To me, this movie is perfection.

One of my all time favorites.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Let's get the problems out of the way first: the dubbing is clunky and oddly unconvincing; there are huge holes in the logic of events and plot points (for instance, it's entirely unlikely that a woman who dropped dead in the middle of a seance would be "buried alive" once the police were involved - there'd be certificates of death, autopsies, embalming, etc); most of the acting is no better than it needs to be (I'm looking at YOU, Christopher George) ; the director overuses some camera techniques - he zooms in with closeups of eyes so often that you'd think Jesse Franco owed him money; and an unsatisfying ending that seems unjustified by everything that came before it. But even so, Fulci seemed to catch lightning in a bottle with this one. If you just turn your mind off and let the movie roll over you, you will have (I'm not sure the term "enjoy" applies here) quite the experience. What really ties things together for me is the utter conviction on display in every frame, and the way the movie just "goes for it" without holding anything back. And the awesome soundtrack numbs the critical mind with mesmerizing washes of sound. So it's cheese, but it's GREAT cheese. If you like this sort of thing, you should check it out.

Without spoiling, I could give one example why this movie is terribly bad: At one point of the strory, the characters know they have to find one tombstone before midnight to stop all the bad things going on. They are in the cemetery on the afternoon, close to end everything. But suddenly appears another character who wants to help them and then they decide to explain everything to him AT HIS HOME and only come back at night in the cemetery when it's almost to late! What the heck! this has no sense at all. And all the movie is like that. Every scene is poorly written, all characters' behaviors are irrational, most of dialogs are just here to give information the to the Spectator just because the director was not able to give them differently, low budget make up and effects are terrible, nothing is scary (unless you're scared by a priest with a toy store makeup holding spaghetti). And the movie isn't even funny (unless unvolontary), it's dead serious and bit pretencious like most of movies from Fulci, the guy who shot 2 movies a year... it mathematically can't be good...

Yet another Fulci zombie film, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD has a number of differences from Fulci's other zombie flicks in order to make it enjoyable even for those who are familiar with his work. THE BEYOND was a dream-like fantasy, ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS was an old-fashioned adventure romp, while CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD is a detective story mixed in with typical zombie mayhem. Even those who are fans of Fulci's other films tend to criticise this one for its shoddy production values. In this case I am forced to disagree. I found this to be an atmospheric, intriguing film with characters I cared about (they're more fleshed out here than in other similar slices of celluloid) and at times I would even call the film scary. Firstly though, the criticisms.There were a number of elements which were uncomfortably similar to the same director's ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS, especially when the music began a slow beat and a zombie came out of the ground, which was almost exactly like the previous year's effort. The film was also rather dark which was in some cases annoying, but it wasn't too bad. The special effects weren't as pronounced as in Fulci's other films, in particular the zombies looked like they were covered in makeup instead of the fantastic, undead Spanish Conquistadors from ZFE. There was also a noticeable lack of gore (for Fulci that is - to a mainstream viewer, this would appear as sick as hell), apart from the two infamous "vomit" and "drill" scenes, and all around the special effects aren't used as well here as in Fulci's other 'masterpieces'.What we do have in the film's favour is an excellent second half, with the disappearing zombies playing tricks on our minds. These scenes are truly unnerving, especially the dead zombie in the kitchen. A very chilling scene. The acting is also good all round for a change. Catriona MacColl plays much the same type of character - a woman caught up in evil around her - as she did in THE BEYOND, but it's impossible to deny that she is a very warm and likable actress. Christopher George, star of countless cheap horror and exploitation films (THE EXTERMINATOR for example), is excellent as the typical American detective, I loved his performance. Carlo de Mejo (THE OTHER HELL) is bearded and sometimes unintentionally hilarious as the psychiatrist, and John Morghen (described once, by John Martin I believe, as the "whipping boy" of Italian horror) is creepy as the town weirdo. Michele Soavi, the guy in the mask from DEMONS, has a small role too.I don't know why this film gets so much criticism, really. It may be clichéd with all the shock scenes but they are very effective and enjoyable. I was also actually scared by some moments, which is rare for me in a horror film. To the film's credit, there are a couple of times Fulci tries something a little different from his usual formula. The death of Emily's parents is made more horrific as Fulci only suggests it by having blood dripping through the ceiling. He could easily have set up some rubber corpses but it's made all the more worse as he leaves the deaths to our imagination. Another scene - the maggot storm - appears to have been borrowed from Argento's SUSPIRIA, but it's much more over the top and effective here.There's a heavy, claustrophobic atmosphere, helped once again by Fabio Frizzi's excellent score, which is a little reminiscent of his work for ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS but otherwise stirring. The film suggests the decay - both moral and physical - of small town life very well, and has a scary, unpleasant atmosphere where nobody is safe from the zombies. Well worth seeing, this gets a thumbs up from me.

The scene early on in this film where the zombie rises from a pile of leaves amuses me to no end. Most people- before being turned undead by whatever unseen forces- are usually buried in A COFFIN a few feet down- not literally right at the surface. Of course with all the goofs and lapses in plot and continuity, this is just one example, but I thought I'd point it out since viewers have mentioned most of the others.The infamous gore scenes are too fake-looking to be truly stomach- churning. If Tom Savini had done the FX on Fulci's movies..oh man think of how that would have been. Christopher George is always a pleasure and adds some respectability to the otherwise poor acting. The worms and maggots on some of the zombies were better actors!