I think my favorite moment in Umberto Lenzi's Nightmare City (also known as City of the Walking Dead) is when a horde of radiation zombies break into a surgery room in a hospital. As they start to attack the surgeons operating on a patient, the head surgeon grabs a nearby scalpel and throws it like a shuriken into one of the zombies. I think that scene epitomizes why Nightmare City is such an entertaining film: it embraces sheer over-the-top insanity like scalpel-chucking surgeons while simultaneously maintaining a convincing atmosphere of dread and doom. After a plane full of cannibalistic maniacs driven insane by the radiation from a nuclear accident arrives in an unnamed European city, American reporter Dean Miller tries to escape with his wife from a city that is being quickly overrun by zombie-like monsters. During this time we are treated to several scenes of graphic carnage and gore. One of the most ridiculous scenes is when the zombies break into a television station and massacre the cast of an all-female workout program. Before they attack, we are treated to an extended sequence of the ladies flexing, stretching, and posing for the benefit of the camera. And during the attack, a couple of the ladies inexplicably run around without their tops on. Lenzi sure had his priorities straight. If there is one criticism that I can make against Nightmare City, it's that the survivors are unusually unsympathetic and stupid. Several times we meet friends and family of the military brass who are warned to flee, hide, or barricade themselves somewhere safe. But despite being told that there is a state of emergency in the city, they blithely ignore it. When they are eventually killed, we don't feel sorry for them. Instead, we feel like they got what they deserved. And why does everybody in Italian zombie movies stop and freeze like a deer in headlights whenever they are attacked? I've seen so many instances of people just standing still for 10-15 seconds while they let the zombies slowly walk up to them and kill them. I know they are supposed to be unthinkably horrifying, but zombies aren't Lovecraftian Old Ones. Fight or flight, people! Fight or flight!
6/10
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