City of the Living Dead

Lucio Fulci's minor 1980 classic of Italian horror is technically a follow-up to his first major hit, Zombie (aka Zombi 2), but it's less a traditional example of the genre than a strange mix of supernatural weirdness, demonic invasion, and rotting corpses hunting down the living with a sense of purpose. The story revolves around three central characters: a priest (Fabrizio Jovine) who hangs himself in a cemetery in the town of Dunwich, thereby opening the gates of hell and releasing the dead; a New York psychic named Mary (Catriona MacColl), who is literally frightened to death by a vision of the cleric and then comes back to life in her coffin; and an insufferable, cigar-chomping reporter named Peter (a wiseguy Christopher George), who rescues Mary from her grave and then follows her to Dunwich so that they can close the aforementioned portal and end the catastrophe. Granted, the plot doesn't really make a lot of sense, but for Fulci, that hardly matters, since it's all about the gore (brains squeezed out of skulls!) and grotesque details (a storm of maggots!). Although set in an isolated community supposedly built on the ruins of the historical Salem, the exteriors were shot in Savannah, GA, so a Southern gothic atmosphere is mixed in with the gory giallo elements. While not essential, this entertainingly offbeat movie looks forward to Fulci's masterpiece, The Beyond. Newly remastered from the original negative for DVD and Blu-ray, extras include retrospective featurettes about the film and the director, new interviews with cast and crew members, a stills gallery, and radio spots, among other supplements. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)