First film in Lucio Fulci's Gates of Hell trilogy followed by The Beyond and The House by the Cementary. Not as popular nor as gory as Fulci's Zombi II, but provides the goods with memorably shocking and nightmarish scenes.
A Priest commits suicide in a cemetery by hanging himself. In doing this, the gates of Hell are opened in a rural New England town that unleash supernatural zombies. Elsewhere, a psychic(Catriona MacColl) has a terrifying vision at a seance and presumably dies on the spot. After the funeral, the psychic awakens to realize that she has been buried alive and tries to call for help. Luckily, a reporter(Christopher George) investigating the strange death hears the cries coming from underground and rescues her from the tomb. Upon learning that everything is part of a written prophecy, the two head out to Dunwich and try to close the gates of Hell before legions of the undead take over this world.
Just like any good Italian zombie movie from the 70s and 80s, the creepy atmosphere and music alone are enough to scare the shit out of anyone. The traditional and more subtle scare tactics used here are more effective than most of today's pop culture horror bullshit. The foggy and shadowy setting of Dunwich is perfect. And still to this day, Italian zombie effects are still my favorite. The decayed, maggot infested and slow shambling traditional zombies provoke more of a psychological fear that modern zombies don't.
Fulci has earned the nickname "The Godfather of Gore" for his work, and with good reason. Not only is this film gory, but has some of the most memorable death scenes in horror movie history. Like Zombi II's unforgettable wood splinter in the eye scene, Fulci shocks us with a man getting killed by a drill through the head and a woman who cries blood and vomits out her own entrails. People are killed brutally with their brains being ripped out of their skulls and eaten by zombies.
Sadly, movies like this have died out and audiences nowadays only like their zombies on steroids. Now, it's all about annoying music video style editing and zombies that run. The supernatural elements and old-fashioned creepiness are nowhere to be found. Even though "City of the Living Dead" doesn't have a very in depth storyline, it's still has more than just the zombie apocalypse cliche, and shows some originality and attempt at being artistic. I'm still hopeful that maybe one day, old-school Italian splatter like this make a comeback.