City of the Living Dead - Limited Edition [Blu-ray]

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The Meat Munching Movies of Gino De Rossi (1080p; 26:34) –An interview with special effects creator Gino De Rossi from 2012 included on a previous release. Speaking of trauma, the make-up effects work by Franco Rufini ( Sonny Boy) is top quality, with a number of stand-out set pieces. An early highlight finds young lovers Tommy (Michele Soavi, Demons) and Rosie (Daniela Doria, The New York Ripper) making out in a cemetery. The spirit of Father Thomas (Fabrizio Jovine, The Secret of Seagull Island) appears to Rosie and she begins spilling tears of blood followed by regurgitating all of her entrails! The most brutal death is not supernatural, rather a father with serious anger issues catches misfit Bob (Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Cannibal Ferox) with his daughter. What follows is truly horrific as poor Bob meets the business end of a very large drill. In Zombie Kings (2017, 46 minutes), production designer Massimo Antonello Geleng reflects on his prolific career working with many of the genre’s top directors, including Fulci, Argento, Cozzi and more. He talks about this film and why zombies remain popular. This stunningly crisp Arrow Video release, exclusive 4K restoration of City of the Living Dead is out on the 8 th Oct. 2018 on Blu-ray in the UK.

The Dead Are Alive!, a new video essay by Kat Hellinger on Lucio Fulci and the Italian zombie cycle After Zombi 2 grossed over 1.5 billion lire in Italy, director Lucio Fulci began working on a new horror script with screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti. [7] Elements of the story are influenced by the work of H.P. Lovecraft, such as naming the town the film is set in Dunwich, after Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror. [8] Sacchetti noted that Fulci had just reread Lovecraft before working on the film's script, stating he wanted to re-create a Lovecraftian atmosphere. [8] In Sacchetti's original writings, the story is not set in Dunwich, but Salem. [9] This script also includes characters not used in the film, such as Mike, a homeless man who is devoured by cats and reappears later in the film as a zombie. [9] Bonus features all around are incredibly robust, with a fine mixture of new and archival materials. Interviews tend to be candid and informative: production designer Massimo Antonello Geleng sits, axe in hand, on the front stoop of his woodshed, explaining how he went from working with Fellini and Visconti to Deodato and Fulci; Giovanni Radice (Bob) humorously dishes on his distaste for the horror genre before going into how he came to work for Il Maestro. There are archival featurettes with SFX artist Gino De Rossi, actors Catriona MacColl, Venantino Venantini (paired with filmmaker Ruggero Deodato), and Carlo De Mejo, as well as composer Fabio Frizzi. We also get an image gallery, trailers, and a drone-shot tour of the Georgia cemetery used to stand in for New England in the film, which is set to some atmospheric music. There’s far more than what was just listed here, as well as four audio commentaries, including one newly-commissioned from Samm Deighan. All in all, it’s more than you’ll be able to get through in a single weekend. City of the Living Dead was developed after the financial success of Fulci's previous film, Zombi 2, leading him to work with screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti to write a new horror film inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The film was greenlit during production of Contraband, which Fulci left to begin working on City of the Living Dead. Principal photography was shot predominantly on location in the United States, with interiors shot in Rome. Audio Commentary with director of photography Sergio Salvati and camera operator Roberto Forges Davanzati, moderated by film professor Paolo Albiero (In Italian with English Subtitles)The 4K transfer is how I prefer them for a film like this. The picture, color, and contrast give it an upgrade, and fans can view it like they’ve never seen before. While the picture is bright and clear, a slight layer of grain keeps it grounded in the genre where it belongs. RELATED: Revisiting Lucio Fulci’s ‘Zombi 2:’ The Unofficial ‘Dawn of the Dead’ Sequel Italy / Horror / Director - Lucio Fulci / 93 mins / 1.85:1 / UHD -All Region / BD feature - Region A / BD extras - All Region Archival Interviews with Cast and Crew from Paura, Lucio Fulci Remembered Vol. 1 (Upscaled SD – 42:42) While Zombie before it and the latter two Gates of Hell installments that followed were presented in scope, Fulci and frequent cinematographer Sergio Salvati opted to shoot City of the Living Dead in flat 1.85:1. Although ostensibly less “cinematic,” the conventional aspect ratio lends itself to a classic horror atmosphere, emphasized by increasingly lingering plumes of fog and a melodious yet eerie score by Fabio Frizzi ( Zombie, The Beyond). Since its Sundance premiere, the energy surrounding the film has steadily grown with RogerEbert.com calling Onyx the Fortuitous “a handmade horror gem.”

The rest of the extras consist primarily of interviews and Q&A sessions. Zombie Kings is an interview with production designer Massimo Antonello Geleng, who worked with a remarkable collection of directors throughout his career including Fulci, Dario Argento, Ruggero Deodato, Sergio Martino, Umberto Lenzi, Luigi Cozzi, Antonio Margheriti, Lamberto Bava, Michele Soavi, and many more. Needless to say, he has an abundance of stories to tell, and he also offers some interesting thoughts about why zombies have proven so fascinating throughout the years. Requiem for Bob is an interview with Giovanni Lombardo Radice, who says that despite having watched City of the Living Dead countless times, the most gruesome moments still affect him. He talks about both his career and his personal life, including working with Fulci, and his struggles with addiction. (He also has some very sweet dogs!) The Meat Munching Movies of Gino De Rossi features the late special effects artist talking about his work on various Fulci films. He also shows off some of the props from his workshop, including the rig that he designed for the drill scene in City of the Living Dead, and some of the infamous hooks from Cannibal Ferox. He admits to some discomfort with having participated in the animal killings in the latter film. Carlo of the Living Dead is an interview with actor Carlo De Mejo, focusing on his work with Fulci. He speculates that the bizarre ending was a matter of the producers wanting to leave the door open for a sequel. Catriona MacColl Q&A from The Glasgow Theater (20:08) - this Q&A with MacColl was filmed at The Glasgow Theater on March 13, 2010, which is moderated by Waddell. Questions are both spoken and subtitled in English. Reflections on Fulci, a new appraisal of Fulci's Gothic period by actor, writer and director Andy Nyman (Ghost Stories) In New York City, during a séance held in the apartment of medium Theresa, Mary Woodhouse experiences a traumatic vision of a priest, Father Thomas, hanging himself in a cemetery of a village called Dunwich. Mary breaks the circle and collapses to the floor when the images overwhelm her. The group presumes Mary is dead and calls the police, who suspect foul play. Theresa warns the police chief of an imminent evil. Journalist Peter Bell begins to investigate Mary's mysterious death and visits her grave as she is about to be buried. However, she is still alive, and Peter saves her after hearing her cries. Peter and Mary visit Theresa, who warns them that according to the ancient book of Enoch, the events Mary witnessed in her visions presage the eruption of the living dead into our world. The death of Father Thomas has opened the gates of Hell through which the invasion will commence on All Saints Day, just a few days away. City of the Living Dead has several classic Fulci gross-out scenes. We’ve got twenty-two pounds of live maggots loaded into a wind machine; a teenager’s head being fed into a lathe; poor Michele Soavi being forced to watch as his girlfriend vomits up the entire length of her intestines in excruciating anatomical detail. The fact that these effects hold up without losing their gut-churning effectiveness under the scrutiny of 4K resolution is a testament to Gino De Rossi’s SFX genius—with some scenes being even grosser than I remember, thanks to the ability to see, say, the maggots wriggling individually thanks to the crisp restoration on Cauldron’s UHD restoration.City of the Living Dead offers a whole grab bag of usual Fulci nastiness, including an infamous scene where a large drill slowly enters the skull of a victim. And in classic Italian horror fashion, these zombies are much more than your usual dumb undead. The creatures here have a proclivity for ripping body parts right off victims, including but not limited to scalps, faces, intestines, etc. Things get grizzly after the gates of hell open, and Fulci leaves it all open to interpretation. There’s something really engaging about much of Italian horror’s refusal to draw conclusions, and that effort works remarkably well here between all the bloodletting. There are two Easter eggs: A muddy, full frame VHS rip under the Gates of Hell title for purists and a revealing photo spread of actor Christopher George in Playgirl magazine, 1974 – NSFW. Composer Fabio Frizzi sits for the Q&A session Music for a Flesh-Feast (2012, 29 minutes), recorded at the Glasgow Theater following a screening of Zombie. He shares details of his writing process and how the music is prepared for the film. A priest hangs himself in a cemetery in Dunwich, Massachusetts, setting off a chain of events that will lead to the opening of the gates of Hell, bringing the end of humanity. Mary Woodhouse has a vision of the priest during a séance in New York and apparently dies of fright. Journalist Peter Bell is investigating the case and while visiting her recently dug grave, discovers she is in fact still alive and he saves her. Together, they head to Dunwich to close the gates and save the world. Once there, they meet a therapist, his patient, their friends and a squirrelly social misfit named Bob. They also run into the living dead, who teleport around town and crush people’s brains. Can they survive, or is this truly the end of the world?