Medusa Distribuzione released City of the Living Dead on 11 August 1980 in Italy. It did not make it to the United States for almost three years after this.
City of the Living Dead was the first film of Lucio Fulci’s Gates of Hell trilogy. The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery followed it. But like most of such trilogies (eg, John Carpenter’s “Apocalypse Trilogy” and Dario Argento’s “The Three Mothers”), it really isn’t a trilogy at all. City of the Living Dead is similar to The Beyond. But the Cemetery doesn’t fit at all. The one thing that binds them all together is that Catriona MacColl stars in them.
The Beyond is probably the best of the three films. But I enjoy City of the Living Dead more and watch it more often. It is epic in its scope and features a constant sense of foreboding. The characters are more engaging than in the other films. And its set pieces (vomiting and drill-press scenes) are better. Finally, it has that crazy ending that no one understands.
The film was, like many of Fulci’s, widely censored and not shown at all. It was never a Video Nasty. But in 2001, they were finally able to release the uncut film in the UK.
I find this constantly amazing and frustrating. What’s the difference between a film an adult can watch and one they can’t? Twenty years!
It’s nonsense! But people just can’t see it in real time. They focus too much on getting into others’ business to think about these things. It always goes the same way. But for people who can’t seem to remember the horrors of fascism, it isn’t surprising they can’t remember that their predecessors did the same thing about films with the same stupid results.
And this stuff flares up every decade or two. Currently, there is lots of talk about censoring porn. And then they will come after horror. It won’t work, of course. It never does! But it causes problems. And it means listening to a bunch of arrogant fools rant about the evils of films they simply don’t like.
For now, let’s watch City of the Living Dead via Archive:
City of the Living Dead image via Amazon under Fair Use.