City of the Living Dead (1980, dir. Lucio Fulci)
Hell of the Living Dead (1980; dir. Bruno Mattei)
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974; dir. Jorge Grau)
Nightmare City (1980; dir. Umberto Lenzi)
Yes folks, 1980 was a fucking great year for Italian zombies. And yes, the covers for City & Hell of the Living Dead are remarkably similar. Awesome!
So what's it gonna be? Make your voices heard and I'll make it happen. No matter the final result, I know I'm in for some nonsensical grossosity that's going to creep me out no matter what. Yay!
I threw my vote it for "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie". See that if you're looking for a really good zombie movie. However, if you're looking for downright awful, go for "City of the Living Dead". One of Fulci's worst efforts. It's got a real "WTF?" ending going for it.
ReplyDeleteWhaaat?! "City..." is one of my fave zombie films!! Teleporting zombies are just scary. No arguement! That aside, I was wondering recently if there are any zombie films where the zombies actually 'lose'. This may be one of them (I can't remember the final shots so I could be wrong! Spoiler not intended) but not many others spring to mind. Zombies always end up dominating the world. As far as I know no other film monster (other than maybe Godzilla) can boast such a claim!
ReplyDeleteNo wonder they're my favourite monster. Well, that and they just creep me out!
:D
I've only seen Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, so that gets my vote. I have no idea whether or not it was any good as I killed those brain cells years ago.
ReplyDeleteI have to be trendy and go with City Of The Living Dead!
ReplyDeleteLiving Dead at Manchester Morgue is one of the best zombie flicks I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteNightmare City is filled with all kinds of awful goodness.
Hell of the Living Dead isn't worth your time unless you're in a snarky mood and really want to rip something apart.
City of the Living Dead (which I just recently re-watched) is surprisingly not as bad as I remeber it being...it has a good atmosphere and some of Fulci's most famous gore moments. Two words: sheep entrails.
So...naturally I voted for Nightmare City.
I throw down for "City of the Living Dead" whether it's sub-par Fulci or not, because I really love Lucio Fulci & when he's off I bet you'll get good material out of it, so it's win-win
ReplyDeleteAlways go with Fulci. Yes, Manchester Morgue is a better, more coherent film. But the Maestro delivers the goods. Make sure to note his subtle use of sound effects in key scenes (and by subtle, I mean pretty much every sound effect he could get his hands on.)
ReplyDeleteDid I mention teleporting zombies?!
ReplyDelete;)
That said, no other actress, to my knowledge, has ever gone so far as to swallowing and regurgitating entrails for a movie. I know I cannot vote again but my advive would be to watch all of the above!
:D
Oh, I definitely WILL be watching all of these. This just gives me a deadline for at least one of them!
ReplyDeleteBut whatever shall it be??
City Of The Living Dead is righteous.
ReplyDeleteRIGHTEOUS I TELLS YA!
When I voted (for City Of The Living Dead), I figured it would be winning by a landslide. Cool that it's not, but I still say go for it. The aforementioned gore effect in it is so good, Chas Balun chose to create his own classy pen & ink rendition of it and THEN make it the cover of his amazing Gore Score vol 1 (which is a must for fans of 80s horror! Go to eBay right now!..I swear I'm not selling a copy..it's just amazing..)
ReplyDeleteAnyway... all I know about "Hell of the Living Dead" if I'm remembering it correctly (as you know, all of these Italian movies go by about 10 different titles each), is that IT. IS. UN. BELIEVABLY. MIND. NUMBINGLY. BAAAAAD.
..so maybe review that one! :)
Then again, I think Nightmare City features John Saxon, who shows up in every good/bad horror movie that Tom Atkins couldn't make it to. Sooo..
..but no matter what you pick, thanks for reminding me to put Let Sleeping Corpses Lie on my Netflix cue.
-Ben
I say City of the Living Dead. I just love that one. Hell of the Living Dead is "bad," but I have a strange affection for it. Love the music and feel of Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, but City has an awesome soundtrack as well. Nightmare City is a bit like Hell of the Living Dead, although there is one zombie death towards the end that I love.
ReplyDeleteThe voting here seems to closely reflect the quality - the only one I haven't seen is 'Hell,' and that's because everything I've read about it says that it's dire and to be avoided like the herpes.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I voted for 'City' over 'Sleeping Corpses.' In conventional terms, the latter is probably the better movie, but something about horror movies that don't really make sense... It can be like the Universe really has busted off its hinges. Maybe that's why I love Argento's 'Inferno' so much - who the hell can guess what's coming from one scene to the next?
So, more horror movies that don't make a damn bit of sense! I have high hopes for Lars Von Trier's 'Antichrist.'
Tsk tsk to the posters who gave away one of the highlights.
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie/The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue is easily the best film amongst your choices, but you can't really go wrong with prime vintage Fulchi either.
ReplyDeleteNightmare City is a hoot, and features atypically fast-moving zombies plus many torn Danskins, so naturally that one got my vote.
The Bruno Mattei film is a complete waste of time.
A Bruno Mattei film is terrible?! Why, that's preposterous! :D I figured it would be the worst of the bunch, but I'll still get around to it one of these days.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, I'm pretty psyched for Manchester Morgue...but we'll see what the people decide! You know how "the people" are...
I voted for Nightmare City because the zombie on the cover looks like Don Rickles
ReplyDeleteOh, man, I came to this too, too late. Nightmare City is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! See it next!
ReplyDelete