Rish's Reviews
"Mr. Outfield, you have a collect call from deepest Hell, caller is Lucio Fulci. Do you accept the charges?"
I saw this at the local revival theater in a double bill with the cleverly-titled Barn of the Naked Dead, because, apparently, Invasion of the Blood Farmers wasn't available. I guess that means I'm destined to go there again. Great.
Okay, boys and girls, in the town of Dunwich it happens, a priest hangs himself in the middle of a cursed cemetary and something brown and smelly hits the fan. As they're wont to do, the gates of hell swing wide and the dead sort of stop being dead. A woman who got a psychic vision of the imminent apocalypse and a savvy New York reporter decide to travel to Dunwich and see if waitresses really are nicer in small towns, and maybe halt the end of the world when they're done with that. Meanwhile, a psychiatrist and his patient/love interest take an awful long time to realize something is not right in their quaint New England town.
Besides The Gates of Hell, there's a hundred and one titles for this out there, of course, including Terror of the Living Dead, Fear in the City of the Living Dead, Twilight of the Dead (again, cashing in on Romero's films), The Fear, and most commonly, City of the Living Dead.
I don't suppose people see Lucio Fulci movies for artistic beauty or subtlety. So, with that in mind, let me say that the prolonged, disgusting drill in head scene was amazingly convincing. Plus, if you order now, you get to see a maggot storm, ladies and gentlemen. Not something you see everyday.
Actually, this one was a bit more palpable and coherent than other Fulci flicks I've seen. But that's not saying a great deal. This film appeared to be shot in America, with a lot more American actors, although the dubbing still sucked occasionally. The story was alright, and a couple of moments actually neared frightening.
A few scenes seemed to never end, going on so long it was all I could do to stay awake in my seat. Of course, having spent a great deal of my life battling the undead, I may be a bit harder to please than most, like the pre-law roommate we all had who wouldn't let us watch "Night Court" without throwing in his two cents. At times, characters would look at the camera and speak. It was irritating. The sound effect of what sounded like an eight foot owl kept making people laugh.
Still, it had a a lot of disgusting stuff, including several de-brainings, black human remains covered with worms, really neat effects where blood seeped from characters' eyes, and a revolting moment where a girl cacks up her own intestines, lungs, and stomach. Mmmm.
But what the hell happened at the end? I'm no rocket scientist, but I just didn't get it.
You know, I'm still not a fan, but after this one, I might not get up and leave next time I see Fulci's name in the credits.