Based on the cover art alone, I was sure that this movie was going to be a zombie bloodbath. Secondly, given the fact that Lucio Fulci directed this movie, I was once again sure that this was going to be nothing short of a zombie gold. Instead this movie is actually an elaborate ghost story with some zombie hijinx thrown in... There's a lesson here about not judging a book by its cover, but since books are slowly being phased out by modern society, we'll just ignore that lesson for now.

The basic plot of City of the Living Dead is that a priest commits suicide. He then comes back as a super powered ghost, who also commands an army of the undead. If he isn't stopped, he'll open up a gate to hell and the world will be up shit's creek. Luckily, a reporter and some woman who almost died from fright are on the case. There's also a small-town psychologist ready to do battle with the undead. Needless to say, the plot isn't what is going to make you watch or remember this movie. I had actually seen this movie over ten yeas ago before I reviewed it recently. I was shocked by all the weird plot points that I had forgotten, but there's a reason, they aren't important.

What I did remember about this movie is what every review online talks about: the gore. There are two scenes that stand out. One scene involves a woman vomitted up her insides. I wish I was making this up. I remember watching that years ago and feeling disgusted. My friend who was watching the movie with me almost got sick. I was excited to see this scene again, but was disappointed. The timing of it made it almost comical. Her insides just keep coming and coming, which I guess is realistic given the size of a person's intestines. I just found this scene so over the top that I couldn't take it seriously. Mind you, the first time I saw it and wasn't expected it, I was totally impressed. May be time has taken away my love of people's insides...

The second scene involves a drill and a man's face. This scene stood the test of time, and still impressed the hell out of me. Considering that this movie was made in 1980, the realism of this scene is mind blowing. I would nominate this scene as one of the best deaths in any horror movie ever, which is saying a lot since it involved no zombies eating people. I would say see this movie just to see the drill scene.

It shouldn't be shocking that I've spent half of this review talking about gore since this is a Fulci movie. Lucio Fulci is a reknowned horror movie maker from Italy, who is probably best known for this movie Zombie. Every movie I've ever seen by him always has first rate gore. May be the plots don't make a lot of sense, but you know there's going to be some quality killing in a Fulci film. City of the Living Dead is no exception to this. Even the gore in the movie that I haven't mentioned is pretty good, and has a nice grittiness that CG just can't emulate.