Have you ever paused a movie and yelled aloud, "I LOVE THIS MOVIE!" and you're all alone in the room? If you've answered in the affirmative, you understand the pure joy that I felt while watching this movie.Dean Miller, an American reporter, is waiting to interview a nuclear scientist when a military plane lands and mutated men emerge, killing everyone in their path. Even the worst wounds only slow them down as they hack their way through their victims, pausing to drink the blood of those they kill.General Murchison (Mel Ferrer, The Visitor) shuts down any news stories about the attack. Meanwhile, the city is overrun with the killers and their victims, who soon join their ranks. Miller saves his wife at the hospital where she works as the city's power is shut down.It turns out that they're fighting humans who have been contaminated by a leak in the nuclear power plant (that's why the scientist was meeting with Miller in the beginning) and now they have strength, speed and reflexes beyond the range of normal humans. However, because they can't regenerate red blood cells, they must consume blood. There's only one way to kill them, which will be familiar to zombie movie fans: shoot them in the head.No one is safe - the general is looking for his daughter and her husband, but by the time they are discovered, they are infected and must be killed. And Major Holmes warns his artist wife to stay in the house when two infected men break in and kill her friend and almost murder her. By the time he gets to the house to save her she's been infected and he must kill his wife.That's the theme of this movie - everyone gets turned into something horrible, even a priest at the church where Miller and Anna try to hide. Finally, they make a last stand in an amusement park, using submachine guns and grenades to keep the attacking horde at bay. Major Holmes tries to save them, but Anna can't hold the rope and falls to her death. This being an Italian movie, we see every moment of her demise.Miller then wakes up. It was all a dream, except he goes back to the airport and the movie starts all over again!Known as City of the Walking Dead in the U.S., this is a fast-moving, down and dirty gore packed film. Directed by Umberto Lenzi (Eaten Alive!, Cannibal Ferox), this film feels like it's out of control from the first scene. Once that plane opens and the mutated fiends emerge, it's an orgy of heads being opened up, breasts being eaten, gunshots galore and eyes being ripped from their sockets. In short, this is. a true crowd pleaser. How can you not love a movie where a studio full of disco dancers are mauled and murdered by an army of mutated killers?

Nightmare City Is an Italian Infected 'Zombie' film directed by Umberto Lanzi. It sees reporter Dean Miller(Hugo Stiglitz) waiting on an airport runway ready to conduct an Interview with a nuclear professor. As the professor's plane arrives It does so under strange circumstances, there's nobody responding on the radio, and when It lands there's no response from anyone In the cockpit. When the plane doors open a horde(Including the professor) of Infected, 'zombies' come rushing out maiming and killing the surrounding police and soldiers stationed next to the plane. This blistering start, all occurs within the first ten minutes of the film. From this point on, the film springs Into action and becomes a non-stop quest for survival, as Miller also he tries to locate his wife Anna(Laura Trotter), a nurse at a city hospital that Is one of the main focal points of attack form the Infected(who need plasma to sustain them).The film no doubt has Issues that are Inherent with the era, the majority of the acting(especially the extras) Is pretty terrible, also the make-up effects look rubbish on the Infected, It's understandable that these Issues can be off putting to a casual viewer. However If problems like these(especially from Italian genre films) don't bother you, then there Is a-lot of fun to be had with this film. Despite the low budget the film Is perfectly paced, and Lenzi does a brilliant job with the scope of this film, you really do believe that the whole city Is under siege. There are scenes that have hundreds of extras scattered through-out fields and roaming urban areas, shot via a helicopter swoops, that do a brilliant job of Immersing the viewer.The score which has similar beat to John Carpenter's The Thing Is brilliant, It also has an effective catchy synth riff that Is synonymous to It's era, and genre. As I stated earlier this film kicks off with a bang, and It never lets up, until It's thrilling climax at a theme park. This Is a film that has clearly Influenced others, most notably the finale from Zombieland which Is taken from this film. Even Tarantino has stated this film was his main Influence for his Planet Terror project. It was also the first notable film to feature 'fast running' Zombies.The only downside I had with this film, and It's a major one, was It's final five minutes. The film decide to do a complete turnabout, and go another direction, which essentially made the previous eighty-five minutes, completely and utterly Irrelevant, It felt Incredibly cheap and I can understand why It would anger off a-lot of viewers(me Included).This was another Arrow Video film that I blind brought. For the most part I had a great time with this film, It's unfortunate the ending left a bitter taste In my mouth. The Arrow Blu-ray came with two restorations of the film, due to the severe chemical damage on the original negative print. Despite the Irreversible set-back, they did a phenomenal job restoring and salvaging this cult classic.

If you like your "zombies" in turtle necks and blazers then you're in luck. I'm not exactly sure why every "zombie" in this movie is wearing some sort of suit/turtle neck/sweater w button up/etc but it happened. These "zombies want your blood and your Khol's card.Speaking of "zombie" appearances, this might be the worst zombie makeup I've ever seen in a movie. Half of them just have a piece of brown clay or something on their cheek and it looks more like eczema than rotting flesh. And yes I am purposefully putting the word "zombie" in quotes because these things are really hard to define. They're dressed up, fairly normal looking, use weapons, and desperately try to get their hands on boobs. If that's what it takes to be considered a zombie then I guess I'm one too.Speaking of boobs, one of my favorite scenes is when the "zombies" overtake a hospital and one of them pulls open a nurses smock to reveal naked breasts. Did nurses in 1970s Europe really not wear bras or undershirts to work? If so, does anyone have a time machine because I feel the need to schedule a doctors appt.Anyway, as far as the story goes, there isn't much of one. "Zombies" overtake an airport from a mysterious plane and then run amok in the city. The military tries to stop them, but (shockingly) fails miserably. In many scenes it's hard to distinguish who is a "zombie" and who is a regular person. The best way to tell is to look for the figure wielding a baton or a small knife. I've never seen such well armed "zombies" before, this group really has their stuff together. Why bite when you can stab! There are many silly scenes throughout, like when a man camping with his girlfriend decides that something must be wrong because he hears a dog barking in the country...then 1 second later he sees a zombie laying on the ground beside him. One usually does lead to the other so next time you hear a barking dog, watch your step. I should mention that after this a group of "zombies" drive up in a car, yes they drive, and proceed to shoot and stab the couple. Did I mention that these zombies like weapons? There is also a scene where a woman is an artist and makes clay sculptures and happens to make a bust that looks exactly like the "zombie" who breaks into her basement and kills her? I don't know if this was some misunderstood meaning of the word foreshadowing or if she's some kind of precog or what, but the scene does end in the "zombie" stabbing her friend and fondling her boobies. As a director you win some and lose some, at least he got the end of the scene right.As far as the end of the movie goes, it's possibly the most unoriginal "shock" ending they could think of. The main character is about to die and...he wakes up! Whaaaaaaat, it was all a dream?? Or was it...but seriously it wasn't. Because then he goes to the airport and the "zombies" really do come out of the plane just like in his dream. Consider your mind blown.

Nightmare City is a low budget Zombie film done right! It knows what it is, and doesn't try to be anything but cheesy and provocative entertainment. At this juncture, many zombie films were being made; some of the stupid, some of them cheesy fun. Umberto Lenzi decided to add a little bit of a twist to his project. He made the zombies fast and relentless. This would be brought up again in the remake of Dawn of The Dead, but it was unheard of at this juncture, and I found it to be a bit refreshing in ways. The makeup is extremely cheap. The Zombies aren't all that intimidating, but all I cared about was the fun factor, and this has plenty of that. Hell. This movie takes a huge fad of the 80's (Aerobics) and we get a gore filled scene during an aerobics session! It wasn't afraid to be daring or different that's for sure. I have mixed feelings about the ending. All I'll say is the ending takes place at a fair of sorts. It was really quite original and suspenseful (Seriously) my jaw dropped at some of the creative violence, and one particular scene stuck with me. Then…something happened that took it all away. I won't reveal what it is, but I was a bit bummed out by what happened. You may feel differently, but you may see what I'm talking about. I was quite disappointed with it, despite that Umberto Lenzi redeemed himself a bit at the very end. Everyone is dubbed, and there are only two performances worth mentioning. Hugo Stiglitz (Dean Miller) Makes for a great reluctant hero. He had some crappy dubbing, but he was pretty cool, and also likable. Laura Trotter is a bit whiny as the wife, but she was fairly decent for the most part. Before I forget, gore hounds will rejoice at this movie. It's pretty violentFinal Thoughts: Aside from mixed feelings in the finale, I really dug this movie. I had a lot of fun with it for what it was. The action is constant, and I dug Lenzi's vision with this one. If you're looking for a entertaining Zombie film that comes from the 80's, check this one out!6.5/10