Nightmare City
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Fans of the cannibalistic living dead have long argued over the differences between shuffling 'zombies' (Zombie Flesh Eaters, Dawn of the Dead [1978]) and their faster, noisier counterparts, 'ghouls' (VERSUS, Dawn of the Dead [2004]). From the golden age of gore movies and the back catalogue of notorious Italian director Umberto 'Cannibal Ferox' Lenzi comes 'Nightmare City' (Incubo Sulla Citta Contaminata), a zombie film with ghoul-like, radiation-mutated cannibals running amok in a bloody killing spree...
Following a spill at a nuclear powerplant, TV journalist Dean Miller waits at the airport for the arrival of the plant's chief scientist. An unidentified military plane lands, to be greeted by alarmed airport officials, soldiers, police and Miller. As the door opens, the scientist steps forwards and attacks the nearest soldier. A throng of other zombie-like humans then burst from the plane, armed with axes, knives and coshes, and immediately start butchering everyone present. The ghouls overwhelm the troops, take their sub-machineguns and then get shooting, giving the first ten minutes alone an impressive bodycount. Miller, of course, does a runner.
With his wife unreachable, and the military demanding a media blackout, the small army of ghoulish zombies attack the TV station, killing the leotard-wearing dancing girls of an off-air pop music show. With the building overrun, Miller makes a frantic escape. The military meanwhile manage to surmise that these superhuman ghouls need blood to survive, that their attacks contaminate their victims and create other zombies, and that, yep, only a bullet to the brain will stop them! The ghouls spread quickly throughout the city, bringing down a power station and killing all in their path, soldiers and civilians alike. During the blackout, Miller reaches the hospital where his wife works; they are soon reunited but the wards and theatres fill with carnage and blood-drinking fiends. The ranks of the flesheating monsters swell as they stab, chop, shoot, strangle and harpoon their way across the entire state! Even the military cannot stop the onslaught, their bases falling to the undead. Miller and his wife head for the country, where they find more ghouls, including a zombie priest, and are chased through and cornered in a huge theme park. Trapped by the crazed monsters, the movie takes a sudden twist: Miller wakes up and realises it has all been a dream... Or has it? He rushes to the airport to await the arrival of a nuclear scientist, when an unidentified military plane lands and... "THE NIGHTMARE BECOMES REALITY..."
The effects are a bit ropy in places, but with more killings than the entire Friday the 13th series, great headshots, and at least one very grisly death happening on average every 30 seconds, there is so much gleefully OTT, cheesey splatter, that it doesn't matter if the zombie makeup only covers parts of their faces... the budget may not appear to be huge, but the death toll certainly is! Not as nasty as other movies of its time, Nightmare City is still a highly entertaining, ultraviolent, gore-drenched slice of kitsch Italian horror. The extra features on the Dutch special edition release from Italian Shock include Stelvio Cipriani's cracking, atmospheric soundtrack, a commentary by Umberto Lenzi, trailer, text notes, a filmography, a gallery of rare posters and images, and an interview with Lenzi, who, whilst 'playfully' bitching about such lauded directors as Quentin Tarantino and John Woo, asserts that his zombies are not the living dead, but more diseased superhuman mutants (almost like the protagonists of David Cronenberg's 1977 classic 'Rabid'). A cheesey, gory gem!
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Following a spill at a nuclear powerplant, TV journalist Dean Miller waits at the airport for the arrival of the plant's chief scientist. An unidentified military plane lands, to be greeted by alarmed airport officials, soldiers, police and Miller. As the door opens, the scientist steps forwards and attacks the nearest soldier. A throng of other zombie-like humans then burst from the plane, armed with axes, knives and coshes, and immediately start butchering everyone present. The ghouls overwhelm the troops, take their sub-machineguns and then get shooting, giving the first ten minutes alone an impressive bodycount. Miller, of course, does a runner.
With his wife unreachable, and the military demanding a media blackout, the small army of ghoulish zombies attack the TV station, killing the leotard-wearing dancing girls of an off-air pop music show. With the building overrun, Miller makes a frantic escape. The military meanwhile manage to surmise that these superhuman ghouls need blood to survive, that their attacks contaminate their victims and create other zombies, and that, yep, only a bullet to the brain will stop them! The ghouls spread quickly throughout the city, bringing down a power station and killing all in their path, soldiers and civilians alike. During the blackout, Miller reaches the hospital where his wife works; they are soon reunited but the wards and theatres fill with carnage and blood-drinking fiends. The ranks of the flesheating monsters swell as they stab, chop, shoot, strangle and harpoon their way across the entire state! Even the military cannot stop the onslaught, their bases falling to the undead. Miller and his wife head for the country, where they find more ghouls, including a zombie priest, and are chased through and cornered in a huge theme park. Trapped by the crazed monsters, the movie takes a sudden twist: Miller wakes up and realises it has all been a dream... Or has it? He rushes to the airport to await the arrival of a nuclear scientist, when an unidentified military plane lands and... "THE NIGHTMARE BECOMES REALITY..."
The effects are a bit ropy in places, but with more killings than the entire Friday the 13th series, great headshots, and at least one very grisly death happening on average every 30 seconds, there is so much gleefully OTT, cheesey splatter, that it doesn't matter if the zombie makeup only covers parts of their faces... the budget may not appear to be huge, but the death toll certainly is! Not as nasty as other movies of its time, Nightmare City is still a highly entertaining, ultraviolent, gore-drenched slice of kitsch Italian horror. The extra features on the Dutch special edition release from Italian Shock include Stelvio Cipriani's cracking, atmospheric soundtrack, a commentary by Umberto Lenzi, trailer, text notes, a filmography, a gallery of rare posters and images, and an interview with Lenzi, who, whilst 'playfully' bitching about such lauded directors as Quentin Tarantino and John Woo, asserts that his zombies are not the living dead, but more diseased superhuman mutants (almost like the protagonists of David Cronenberg's 1977 classic 'Rabid'). A cheesey, gory gem!
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