Nightmare City (1980)

[Gelfling]

A great 1980 Italian-Spanish-Mexican Sci-fi horror action shocker from the director of "Cannibal Ferox" Umberto Lenzi about a radioactive spill that turns a plane full of passengers into deadly radioactive, cruddy faced, weapon weilding blood sucking, vampire-esque zombies that begin to attack a large city and causing death, but can be stopped with a bullet in the head as a jouranlist with his wife must flee the city to stop these monsters.

This was the TRUE movie that started the whole running zombie shabang like today's zombies! this has it all: action, little romance, gore, exploding heads, nudity, laugahable make-up ( the zombies look like they have mud on their face), awesome music score and a twist in the end.

If you love movies like Romero's zombie Quadrilogy, "Dawn of the Dead ( 2004)", "Lifeforce", "28 Days Later", " Return of the Living Dead Trilogy", " Scanners", "CHUD", " Demons", " Zombi 3", " The Stuff", "Hell of the Living Dead" and "The Beyond" then this movie is definitely for you.

Anyone thinks this inspired last year's "Dawn of the Dead" remake with the same type of running zombies?

[Kupotek]

Sounds worth checking out, how would you compare it to Fulci's City of the Living Dead?

[damien]

this movie is terrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Brainfreeeeeze]

saw it on VHS at a used movie place. Looked like a decent B-grade. Might end up picking it up now, Im pretty sure it was in their 99 cent bin.

[Kupotek]

The movie in your avatar, Uzumaki right? That was a tripped out movie, very artistic movie which made it very cool.

[Ghoul Car]

*****Spoilers*****




Nightmare City has some of the most delightfully horrible acting ever captured in a motion picture. Not just from a few of the cast members, but from every person in the film. All of the emotions from the characters are in the right place they should be, but they certainly aren't pulled off correctly. In a movie like this you don't want Oscar-worthy efforts, though. It would only be too much to handle. The roles of Dean and Anna Miller are extraordinary, speaking in a laughable sense of course. In one scene while the terror is in the midst across the whole country, they are at a gas station laughing over a cup of coffee.

Major Warren Holmes (the late Francisco Rabal, Dagon) is almost genuine in a scene where he phones his wife at home, telling her to lock all of the doors. This is exceptionally logical, bearing in mind that he is a prune looking old man and she is one incredibly attractive young woman. An opportunity like this only presents itself seldom in life. Mel Ferrer (Screamers '79, Eaten Alive) plays General Murchison, who is merely trying to get his daughter to safety by sending an officer to her home as an escort to the military base. His talent is sadly too short in this movie to be admired.

A couple of scenes are without doubt homage to zombie films, especially George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. In one segment the camera takes the viewer inside of a helicopter, showing the mad bloodsuckers below running amok in an empty field. Picture Dawn of the Dead with the fast-tackling running zombies from the original Return of the Living Dead and you have this scene. It is quite probable that Dan O' Bannon borrowed the running characteristic from Umberto Lenzi's idea, but the Lenzi zombie-like creatures are still much different. These ghouls are more like vampires. They imbibe blood only, so there aren't any vile scenes of meat consumption here. Apparently, these members of the "UN-dead" have a recollection of liking the female anatomy from their history; for almost every lady in the film has their shirt ripped off before they are discarded.

Nightmare City does have its fair share of gore, but most of it is detained until the climax. There are several gross-out scenes here and there, though. The make-up FX are handled by Franco Digirolamo (The New York Ripper, Zombie 3, Terminator 2) and Giuseppe Ferranti (A Cat in the Brain, Aenigma). Ghoul FX ranges from out of place eyeballs, to basically just looking like someone or something took a dump on their faces. Keep in mind these creeps are rotting, yet they all have perfect looking teeth. One extremely harmonious scene is one creep getting shot in the mug, completely taking away the back of their cranium. The finale has multiple facial explosions, thanks to a machine gun; plus a breast removal scene and whole lot of blood slurping throughout the entire film.

Although Nightmare City is a stellar favorite of mine, it can only be suggested to those who like their horror UN-purposely tacky. Even fans that like horror comedies may be turned off, mainly for the reason that this wasn't supposed to be funny. The DVD transfer from Anchor Bay looks beautiful, presented in wide screen. Special features include a Theatrical trailer, an Umberto Lenzi bio and a new entertaining interview with the director titled "Tales of the contaminated City" (where he says without the presence of his expertise, the film could have been a lot worse. He also stated something along the lines of there being a possibility of this really happening). Quite an amusing film.

[WitchfinderxGeneral]

I enjoyed the film. Just don't go in expecting much, which is a basic rule when watching Italian zombie movies.

[Gelfling]

Anyone thinks this movie inspired last year's Dawn of the Dead remake? the same type of running zombies.

[Ghoul Car]

I think 28 Days Later is more responsible for the Dawn remake zombie attributes.

I do think Nightmare City's speedy contaminated freaks inspired O' Bannon with the first Return of the Living Dead.

[Malfeitor]

This may be my all time favorite zombie film, my friend got it w/ his Walking Dead six pack, I had never seen it, but knew of the film. I though it inspired 28 Days Lat5er infected also. Sure bad acting, but I don't watch horror for Academy Award Acting, espc. Italian horror. I bought this as soon a sI found it.