About

City of the Living Dead will screen from a 35mm film print.

The first entry in Lucio Fulci's unofficial 'Gates of Hell' trilogy, which also includes The Beyond 1981 and House by the Cemetery 1981.

The suicide of a priest in a remote village triggers the opening of the 'Gates of Hell', unleashing a seemingly unstoppable horde of the undead. A young woman, whose psychic visions presaged the priest's death, teams up with a journalist in an attempt to close the Gates and bring an end to the horrors spilling forth.

The films of Lucio Fulci tend to be fuelled by a surreal and feverish intensity. Audiences looking for devotion to strict narrative coherence may be left unsatisfied, with events often unfolding with the twisted logic of dreams. Fulci's penchant for grotesquery is not (solely) for the immediate gory shock, but allows him to engulf the audience with a sensation of inescapable dread.

City of the Living Dead embraces its nightmarish atmosphere and refuses to shy away from the truly bizarre. Sergio Salvati's unusually inventive cinematography bring Fulci's visions of hell to life, showcasing his imaginatively gory spirit in vivid colour. The film remains one of the director's most engagingly strange trips into the world of the horror.

Alternative titles: The Gates of Hell

R18+