put into what was originally a one-dimensional character. He became real. And, of course, at the time you didn't really see a strong black lead in a film that didn't pander to some sort of stereotype. Romero would catch on and use this to great effect in his next two zombie films as well. There's a lot to take-in here, and a lot to drool over.

DVD Information:

Video: 1.33:1.
Audio: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), English (Dolby Digital 5.1).
Subtitles: None.
--Trailers/TV Spots.
--Dual Commentary Tracks featuring creator/director George Romero and the entire cast.
--Film Parody Night of the Living Bread.
--Still Photo Gallery, featuring rare colour photos.
--The history of Romero's company -- The Latent Image.
--Scenes from the “lost” George Romero film, There’s Always Vanilla.
--Video interview with Night of the Living Dead's Judy Ridley.
--Final interview by star Duane Jones.
--Foreign and Domestic posters and collectibles.
--Original props.
--The entire original shooting script.
--Cast members’ personal scrapbooks.
--George Romero directed TV spots and short films.
--Full colour insert featuring liner notes by Stephen King.

Final Girl Film Club: City of the Living Dead.

Stacie Ponder over at the lovely Final Girl blog has a fun little blog-a-thon film club she runs every month. All you've got to do it watch the film she picks, post your review of it, and link back to her. I already participated last year by adding my review of the bad zombie flick Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror to the list. It was sort of a cop-out though, because it was a previously existing review, and not specifically written for the Film Club. This month's selection is the rather infamous City of the Living Dead, directed by the much-loved Lucio Fulci, one of the most well-known Italian horror directors of the 20th century. Strange: of the two times I've made a submission for the Film Club, both have been bad Italian zombie films, and both have been films I've already posted reviews on. But this time around I decided to re-watch and then do a full length review of the film, as my original review was just a brief capsule review. Also, my opinion has changed a bit since the first time I watched it.

City of the Living Dead (1980)
Starring: Christopher George; Catriona MacColl; Carlo De Mejo; Janet Agren; Antonella Interlenghi; Giovanni Lombardo Radice; Daniela Doria; Fabrizio Jovine.
Directed by: Lucio Fulci.
Colour/93 Minutes/NR

In a cemetery in Dunwich, New England, a priest calmly hangs himself. The event has two effects. First, a New York psychic called Mary Woodhouse (Catriona MacColl) apparently dies from the supernatural ripples this event causes throughout the world. Secondly the priest's suicide has opened one of the seven the gates to hell, with the rest soon to follow. Mary isn't dead, however, but in a strange catatonic state. Buried alive she is rescued from her grim fate by investigative reporter Peter Bell (Christopher George), who happened to be snooping around the graveyard in order to hopefully shine some light on her strange "death" (he was going to do an interview with Mary before the news of her death). This is where the film asks us to take our first two big leaps of faith: why the hell was Mary buried without a proper autopsy -- or an embalming for that matter? And it's pretty lucky Peter just happened to be close enough to hear her screams from inside her coffin. Yup. Pretty damn lucky. However, the suspense the scene builds, especially as Peter smashes into the coffin with a pick axe, only inches from Mary's face, pretty much makes up for these questions. I mean, damn, next time just pry the fucking lid off, Pete! This, by the way, is the formula Fulci applies throughout the rest of the film: a lot of strange things that don't make sense, quickly buried by creepy atmosphere and shocking scenes of gore.








As a result of the gate being opened, the dead are coming back to claim the souls of the living and swell their ranks. Here's the next problem: are they really zombies? Not really in any traditional sense, and that's including "real life" zombies and the various well-established movie types. Sure, "yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up". They kind of walk slow (when they do walk), but for the most part they are more or less some sort of demon, with super strength and teleportation powers. One moment they are in front of you, the next they have teleported behind you and are killing you by tearing your brain out of the back of your skull (their favourite finishing move, apparently). But hey, everyone calls them zombies pretty much, and I'm sure I saw some of them chow down on some stupid humans, so I'll not argue this one.

These demonic zombies are a big problem for the people of Dunwich. Appearing, killing, vanishing, appearing again to have staring contests with future victims. The priest has also come back and is apparently leading the ghouls. He appears to some people around town, using the demonic powers he has to kill them and turn them into zombies (via Jedi mind tricks that make you puke your guts out in the literal sense, and also by stuffing muddy worms down your throat!). The townspeople are scared and don't know what to think. Some decide to hold up in the local bar (despite the fact that an obvious crack from hell has formed in the wall!). Some suspect the town perv/freak, who likes blow-up dolls, is behind the killings. But the freak has problems of his own: he's seen the dead priest, and he's understandably freaked out. When one man catches said town freak hiding in fear in the man's garage, he attacks and kills him on his drilling lathe, thinking he was going after his daughter. Desperate times call for overreactions, I guess.

One of Mary's psychic friends informs her of all this gates of hell stuff, and that the key to ending the whole shebang is to get to the priest's grave before All Saints Day. Mary and Peter make the trek to Dunwich. It's not long before Mary and Peter are joined by Dunwich's resident psychiatrist Gerry (Carlo De Mejo) and one of his patients, Sandra (Janet Agren). Gerry's girlfriend was one of the victims and he's looking for answers. Sandra is there because... well, I have no clue. She's a bit unbalanced, so I suppose it makes sense to her at least. The only solution is to go down into the priest's grave -- which happens to be a large, hellish, underground chamber full of zombies -- and somehow stop him. The "how" is never really spelled out to the viewer. I guess we're supposed to assume they are going to kick ass or something along those lines. I assume this is where the film began to run out of money.

City of the Living Dead was sadly hurt by budget problems. The film was apparently never really finished. Fulci ran out of money and had to come up with something quickly. So what we got was this weird attempt at a horrific twist ending. Following a disappointing end to the evil priest, a local child that our heroes had befriended, after his parents and sister had fallen victim to the ghouls, comes running towards our two remaining heroes -- perhaps for a hug -- only for them to react with fright. Is Fulci implying that the boy is a demon? Or maybe our two demon killers realized they would be stuck raising this brat as foster parents? Who knows. But it's not the good kind of twist that leaves one guessing possible horrors to come. It's just a head-scratching let down that sort of soils a highly flawed but harmless Fulci gore fest. Is it a crime to end on a happy note?

As much as there is to groan about, as I mentioned before, Fulci's strengths help keep things going. The atmosphere he builds is effective, considering what he had to work with. The gore scenes are impressive. The drill to the head; the worms down the throat; the actual sheep guts spit up by one actress in her death scene: these all help with the bitter pill that is one hell of a mess of a plot. Even the glued maggots to the face scene has its charms. I really, really dug the evil demon version of the priest. His character is actually one of the highlights of the film and adds to the creep factor quite nicely. Also of note is the score, which is essentially a decent rip off of Goblin's Dawn of the Dead stuff. As the film goes on, the lack of money sadly hurts much of the later effects. Check out those horrible zombie dummies that get set on fire after the priest dies. Yikes!

Repeated viewings of this film have led me to become more forgiving. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it's so bad that it's good (although it has its moments) but it's not nearly as horrible as my original review made it out to be. Still, it is a mess. It's very much a lesser Fulci film, not worth going out of your way to seek out. Rent unless you're a zombie and or Fulci nut, and buy only if you can't get it any other way. There's new Blu-ray and DVD versions coming out on May 25th from Blue Underground, but you can still probably find their old 2007 DVD version for a dirt cheap price, if you're not interested in new extras and remastering.