Released in the year 1980 City Of The Living Dead was the thirty-six feature-length film from Lucio Fulci. It was the first film in his influential/ infamous Gates of Hell trilogy also taking in The Beyond and The House By The Cemetery both made in 1981. The film mixes together gothic & Lovecraft atmospheric tropes, extreme/prolonged gore, and an often-creative take on the look of the zombies- all in a macabrely horrific / at points illogically nightmarish setting. City Of The Living Dead of the pacier & more eventful of the three films- with some well-conceived, shocking and largely undated special effects, a keen ghoulish atmosphere, and a tangible feel of unease/ dread. Here from Cauldron Films is a three-disc release of the film- taking in a UHD, and two Blu-rays. The set features a 4k scan of the picture and a bulging selection of extras.

City Of The Living Dead (aka The Gates Of Hell) is an Italian production which was filmed in Savannah, Georgia, New York City, and New Jersey. It was co-written by Fulci & Dardano Sacchetti (The Cat O’Nine Tales, Zombie, Demons, The Church).

The film opens with a priest hanging himself in a mist graveyard & piercing a female scream. And you get well and truly pulled into the films world as it switches between the ghoulish & uneasy, creepy & unsettling, and brutally gory. The film is the perfect length at just over the hour & a half mark.

Plot-wise this isn’t one of the most complex affairs- it focuses on cigar-sucking & lightly wisecracking reporter Peter Ball- played by Christopher George (Grizzly, Pieces, Graduation Day). And English psychic living in NYC Mary Woodhouse- played by Catriona MacColl (The Beyond, The House By Cemetery). Peter gets fascinated by Mary, after she seemingly dies during a séance. He heads down to the graveyard see her get buried, and land-ups saving her as she comes back to life.

He agrees to go with Mary to find the mysterious town of Dunwich- as she had a psychic vision about the priest's death- claiming that it’s opened up the gates of hell, and if they don’t get there within the next few days, they will remain open forever.

As the pair make their way to Dunwich. We get snapshots of the decidedly creepy town. It’s constantly hovering in misty half-light or shadow-shifting nighttime. We get to meet a few of the town’s residents- Gerry a bearded and glum psychiatrist (Carlo De Mejo), and his blond and nervy patient Emily (Antonella Interlenghi). There's Bob- a pale & shifty twenty-something vagrant who has been accused of perverted acts- played by Giovanni Lombardo Radice (Cannibal Apocalypse, House On The Edge Of The Park, Cannibal Ferox, Stagefright). As well as a few occupants of the local bar, and a sinister jewellery-stealing mortician worker.

The film keeps up a good pace throughout. Shifting between the eerier and foreboding, the intense & extreme, and the ghoulish/ uneasy. With both the hung priest, and the leering/ red peeling dead suddenly appearing then disappearing. The gore set-ups are really legendary with the most notable being a woman crying blood before chucking up her organs, and a drill through the head scene.

City Of The Living Dead stands as the most accessible & approachable of all of Fulci’s horror films- as it really takes you on a great cinematic roller coaster ride. Masterful moving between the creepy, tense & taut, and the brutal.

Moving onto this three-disc region-free set. On the first Blu-ray & UHD disc we find the film, and commentary tracks. The scan here is a 4K restoration, with a brand-new Dolby Vision™ colour grade- and as you’d expect it looks lovely with really clean & crisp definition, as well as well-balanced/ mixed audio. You can select either English or Italian language versions of the film. Moving onto the commentary tracks- and all we get four. First, the new one for this release is with film historian Samm Deighan- this is a well-researched & observed affair.  She begins by talking about why this is one of her favourite films, and how it was very much a gateway film for her to Euro-horror in general. She gives a rundown of the director's career- briefly discussing his pre-film work career training to be a doctor & as an art critic. She talks about Fulci's breakthrough horror film been 1972’s Don't Torture a Duckling, and how his films are often lined with a subtle social commentary edge- pointing out the anti-Catholic touches in the film to hand.  She discusses why the film can also be folk horror.  She talks about actors as they appear,  and comments on the general great atmosphere in Dunwich. Later on, she focuses on actor Carlo De Mejo who plays Gerry in the film. How the film is not really a conventional zombie film, and much more. All in all, not a bad track at all, and she covers a few points I’d not heard covered before. The other three archive tracks are as follows- one with historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson. One with actress Catriona MacColl moderated by Jay Slater, and lastly one with actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice moderated by Calum Waddell.

Moving onto the third & final disc which is a Blu-Ray, and here we find the extras. On the new side we get the following: Zombie Kings (45.46) Interview with Production designer Massimo Antonello Geleng- this is filmed in & around his rural set house, with him either answering questions sitting with his axe, with a countryside vista behind him, or playing pool. In total he has forty-four credits to his name- so the interview is a nice career-covering affair, though, of course, we do get more focus on the film to hand. Requiem for Bob (28.00) filmed an interview with Giovanni Lombardo Radice- who of course plays Bob in the film. We get an around five-minute tour of the cemetery in the Dunwich part of the film.

On the archive side of things, we have- The Meat Munching Movies of Gino De Rossi (26.34) which finds the effects artists discussing key euro horror films he was involved in. On Stage: Q&A with Venantino Venantini & Ruggero Deodato (46.04) Catriona MacColl Q&A (20.08). Fabio Frizzi Q&A (29.25). And a few other things.

It certainly is marvellous to see this Euro-horror classic getting such a classy upgrade- with a wonderful new 4k print of the film, and a good selection of new/ archive extras. This is most certainly a release that will appeal to both long-term Fulci fans, and those new to Euro-horror- as this really is the perfect gateway release into the genre in general.