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How do Lucio Fulci fans catalogue their favorites? By number of atrocious set pieces? Or by simply weighing the entrails and moving from there? Fulci’s career is by no means limited to his gruesome peak in the late ’70s and early ’80s, but it’s sure difficult to find many who hold his ’60s spy knockoffs and westerns in as high regard as violent stoners do the likes of Zombie, The New York Ripper, and City of the Living Dead (also known as The Gates of Hell). While there’s no denying the effectiveness of the cheapjack surrealism underpinning The Beyond, most of his other gore touchstones are notable only for the extreme lengths they’re willing to go, not how far they’re capable of burrowing beyond viewers’ gag reflexes.

Take City of the Living Dead, the first of what would be a string of flicks about hell...

Since launching in 2020, Cauldron Films has quickly established itself as a boutique label to watch for cult film fans. In addition to unearthing and restoring obscurities like The Crimes of the Black Cat, American Rickshaw, and Frankenstein ’80, they’ve secured a few heavy hitters. Their most recognizable title to date is Lucio Fulci’s City of the Living Dead (originally released in the US as The Gates of Hell). Following an exclusive slipcase edition last year, a standard retail version of the 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray set is available this week.

The 1980 Italian horror film is significant for kicking off Fulci’s thematically connected Gates of Hell trilogy, followed by The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery the next year. Developed in the wake of Fulci’s success with Zombie in 1979, City of the Living Dead features more undead ghouls but this time as accoutrements rather than a centerpiece.

A new episode of The Manson Brothers Show, the video series hosted by the writers/stars of the horror comedy The Manson Brothers Midnight Zombie Massacre – Chris Margetis (Stone Manson) and Mike Carey (Skull Manson) – has just been released, and in this one the Boys take a tour of the City of the Living Dead… or at least, they watch and discuss the 1980 film with that title (which you can watch Here). To find out what they had to say about City of the Living Dead, check out the video embedded above!

Directed by Lucio Fulci, who also crafted the screenplay with Dardano Sacchetti, City of the Living Dead has the following synopsis: The seven gates of Hell have been torn open, and in 3 days the dead shall rise and walk the earth. As a reporter and a psychic race to close the portals of the damned, they encounter a seething nightmare of unspeakable evil.

City of the Living Dead (1980) is not where my relationship starts with Italian director Lucio Fulci. Also known as The Gates of Hell (a way better title, and what I saw it as), Cotld was not released in North America until 1983. By this time, my eyeballs had already been assaulted by Zombie (1979), and The Beyond (1981). This film was made in between, and it shows – it’s a fascinating fulcrum between the flesh eating exploits of the former and the surreal dreamscapes of the latter. It’s a creepy classic from one of the Italian masters of the genre.

Released in 1980 in his native Italy, Cotld was released in the U.S. by North America Marketing in May of ’83. Derided by critics at the time, it’s never up for re-evaluation by the mainstream. And that’s okay. What fellow horror fiends have known for decades is that Fulci at his...

Chicago – The great cult movie studio Blue Underground continues their pattern of excellent Blu-ray releases for unheralded horror gems with the recent releases of the Lucio Fulci zombie film “City of the Living Dead” and one of the most underrated westerns ever made in “Django”. While they don’t have much in common outside of studio and cult status, both are worth a look.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.0/5.0

“City of the Living Dead”

Even though I admire some of his technique and willingness to do whatever inspired him, I was never a huge Lucio Fulci fan. The man has often been called the Italian Herschell Gordon Lewis and is probably most well-known for “Zombi II” and “The Beyond,” two films from the late-’70s and ’80s that earned Fulci a reputation for extreme gore. A large number of his films have been banned around the world and his “The New York Ripper...