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Zombie Film Review:

Nightmare City

Director: Umberto Lenzi

Year: 1980

Review: This film, although with a zombie setting does stray somewhat away from what us zombie purists would consider mainstream, it is full of the living dead and the living dead spread in an infectious manner around the city and possibly the globe !!! BUT running, shooting, wrestling zombies who drive mini-buses and pretend to be alive to gain access to secure buildings to then use their mechanical knowledge to winch machinery around is not really the norm for this genre of film…

Zombie Quality: **

There is only one style of make-up that appears in this film and it is not a particularly good, I think it's a kind of gelatine and latex mix that is sparingly poured over actors heads and then left to gloop around… The only redeeming feature is simply the amount of claret being sprayed around with reckless abandon, coating flesh eater and victim alike.

Zombie Behaviour: None

These zombies cut phone wires, shoot the soldiers, smuggle themselves around the city and generally act like zombies in some scenes and trained commandos in others, there's no consistency at all and they fight like furies, unless it's against the lead character, then become a bit soft.

Zombie Threat: * or ****

I'll say no more, but watch the ending and you'll understand… Bit lame, as if the director suddenly tried to add a touch of philosophy and a twist at the end, that simply doesn't work.

Gore Content: ****

This film does score highly here, due to the amount of blood and guts that are thrown around in almost every scene involving the zombies. Bites, axes in the head, zombies hacking breasts off with rusty kitchen knives… What they didn't spend on good actors they spent on wild-eyed actors and claret…

Overall Quality: **

Entertaining enough for a foreign, low budget, bad acted zombie film, but if you are not an avid collector then you are probably better off spending your pennies on something else, like a bottle of Scotch.

Special Award:

Most dated dance routine to feature in a zombie film, simply as an excuse to butcher young people… The winner is the TV Studio in Nightmare City.