In a cemetery, in the quaint New England town of Dunwich, Father William Thomas (Fabrizio Jovine) commits suicide by hanging himself. This act of desecration opens up a portal to hell. At the same time, during a séance in New York City, Mary Woodhouse (Catriona MacColl) has a vision of the event. She screams and falls to the floor dead. Mary is buried in the local cemetery, apparently without an autopsy or any kind of real investigation.
Peter Bell (Christopher George) is a reporter looking into Mary’s death. He goes to the cemetery to witness her funeral. After everyone leaves, Mary wakes up. Peter hears her scratching at the coffin and screaming. He grabs a nearby pick and smashes the coffin, saving her from suffocation.
Peter and Mary visit Theresa (Adelaide Aste), the psychic who led the séance. She talks to them about the book of Enoch, an ancient tomb that describes a different version of genesis and stories about giants, angels, heaven and the end times. Theresa tells Mary that her experience was part of a prophecy. She tells them about the gates of hell and warns them that if the gates are left open it could spell the end of humanity. She also tells them that the gates must be closed by All Saints’ Day or the dead will rise and take over the Earth. All Saints Day is in a few days.
By the time Peter and Mary get to Dunwich the dead have already begun to stir and people are disappearing.
“City of the Living Dead” AKA “The Gates of Hell” AKA “Paura nella città dei morti viventi” was released in 1980 and was directed by Lucio Fulci. It is an Italian supernatural horror film. The movie was loosely based on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft.
This was a rather decently gross splatter film. It is sometimes a little confusing, but that’s not the point. Just about everything Lovecraftian is confusing, and a fair amount of Director Fulci as well. Here, visions of maggots, worms and the vomiting of intestines are all part of the fun. There’s even a scene where someone is killed by a drill on a lathe being driven through the head. The focus of the film is blood, guts and gore that is punctuated by some spooky atmosphere.
The scene where maggots fly in through a window was done using two wind machines and about twenty-two pounds of real maggots.
The movie is the first in what is called Lucio Fulci's "Gates of Hell" Trilogy. The other two films in the trilogy are “The Beyond” 1981 and “The House by the Cemetery” 1981. Fulci also did several zombie movies that were not part of the trilogy as well as other films in the horror genre.
Director Fulci has a cameo as a crime scene pathologist examining Emily's dead body.