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Monotonous, enjoyable nonsense
With his groundbreaking Night of the Living Dead and its three sequels, maverick director George Romero proved that he reigns supreme when it comes to bringing the dead back to life on the big screens, closely followed by Sam Raimi with his sensational low-budget rollercoaster ride Evil Dead. But in Italy there can be only one. His name is Lucio Fulci and even though he's directed many westerns, gialli and comedies, most people nevertheless connect him with rip-roaring, flesh munching, out-of-control zombie flicks. Fulci has secured his status because of his very cinematic visual style which is often so incredibly beautiful that he almost completely manages to cover up the mind-numbing lack of logic.
Alas, despite all of his indisputable, technical skills and a couple of outstanding scenes, he doesn't have the same luck with this suspension of disbelief in Paura Nella Città Dei Morti Viventi because this time around the level of plain stupidity and the number of plot holes are simply too overwhelming to overlook - even on the story's own terms. At the beginning of the movie a priest commits suicide by hanging himself in a cemetery and this causes the gates of hell to open up and the dead to rise from their graves. A medium, Mary Woodhouse (Katriona MacColl), witnesses this sacrilegious act during a séance, dies out of sheer fright and is shortly thereafter coffined and buried - but we soon learn she's only entered a catatonic state.
The reporter Peter (Christopher George) gets a hold of the peculiar circumstances surrounding Mary's demise and his tenacious personality - and a large pickaxe - is what ultimately saves her from a slow, painful death in the grave (a basically silly and overblown, but also very tense scene). Mary then joins forces with Peter and fills him in on the apocalyptic situation at hand - All Saints' Day is nearing, and if the gates of hell are not closed before this particular day, well, it's the end of mankind. In her vision Mary saw the name Dunwich written on a tombstone, so along with the journalist she sets out to track down this cursed town where the number of strange deaths is very rapidly escalating and some increasingly perplexed locals single out the retarded outcast Bob (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) as the perpetrator, who then becomes an unfortunate scapegoat on the run. Will our two heroes reach their destination and somehow resolve the mystery in time?
To know the answer to this, you'll have to watch the movie yourself, but as mentioned earlier you'll also have to endure numerous inconsistencies in terms of plot development and character motivations. E.g. a woman bursts into tears when Mary dies, even though she reveals later on that her friend's coming back to life and subsequent rescue was predestined. What is Peter actually doing at the graveyard where he saves Mary? The zombies here can disappear and reappear at will, but still a corpse had to break down a wall in order to escape from a tomb. And for some strange reason one of the living dead suddenly collapses on the floor, only to rise again within a matter of minutes. And what about the utterly strange and fuzzy conclusion - is it supposed to be scary, and if so, why?
Additionally, what usually is considered one of Fulci's forces - the gruesome, graphic and gory make-up effects - is in fact also a major drawback here. The body count isn't that high to begin with, but when the same killing method (brain squashing - well made, but not really that spectacular) is employed no less than three or four times during the movie, it does tend to get a bit repetitive and monotonous. I don't mind the supporting characters being reduced to mere zombie fodder, but since nearly all of the protagonists aren't capable of either compelling our sympathy or even showing an ounce of credibility, then you can't help but feel indifferent when they're killed off. At one point a therapist actually dares to refer to a psychiatric hospital as a 'loony bin' - in the presence of one of his patients, no less. How can you take such a man seriously?
And don't even get me started on the dialogues - they've never really been Fulci's strong suit, but in this case they're mostly downright ludicrous, clichéd and heavy-handed, which by no means aid the already one-dimensional, stereotypical characters. Surely, it's pretty obvious Paura Nella Città Dei Morti Viventi doesn't work as a whole and is way too loosely structured, but it isn't a total loss and does have it's fair share of virtues after all. A strong, almost constant and permeating sense of dread is by courtesy of Fabio Frizzi's excellent, pounding and ominous electronic score, the cinematography is fairly slick and a couple of set-pieces are expertly staged and quite suspenseful; A zombie taking a jump off a bridge chasing a young boy, the maggot storm, the extremely politically incorrect head-drilling of Bob, and my personal favorite, a young girl throwing up all her entrails.
In between the zombie action and the sporadic, narrative lulls it's fun to point out familiar faces primarily from the horror scene in various bit parts. Pretty Janet Agren (from Umberto Lenzi's cannibal shocker Mangiati vivi) plays a mentally unstable inhabitant of Dunwich, horror director/actor Michele Soavi has an unhealthy rendezvous with the above-mentioned vomiting girl (Daniela Doria from The Black Cat, The House by the Cemetery and The New York Ripper, all directed by Fulci), Giovanni Lombardo Radice is probably best known from The House on the Edge of the Park and Cannibal ferox, and finally even a porn actor, Michael Gaunt (from the classics Inside Jennifer Welles (by prolific Joseph W. Sarno) and Barbara Broadcast (by master of erotica Radley Metzger)), can be seen as a gravedigger along with Perry Pirkanen (from Ruggero Deodato's infamous Cannibal Holocaust).
The majority of the performances are weak, by-the-numbers at best, but two actually manage to distinguish themselves, all things considered. Fulci regular Catriona MacColl as Mary isn't terribly convincing, however, her charisma shines through and she eventually emerges as a likable (and not to forget, beautiful) heroine who's very easy on the eyes. But it is Christopher George as the persistent and wry journalist who gives the movie a touch of class as well as humanity with his warm, winning personality. So aside from the many drawbacks there's definitely enough to savor from Paura Nella Città Dei Morti Viventi - it may lack the exotic scenery and outrageousness of Zombi as well as the picturesque imagery and outlandish, surreal punches from the splatter-masterpiece The Beyond, but there's still atmosphere to spare and if you have a soft spot for zombies (like me) you'll inevitably be drawn into Fulci's dark universe. 
René Pedersen, January 31st, 2006
Picture: 7/10
A few years back Anchor Bay released this movie stateside under the name City of the Living Dead, and although the rough picture quality added to the bleak atmosphere, it looked perhaps a bit to grainy. NoShame's transfer, which has been taken from the original, uncut negatives, betters said release in nearly every department. The amount of grain has been reduced considerably, resulting in an altogether cleaner picture with just a fine sheen of grain which still maintains the appropriately gritty look, and furthermore the improved brightness adds some much needed clarity (a couple of shots during the opening sequence are, however, overexposed and way too bright). Equally impressive is the deep, dark blacks and the strong color reproduction, and aside from some momentary fuzziness, the image, which is presented in an anamorphically enhanced aspect ratio of 1.85:1, stays sharp throughout with a surprising high level of detail. There were no compression artifacts or edge enhancement issues worth mentioning. Great job, NoShame.
Sound: 7/10
There are three audio options: Italian Dolby Digital 5.1, Italian mono and English mono - for this review I chose the latter as no English subtitles were provided for the other two. Expectations weren't exactly high, but was I taken aback by the unexpected high quality of the soundtrack? And how! Yes, there is some crackling now and then as well as constant hissing in the background, but since it's very light it doesn't distract at all and the dialogue is always audible and easy to make out. And Fabio Frizzi's dark, pounding score benefits greatly from a wide dynamic range, ensuing a great deal of punch in all the right places.
Extras: -/-
Since the majority of the extras are in Italian and don't come with English subtitles, they will not be rated here. But for those of you who do speak Italian there's an audio commentary featuring Sergio Salvati (cinematographer on Paura Nella Città Dei Morti Viventi) and Roberto Forges (cinematographer) moderated by Paolo Albiero, the original trailer (2.56 min.) which is anamorphically enhanced, an American radio spot (the only extra in English), a small picture gallery composed of movie stills, poster artwork and a couple of behind-the-scenes shots, and lastly a backstage featurette (9.56 min. with audio commentary).
Final thoughts:
Far from Fulci's finest hour, but despite not being on top form his zombies are still menacing and relentless enough to rise Paura Nella Città Dei Morti Viventi well above many other entries in the horror genre. Two thumbs up for both picture and sound quality, but I can't stress enough how much I really miss English subtitles on the extras - especially the feature length audio commentary.
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