VIDEO REVIEW: The House by the Cemetery

VIDEO REVIEW: City Of The Living Dead

VIDEO REVIEW: The Beyond

REVIEW: City of the Living Dead

City of the Living Dead
Director: Lucio Fulci
Year 1980
 
City of the Living Dead is an atmospheric zombie film brought to us by Italian horror maestro Lucio Fulci. While wholly unorthodox, the movie has one of the most oppressive atmospheres of the genre, placing the viewer smack dab in the middle of a surreal nightmare where hell is threatening to break loose and seemingly does. With Fulci’s trademark splatter effects and his pension for creating a dreamlike tone for his films, this strange zombie opus is one you won’t soon forget.
 
The film begins in a small mysterious town of Dunwich, where a priest commits suicide by hanging himself from a tree. This disturbing act opens the gates of hell, turning this normally quite town into a feasting ground for the living dead. Plagued by a vision of the dying priest, young psychic Mary Woodhouse, teams up with a New York City reporter, Peter Bell, as they travel to the town of Dunwich in order to stop, what Mary possibly believes, to be the end of the world. The dead shall rise and walk the earth and we have front row seats for the zombie apocalypse. Thank you Fulci!

Catriona MacColl plays the role of Mary Woodhouse, the psychic who is literally, yet temporarily, struck dead after having a horrible vision of a priest committing suicide. MacColl is no stranger to fans of Lucio Fulci, seeing that she has played key roles in two other films of the Italian filmmaker’s; The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery. With City of the Living Dead being her first foray into the dark and disturbing world of Fulci, Catriona does an amazing job in rolling with the strange structure of the narrative and reacting quite realistically to the ungodly sights that quite often come into contact with her character. Lucio seems to revel in putting his actors and actresses through hell, and MacColl seems to have the grapes to take anything the twisted director can throw at her, resulting in three strong female characters that are just masterfully performed by the talented actress.
 
Playing her partner in crime is Christopher George as New York City reporter Peter Bell. Another virgin in Fulci territory, George pulls off the roll of the smarmy and wise cracking reporter with a good deal of cheese, showing us that award winning smart ass smile of his that he just loves to show off in the long list of genre efforts that he’s managed to pile up over the course of his career. I’ve always got a kick out of George and enjoyed his various contributions to the horror genre as a whole and City of the Living Dead is no exception. His performances in Pieces, Day of the Animals and Grizzly, are legendary among my circle of friends, and in this film he succeeds in bringing that same charm and watchability that he’s known for.

As for the film itself, it is something of an oddity, relying heavily on its tremendously established atmosphere to set the tone and feel of the movie. The story overall seems random, placing us back and forth between various groups of characters as they experience the horrors of living in a town that now serves as the opening to hell, but it’s through these characters’ experiences that we are visually told on what is going on. With every strange occurrence and morbid sequence, the atmosphere of the film becomes more and more overwhelming, until we are saturated in this disgusting sequence of events and vividly given the impression of the dire situation that the world now faces if something isn’t done soon about this rift in our world. It’s quite an accomplishment to be able to convey these types of feelings, without really presenting the film with a structured narrative for the audience to follow, but Lucio Fulci’s horror movies never pay too much attention to the conventions of the genre. Instead, Fulci enjoys throwing the viewer right into the fray and allowing them to swim head deep into a surreal world where nothing is as it seems. The result of this technique is nothing short of brilliant, giving way to a vibrant cinema world that is truly unsettling.
 
The aspects of Fulci’s films that add even more to the unsettling tone of his stories are the outrageously gory moments that he splatters throughout these surreal gems. With City of the Living Dead, we are gifted a truly disgusting series of effects driven wonders, particularly when a young woman begins dripping blood from her eyes and then vomits up her insides in one gore producing mess. Now that is excellently disgusting! With that horrific ordeal recorded, we also are given some nasty kills provided by the strangely teleporting zombies of the flick. In a great number of scenes, the zombies choose to sneak up on their victims and then proceed to rip out the back of their skull and yank a piece of brain out, squishing it like a rotten piece of fruit. Now that’s gotta hurt! Another one of Fulci’s trademark calling cards is put to the test when a window bursts open and begins pouring a huge mass of maggots onto the ensemble cast, as they try desperately to avoid the shitstorm of creepy crawlers. It’s one of those WTF moments, but in a Fulci movie it is an everyday occurrence. If there is one thing to be said for City of the Living Dead, it is that it’s one grotesquely surreal and absolutely nasty zombie film, done just the way I like it.

City of the Living Dead is as bizarre as a zombie film can get and when you add that to the fact that Lucio Fulci is behind the lens, then you’ve got yourself one demented undead smorgasbord. From the very start of the film, we are witness to a priest hanging himself, and in the process, unleashing the gates of hell onto the world, setting the film down a twisted and winding path that never leads to a safe haven for the viewer. The movie is saturated in doom, never lifting the tone for a second and relishing in every macabre filled moment of it.

 
The cast gives a superb effort with the tough situation that they are presented with by their unorthodox director, and both Catriona MacColl and Christopher George especially do a tremendous job in helping us figure out the story behind this mysterious apocalyptic event. The level of gore and grotesquely shot moments are abundantly present and the quality to these memorable chunks of movie gold are off the richter scale, showing that tried and true staple of excellence that Italian splatter cinema is famous for. If you’re in the mood for something truly bizarre and you fancy yourself a zombie movie lover, then get your ass a copy of City of the Living Dead, because that Lucio Fulci is one sick, gore loving bastard. This film is……

Hang in there buddy.

She really is scared shitless.

Getting buried alive kind of sucks.

These aren't tears of joy.

Christopher George, you are one cool bastard.

Why is this guy always hanging around the set?

We even get a little zombie peeping tom action. Undead pervert!

We're going to paint some happy little trees right next to this creepy little rhino.

I wouldn't go in that house if I was you.

I've got six little friends and they can all run faster then you.

Christopher George does his best Dirty Harry impersonation.

Dude... your town is a piece of shit. Tell him how it is George.

It's a maggot SHITSTORM!!!!

I think you've got something on your face.... maybe?

These actors are literally scared out of their damned minds.

The inspiration for Drowning Pool's "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor".

I think Christopher just shit his pants.

See you bastards in The Beyond.

REVIEW: The Beyond

The Beyond
Director: Lucio Fulci
Year 1981

The Beyond is a morbidly delightful journey into a world that blurs the divisions between the realm of the living and the barren landscapes of Hell. Set in Louisiana, the films tells the story of a woman named Liza Merril who has recently inherited a rundown hotel that, through a sorted past, has opened up the very gates of Hell within its rotten structure. Strange occurrences and unexplained deaths begin happening at the hotel, propelling Liza into a surreal struggle for her very soul as she is plagued by glossy eyed beings as they spill out from the gates of hell.

What a lovely house of death.

This film is an absolute delight if your characteristic preferences for the perfect horror film run extremely gory and atmospherically rich. Taking a few pages from his previous works, Lucio Fulci mashes up some stark and worthwhile elements from his two horror efforts, Zombie and City of the Living Dead, to create a film that is so entrenched in its own lore and visual implications that it literally sucks the viewer into the story even if its logical integrity is a bit scatter brained.

The illogical and dream like potentness of the film is what makes it so memorable and different from the majority of horror movies of the era. During a time when slasher films were king and the formulaic plot of teen horror began a rampant all out attack on cinema goers, the italian maestro contrasted the norm and created films that went above and beyond the usual celluloid fare. While not the only director of the time to maneuver in this surreal like direction, Fulci's style was unprecedented and uncompromising as it boldly rejected convention while solidifying his place among the top of phantasmic horror cinema connoisseurs.

Don't mess with the MacColl!

Relying on haunting and disturbing images to portray the world that he has created within the film, Fulci demonstrates that he is the master when it comes to setting a tone that is overwhelmingly present and substantial, without being cumbersome. He basks in the surreal as he uses all of his locations for all they're worth. In this mind set, he is able to bring the abandoned hotel, which is the center piece of the story, to life and make that morbid architectural wonder a character in itself. It's a creepy place in general, but seen through the eyes of Fulci, it becomes a place of nightmares. In all honesty, you believe that this place is the opening of Hell and anything you see after the point of the hotel's introduction and back-story becomes believable and tangible within the confines of the film. Now that's atmospheric filmmaking at its finest.

How many fingers am I holding up?

The nightmare quality and credibility of the film world is not only highlighted by the locations and expert compositions by Fulci, but also from the subdued performances by the movie's key actors. Catriona MacColl plays the role of Liza, the newfound hotel owner who has just moved in to the literal hell hole of horrors. Being no stranger to Fulci's style having survived his previous film, City of the Living Dead, MacColl shines as the doomed heroine with a penchant for attracting the attention of the inhabitants from the world beyond. Both City of the Living Dead and Beyond are quite similar in tone, both relying heavily on building a cinematic universe drenched in mystic and haunting overtones.

Get out of the middle of the road you damned blind moron!

The films each feel as if we are viewing the events on screen through a warped lens of logic, never knowing what is real while conveying the notion of being stuck in a dream within a dream to perfection. MacColl's two roles are almost mirror images of each other and one could say that her character Mary Woodhouse of City of the Living Dead fame, was just experimental for her portrayal of Liza Merril. Each heroine must confront death in one way, shape, or form, resulting from an opening to Hell being ripped unto our world. I enjoyed both of her performances, but I'm always finding myself more drawn to her innocent and kind natured presentation of Liza Merril.

I've got a splitting headache.

Another unforgettable asset this film has is the mysterious presence of the ghost like Emily, played by the under-appreciated italian horror vet Cinzia Monreale. She has a cinematic aura in this film, that imbues the entire frame, commanding your attention. Her origins are unknown and her arrival in the film occurs in such an otherworldly way, that you're instantly intrigued and captivated by her simplicity. Even at such a base level of complexity, her character thwarts the confines of its primitive shackles and begins to unravel what comes to be an immensely lavish and supernatural premise.

Shout! Shout! Rip my throat out!

The character of Emily even has a moving moment in the film, where she is confronted by an awful truth. This emotional performance brings to light her origins and it is quite a shocker and unsettling to boot. In the scene, we come to realize that she has escaped the binding imprisonment of Hell or purgatory and is adamant in not returning when confronted by a group of ominous beings from the beyond. The scene is morbidly curious and inspiringly disturbing, quickly morphing into sheer terror as an unexpected turn of events savagely brings the character of Emily to her finale fate. Like most of Lucio Fulci's memorable moments in horror history, it's bloody and gruesome, never holding back from showing the viewer all the gory details. Though her role in the film is short lived, Cinzia Monreale brings a substantial dose of the surreal to her hauntingly disturbed character of Emily.

When this house is a rockin, don't come a knockin.

Emily's brutal death is just one of many gore effects that splash onto the screen in expressive detail. In the film's total runtime you'll come across some vivid portrayals of eye gouging, head explosions, tarantula bites, ripping flesh, and that's just to name a few. All of the effects are pulled off with that sleazy style of italian filmmaking that just works wonders for these types of movies. I absolutely love it.

There's something savage about this approach, that if viewed by someone outside of the sub-genre of horror films, would find quite offensive and unappealing. I've always found a certain kind of charm with the effects of this nature as they always seem to fit inside the cinematic worlds that Fulci creates. It is raw and powerful, even if not completely realistic and genuine. Combined with the atmosphere that Fulci embraces and wraps himself in, it is a match made in heaven for obscure horror fans. With The Beyond, we get to see the master of gore in one of his most pinnacle of a achievements.

Let sleeping corpses lie.

Just like his gore effects, Fulci's zombie makeup is right on par with the overall atmosphere of the film. They fit in the universe and gel along with everything else created for that world. Done in simplistic fashion, but wholly effective, the walking corpses of this film are similar in function to his previous zombie outings. I have to say, Fulci knows how to do zombies right. These creatures are slow lumbering shells of human beings, moving on instinct and void of any kind of rational thinking. They're believably dead and soulless beings and that's just the way I like them. The only downside of these zombies is that they aren't on the screen for a terribly long time, only making an appearance in the later moments of the film. It's a shame, but I'll take what I can get when the overall end result is this good looking and decrepit. Even if the lovable walking dead isn't visible for a good majority of the movie, we still feel their presence in every aspect of the story and that is a great accomplishment on Fulci's part.

Dr. John's got a problem solver and its name is revolver.

Closing out all of the elements that make this film such a masterpiece of surreal horror cinema is the haunting music provided by Lucio Fulci's right hand man, Fabio Frizzi. Having collaborated and composed an excellent catalogue of Fulci's films like Four of the Apocalypse, The Psychic, Zombie, City of the Living Dead, and Manhattan Baby, Frizzi gives an outstanding audible tension to The Beyond. The soundtrack runs a large gamut of spectral horrors from his unsettling tonal cues to his uproarious final ballad filled with operatic singing and heavy beats, this music infuses a sense of style that gives life to the outstanding visuals. It's hard to imagine how the film would come off if it didn't have Frizzi's imaginative compositions to accompany it, but thankfully that's an experience that none of us have to go through. Top notch soundtrack for a top notch film.

Faced! Scratch moded!

The Beyond is a masterpiece of horror cinema that really shows the power of Italian horror cinema at its epoch. Matched in scope and accomplishment with his other undead epic, Zombie, Lucio Fulci proves that both substance and style can coexist even at such highly atmospheric levels. The pulsating tension of the film and the foreboding nature of the entire piece is just outstanding, giving way to a movie that really has a life of its own.

With a story that's lost in obscurity and drenched in mysterious circumstances, The Beyond comes out the other side resulting in a film that truly is in a league of its own. Saturated in a haunting and dreamlike stupor, the film elects to throw you into a world that is like no other, where reality mixes with the real world and the difference between the living and the dead is blurred into obscurity. I highly recommend this film to anyone that is interested in diving in to the grotesque wonders of Lucio Fulci's demented mind and to anyone that wants to view a film that goes beyond the normal atmospheric presentation, opting for a surreal ride that asks you as the viewer to experience the film rather then just watch it.

5 out of 5 stars       An Italian Horror Masterpiece!