Welcome to one of the main features of 'Castle Dracula,' the movie reviews section.
The reviews placed here are from all around the world, from the USA to the UK Japan
and everything inbetween. The formats reviewed are video and DVD. I have included the
origin of the film reviewed so you can check your player for compatibility. You may
also notice that there are some DVD-R reviews. These are not 'bootlegs' or 'copies'
but official screeners that I have been sent containing an as yet unreleased film to 
review. All the reviews here have been reviewed either by myself or my current movie 
reviewers. If you're an avid watcher of horror movies then why not join 'Castle Dracula'
as an official 'staff member' reviewing them. To do so, just click on the 'Join My Staff'
link in the menu to the left for details of this and other vacancies.
New reviews are normally placed here once a week, check my front page for under 'Castle
Dracula Updates' to see what latest movie reviews have been placed.

- Gates of Hell - NTSC Video -
- aka City of the Living Dead - 

Director Lucio Fulci (Zombie, House by the Cemetery, The Beyond) gives us a 
disturbing and outrageous tale of the supernatural. 'Mary Woodhouse' (Katherine
MaCcoll) witnesses a suicide during a seance. She watches as 'Father Thomas' 
hangs himself in a cemetery. The young woman is extremely agitated by the vision
of the priests death. She is thrown into a seizure and dies. A reporter 
(Christopher George) investigating the case visits 'Marys' fresh grave. Her 
coffin is not completely covered. 'Mary' is still alive and saved before the 
workers return to finish their job.  
'Mary' explains to the reporter that unless quick action is taken, the priests
suicide will open the gates of hell. The two must travel to the town of 'Dunwich'
(a fictional Massachusetts town created by H.P. Lovecraft) and find the Priests 
grave. Here is where they will be able to defeat the evil forces ready to thrust
themselves on the earth. If the two cannot find 'Father Thomas' grave before the
start of 'All Souls Day', the world will be in big trouble.  
Somewhere in this film is a plot. I had difficulty following it at times. The 
story is not tight at all and seems to jump too much from location to location.
I found just too many shortcomings in the overall production.  
'The Book of Enoch' is mentioned several times. It is a four-thousand year-old 
manuscript that has something to do with the suicide and 'The House of the Dead'.
A clear link was never made between these and the events in 'Dunwich'. Or, if it 
was, I missed it completely.
Some of the dead decide to rise before 'All Souls Day'. I am not sure why this 
happens, but it does. Some of them act strangely, even for corpses. One recently
deceased old lady shows up in a womans kitchen. She just lies on the floor until
she suddenly disappears.
Some of the corpses vanish right before their intended victims eyes. The suicidal
Priest does this several times. I was not sure at times if the living dead are 
supposed to be real or just figments of the imagination. I guess they are the 
living dead, so they can pretty much do whatever they want to do. 
Fulci does not hold back on the shock. The gore is very steady throughout the film.
We see everything from bleeding eyes to maggots strewn into a house from a wind 
storm to slimy worm-covered corpses. One scene in particular is quite disgusting. 
A young woman vomits out her entire intestinal tract while falling under the 
influence of the resurrected priest. The top of her boyfriends head is then ripped
off by one of the recently reborn dead. This sequence of sadistically ripping off
a potion of the scalp and skull, and having the attached brain pulled free is used
more than once.      
What Fulci achieved with the classic 'Zombie', he does not come close at all in 
this movie. Most of the movie was pretty uninspirational. 
'Gates of Hell' chugged along, but never had enough to carry the audience with it. 
I found myself watching only to see what revolting scene Fulci could come up with next.
To me that is not a reason to watch a movie. Many of the grisly scenes dragged on for
too long. This caused them to lose much of their impact. At one point of bunch of the
recently reanimated are burning. Instead of giving us a glimpse of the fiery bodies,
Fulci holds the camera on the scene. Then he returns to it a couple more times. It is
clear that these are burning props and nothing more.  
I am not really sure what happens at the end of the movie. It made me think that things 
might not be okay in 'Dunwich', or there was a problem editing the final scene. A lot 
of what happened did not really make that much sense anyway.
This movie is not for everyone.  If you like a good dose of gore, you will probably 
like this one. The movie does have its share of scary scenes. If you like something with
more of an intelligent plot that does not overly rely on blood and gore, this is not for
you. 
Overall, I was not that impressed. Maybe I was comparing it too much to Fulcis 'Zombie'.
Maybe Fulci should have watched 'Zombie' before making this movie. Possibly that might
have given him some incentive to do more with this run-of-the-mill horror movie.

Reviewed By Scal Williams

Click here to read how this page is protected by copyright laws.