City of the Living Dead(1980)
1980 · Lucio Fulci · 93 min
A psychic seemingly dies of fright during a séance where she sees a vision of a Dunwich priest hanging himself in a church cemetery. New York City reporter Peter Bell investigates and learns that the priest's suicide has somehow opened a portal to Hell that must be sealed by All Saints Day, or else the dead will overtake humanity.
Horror · Fantasy · Mystery
6.5459 votes
TMDB score
4/5
Intensity
5/5
Gore
4/5
Stays with you
How City of the Living Dead scares
City of the Living Dead moves like a fever dream, drifting through foggy cemeteries and empty small-town streets with a dread that builds slowly and never fully explains itself. Then, without much warning, it lands on scenes of gruesome, over-the-top gore that hit far harder than any jump scare could. The story barely holds together, but that's part of the effect: it feels less like a plot and more like a nightmare you can't quite follow. This is for viewers who want a nasty, surreal, stomach-turning experience over a tightly plotted scare machine.
On The Horror Database's 0–5 scare profile, City of the Living Dead rates psychological 3/5, visceral 4/5, gore 5/5, lingering effect 4/5, and overall intensity 4/5.
- Psychological: 3 of 5
- Visceral: 4 of 5
- Gore: 5 of 5
- Lingering: 4 of 5
- Intensity: 4 of 5
Slow burn vs Jump scares: 30 of 100 — leans Slow burn
Supernatural vs Real-world: 10 of 100 — leans Supernatural
Fun-scary vs Disturbing: 65 of 100 — leans Disturbing
Intensity over runtime
Shape only — no eventsReveal pacing shapeHide pacing shapeHidden by default — shows where the tension peaks and lets up.
A dreamlike, unevenly paced descent that lurches between slow eerie stretches and sudden bursts of gruesome intensity, building to a chaotic full-throttle finish.
Intensity across the runtime, 0 to 100: 1, 3, 1, 2, 2, 4, 2, 5, 3, 3, 4, 5.
How scary is City of the Living Dead?
On The Horror Database's 0–5 intensity scale, City of the Living Dead rates 4/5 — one of the more punishing watches in the catalog, building its fear through slow-burn dread rather than shocks. It works on both fronts, unsettling the mind while going for the body. Expect it to be heavy on gore and genuinely disturbing. Expect it to stay with you for days.
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