Donahue, Suzanne Mary (1987). American film distribution: the changing marketplace. UMI Research Press. p.296. ISBN 9780835717762. Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada The cast is the typical mix of international actors, all later dubbed in post-production to speak the same language (English or Italian). Christopher George ( Graduation Day, Pieces) stars as journalist Peter Bell, a take charge guy who doggedly follows a good story…even to the gates of Hell. Fulci regular Catriona MacColl ( The Beyond, House by the Cemetery) co-stars as Mary Woodhouse, the psychic plagued by visions. MacColl and George make a great team as they explore crypts and endure zombies and swarms of maggots. Carlo De Mejo ( Contamination, Women’s Prison Massacre) is Gerry, the proactive therapist who joins the quest with his patient Sandra, played by Janet Agren ( Eaten Alive). Speaking of trauma, the make-up effects work by Franco Rufini ( Sonny Boy) is top quality, with a number of stand-out set pieces. An early highlight finds young lovers Tommy (Michele Soavi, Demons) and Rosie (Daniela Doria, The New York Ripper) making out in a cemetery. The spirit of Father Thomas (Fabrizio Jovine, The Secret of Seagull Island) appears to Rosie and she begins spilling tears of blood followed by regurgitating all of her entrails! The most brutal death is not supernatural, rather a father with serious anger issues catches misfit Bob (Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Cannibal Ferox) with his daughter. What follows is truly horrific as poor Bob meets the business end of a very large drill. City of the Living Dead was distributed theatrically in Italy by Medusa Distribuzione on 11 August 1980. [1] It grossed a total of 985,238,798 Italian lire domestically, a figure described by Curti as "somewhat disappointing". [1] The film was distributed theatrically throughout Europe, including West Germany on September 11, 1980 and France on December 10, 1980, as well as the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. [1] [13] The German edit of the film distributed by Alemannia/Arabella was about 10 minutes shorter than the Italian version, removing some dialogue scenes but keeping the gory scenes intact. [13] In Paris, the film was screened as Frayeurs at the Festival international du film et de science-fiction. [5] At the festival, the film won the "Grand Prix du Public" (The Audience Award). [5]

Building Fulci's City, a new video appreciation by Stephen Thrower, author of the definitive tome, Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci Building Fulci’s City – a video appreciation by Stephen Thrower, author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci Paura, Lucio Fulci Remembered Vol. 1 (42:42) - these archival interviews with cast and crew were first included on the 2009 Tempe DVD. As Cauldron writes in its prefatory note, the user can navigate through each interview by using the Chapter button on remote control. Several of the interviews are in English and not subtitled. Compulsory English subs accompany the Italian interviews.This release features a number of extras, including four different audio commentaries on the UHD and Blu-rays; the new commentary offering is from Samm Deighan, who provides a great overview of Lucio Fulci’s filmography and analyzes the surreal and at times Lovecraftian themes at play in the movie. The other extras appear on the third disc in this release, and are as follows. Here, he joins Bartok and his mysterious delegation to raise the spirit of an ancient demon for a once-in-a-lifetime ritual. Cauldron offers "seamless branching" in which you can watch the film in the English language with English credit sequences, and also watch the Italian language version with Italian credit sequences. The BD-66 (feature size: 53.0 GB) delivers a mean video bitrate of 79.3 Mbps along with an overall bitrate of 81.7 Mbps for the full disc. The Blu-ray is given an MPEG-4 AVC-encode on a BD-50 (disc size: 31.64 GB), which carries an average video bitrate of 37138 kbps.

In Zombie Kings (2017, 46 minutes), production designer Massimo Antonello Geleng reflects on his prolific career working with many of the genre’s top directors, including Fulci, Argento, Cozzi and more. He talks about this film and why zombies remain popular. City of the Living Dead has been available on Blu-ray in no less than four earlier releases, including: Blue Underground (2010), Arrow Video (2013, 2019) and Scorpion Releasing (2020), all with their own strengths. Each of these came loaded with special features, few overlapping, thus making it necessary to collect multiple copies. Just when you thought it was safe, Cauldron Films introduces the film on 4K UHD with even more new and legacy content!DiVincenzo, Alex (28 August 2023). " 'City of the Living Dead' 4K Review – Lucio Fulci's Gore Shines in New Release from Cauldron Films". Bloody Disgusting . Retrieved 19 October 2023.

Bonus features all around are incredibly robust, with a fine mixture of new and archival materials. Interviews tend to be candid and informative: production designer Massimo Antonello Geleng sits, axe in hand, on the front stoop of his woodshed, explaining how he went from working with Fellini and Visconti to Deodato and Fulci; Giovanni Radice (Bob) humorously dishes on his distaste for the horror genre before going into how he came to work for Il Maestro. There are archival featurettes with SFX artist Gino De Rossi, actors Catriona MacColl, Venantino Venantini (paired with filmmaker Ruggero Deodato), and Carlo De Mejo, as well as composer Fabio Frizzi. We also get an image gallery, trailers, and a drone-shot tour of the Georgia cemetery used to stand in for New England in the film, which is set to some atmospheric music. There’s far more than what was just listed here, as well as four audio commentaries, including one newly-commissioned from Samm Deighan. All in all, it’s more than you’ll be able to get through in a single weekend. The film is viewable in either English or Italian via a DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono mix. The English dub is generally stronger and is preferred given the number of English-speaking actors. Dialogue is always clear and understandable and music cues are powerful without becoming intrusive. Optional English subtitles are included for anyone in need. The Catriona MacColl Archival Video Intro appears to be from an unspecified home video release of City of the Living Dead, while A Trip Through Bonaventure Cemetery is a brief unnarrated video journey through and over the famous cemetery in Savannah, Georgia—even though it’s debatable that any scenes from the film were actually shot there. Finally, the Archival Interviews collects relevant interview footage from the 2008 DVD Paura, Lucio Fulci Remembered Vol. 1. It includes Catriona MacColl, Carlo De Mejo, Antonella Interlenghi, Luca Venantini, Fabrizio Jovine, Venantino Venantini, Michel Soavi, Dardano Sacchetti, Massimo Antonello Geleng, Gino De Rossi, Rosario Prestopino, Sergio Salvati, and Fabio Frizzi. There are also at least two major Easter eggs on disc three: The Meat Munching Movies of Gino De Rossi (1080p; 26:34) –An interview with special effects creator Gino De Rossi from 2012 included on a previous release.

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During a séance in New York City, Mary Woodhouse ( Catriona MacColl, The Beyond) experiences a vision of Father Thomas ( Fabrizio Jovine, The Psychic) hanging himself before a corpse claws its way out of its grave. Whether it was the priest’s intention to unleash the evil is left ambiguous, but the quaint Massachusetts town of Dunwich is cursed regardless. Borrowing its name from Lovecraft’s writings, Dunwich is built on the ruins of the original Salem, where the ancestors of its current residents are said to have burned witches at the stake.