City Of The Living Dead Blu-ray Review

• 21st Apr 2011

Considered the first of Lucio Fulci’s Gates of Hell trilogy, what it contains within its nightmarish narrative is an onslaught of visceral, stomach churning visuals and pulsing synth scores. City of the Living Dead is a gore-hounds paradise. It is as close to a living, breathing nightmare as it’s able to experience. With every grotesque vision forcing the viewer further into a terrifying rabbit hole, all of which is helped along the way by Gino De Rossi’s impressively simple but effective effects work. It is certainly a surreal exercise in terror and contains some pretty standout moments of gore, with the now infamous drill to the head and the young girl who vomits up her own intestines. Fulci may have his critics, but as a self-confessed fan this is probably his most accomplished exercise in linear storytelling and one which comes highly recommended for all cult film enthusiasts.

It’s a shame then, that Arrow’s restored high definition picture on Blu-ray is quite possibly the worst I have seen on the format, looking marginally worse than the lower scale DVD. It is to be expected that grain would be present within a lesser known piece of euro trash but, to be honest, seeing it have this much of a rough picture is incredibly disappointing. Particularly for those hardcore fans of Fulci who believe he deserves the rightful special edition treatment.

Thankfully though, Arrow has produced what could be seen as the holy grail of Fulci extras, filled to the brim with insightful commentaries by cast members and respected critics. There is the extra Dame of the Dead, where leading actress Catriona Macoll recalls how it was to work with Fulci on the set of City of the Living Dead. This is followed by the exhaustive extra The Many Lives and Deaths of Giovanni Lombardo Radice, where the cult actor recounts his many film roles and his views on each director. Particularly insightful is his information on banned horror film, Cannibal Ferox, which he goes into detail about its troubled filming and equally troubled director, Umberto Lenzi.

Profondo Luigi has director Luigi Cozzi discussing his encounters with Fulci over the years leading up to his untimely death. Penning Some Paura is an in depth discussion with script writer Dardano Sacchetti as he remembers the shooting process of City of the Living Dead. While Carlo of the Dead has cult Italian actor, Carlo De Mejo, talking about his fond memories of working with Fulci on several projects. Finally there is Live from the Glasgow Theatre which has two of the lead actors discussing the film after a sold out screening, followed by Fulci’s Daughter, an insightful look at the director from his daughter’s perspective and Fulci in the House, which details the cult works of the director.

All in all a well put together package which is hampered by a less than stellar Blu-ray picture, which disappoints what is a worthwhile edition to any Fulci fans collection.

Dominic O’Brien