AKA: The Gates of Hell, The Fear, Fear in the City of the Living Dead, Paura Nella Citta Dei Morti Viventi,
Twilight of the Dead, Frayeurs La Paura.

Tag Line : From the bowels of the Earth, they rose to collect the living.

There's trouble in store for the townsfolk of Dunwich, when they discover the town is built on a gateway to Hell. After Father Thomas, the local priest, decides to hang himself in the cemetery, the gateway opens and all sorts of weird things to start happening in the town.

Zombies appear, terrorising the local bar fly's and chasing people around their homes, before finally squishing their brains and just disappearing again. Peoples window pains suddenly shatter inwards and sprayed with showers of maggots, paintings drip blood, and the late Father Thomas keeps popping up here and there, causing locals to bleed from their eyes before dieing by vomiting up their intestines.

Mary Woodhouse (Katherine MacColl), a clairvoyant, arrives at Dunwich after foreseeing these events during a seance. Aided by Peter (Christopher George), a newspaper reporter from New York, and Jerry (Carlo De Mejo), one of the locals, they attempt to re-close the hell gate before the arrival of all saints day. Knowing that if they fail, all hell will literally break loose.

Now the plot may seem a little confusing here, but then that's what is to be expected considering it was directed by Lucio Fulci, who regularly excelled at producing surrealist, low-budget absurdity, but I seriously think he must have been smoking something peculiar when he envisioned this film. The story seems to make little or no sense and is only saved by the phenomenal amount of gore during some of the scenes, most of which was unfortunately cut by the UK censors for its original video release (has since been re-issued uncut though I'm pleased to say).

The films title should NOT be confused with any of George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" movies, although it did seem to owe more than a passing resemblance to hammer films "Plague of the Zombies", especially the ending where the zombies start to burn for no real reason. If you enjoyed Fulci's earlier "House by the Cemetery" you may quite like this one, but if you detest tacky, low-budget horror, particularly those that don't make sense AVOID!!!!!

Overall Marks : 4/10.

Other Information.

• Alternate tag lines, "When the moon turns red, the dead shall rise", "And the dead shall rise and walk the Earth".

• Kathrine MacColl also starred in Fulci's "House by the Cemetery" and "The Beyond" and Janet Agren had previously starred in the sicko cannibal film "Eaten Alive". Video Nasty regular John Morghen (or Giovani Lombardo Radice) makes an appearence as Bob, the local retarded kid, and director Lucio Fulci puts in an uncredited appearance playing a pathologist.

• The special effects were by Gino De Rossi who also worked on Fulci's other zombie pics "House by the Cemetery", "The Beyond" and "Zombie Flesh-Eaters". The music was by Fabrio Frizzi who also scored Fulci's "House by the Cemetery" and "Zombie Flesh-Eaters".

• When first released to UK cinema's, the BBFC made a single cut of 1:01s to remove the infamous "industrial drill" scene, in order to pass it with an "X" certificate (the old equivalent of an "18"). This cut version was then released onto video, prior to the introduction of the "Video Recordings Act" of 1984 on the "Inter-Light" label. Whilst the film never made it onto the governments "Video Nasties Hitlist", for it's initial post-VRA release on the "Elephant" label the BBFC insisted on 4 further cuts totalling 2:30s to achieve an "18" video certificate, which removed the intestinal vomit scene and all the other gore scenes. This same cut version was also released by Vipco in the late 80's. It was not until the year 2001 that Vipco managed to get the full uncut version finally passed, following a change in classification policy at the BBFC.

• Apart from the current uncut UK release, the film has also been issued uncut on Japanese laserdisc by "Mount-Light" with both English & Italian soundtracks. The Dutch release on the "EVC" label is uncut, as is the Danish "Vipco" release and also the US "Creature Features/EI" label version released under the title The Gates of Hell . "Cosa Nostra" released an uncut widescreen video across Europe and "E.C Entertainment" released an uncut R2 DVD. "Anchor Bay" have released an uncut R1 DVD in the USA. The uncut UK DVD however contains audio commentary with Katherine MacColl, something that the current US DVD doesn't have.

Cast & Crew.

Cover Gallery.

Theatrical trailer. (2.37MB)

John Morghen has a "drilling" headache. (831KB)

Buy the UK DVD.

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Other Lucio Fulci zombie films.

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