Nightmare City

Nightmare City

Ahhh, at last - one of my favorite oddball zombie films get the five star treatment with its launch as the first release from the Italian Shock stable, and what a great disc this is too.

Umberto Lenzi's 'Nightmare City' (aka 'Incubo:Sulla Citta Contaminata') involves the ludicrous (but brilliant) scenario of a plane full of zombies landing in town and then spending the rest of the film running around with guns, knives, axes etc killing and maiming everyone in sight. Bags of fun here with one of the craziest zombie rides ever committed to celluloid.

Often berated by some zombie movie fans as not only do the zombies run around at great speed with weapons in hand which goes against so called zombie tradition of the slow lurching gurglers we're used to seeing, but the films ending has been the ire of many viewers causing a love/hate divide in the films appreciation. Me, I loved the ending, yeah sure it's a bit cornball, but it gave me the excuse to go straight back to the start and watch the film over again - he he !!

Nicely directed by Lenzi, the film moves along at a great pace - rarely letting the viewer come up for air and the acting ,although not dazzling, is of the usual standard from this period, with folk like Hollywood veteran Mel Ferrer appearing and obviously hoping no one ever gets to hear about it (Ha, the last laugh's on you Mel). The effects throughout are very nice, with some great set-piece gory moments (though I still occasionally wish for more during some of the early attack scenes).

'Nightmare City' is a great little zombie flick that I can't recommend enough, and this release from Italian Shock is an absolute belter that does the film proud. The print on show looks absolutely stunning, a nice pristine widescreen format that puts the ghastly earlier Laser Paradise release to total shame (believe me folks, after watching this one you'll want to just chuck the Laser Paradise version straight in the bin !)

The extras here also are a dream come true for fans of the film, and Italian Shock show that they can easily give the big boys like Anchor Bay a run for their money. There's the usual expected trailer and still gallery for the film (which is always nice), but then we also have a very lengthy on-screen interview with Lenzi discussing not only the film but his career all over (brilliant!) - as well as a full length running audio commentary option which is most welcome for fans of this movie also. And last but not least, is the inclusion of the entire movies soundtrack as an extra also - it sounds brilliant and this is the sort of extra that I wish more DVD companys would pick up on and make standard on all releases.

An excellent debut from Italian Shock, and hopefully a sign of things to come. A great fun movie on an equally well produced disc - waste no time on picking this one up zombie fans ! Lovely stuff - buy it !!


 
Directed by Umberto Lenzi
Released by Italian Shock
Region 0 (Pal) - Rated 16
Ratio - widescreen (with optional Dutch subtitles)
Extras :
Original Trailer
Interview with Umberto Lenzi
Audio Commentary with Umberto Lenzi
Complete Music Soundtrack
Still Gallery
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