Saturday, October 5, 2013

Nightmare City (1980)

Subliminal Cinema
COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN 2013
NIGHTMARE CITY

Nightmare City
Nightmare City (also known as City of the Walking Dead) is a cheaply made Italian/Spanish zombie movie, one of many that were made in the wake of the success of George Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead.  Strictly speaking, I suppose the monsters in this film are not technically zombies, but radiation mutants.  I think I'll call them "Zomboids."  Unlike traditional zombies, they are intelligent, and not slow moving.  They are able to drive cars, fire guns, and work together using strategy and planning.  Like traditional zombies, however, they attack pretty much everyone they see, their bites are contagious, and they can only be killed by being shot in the brain.

Creepy Zomboid
There's not really much of a plot here.  A television reporter with an uncomfortable looking beard happens to be on the scene at the airport when a plane full of zomboids arrive and start killing everyone and drinking their blood.  First he tries to report on the situation, and later he just tries to rescue his girlfriend and get out of town to survive.  Along the way, there are various zomboid attacks.  And that's pretty much it.

Beardmaster Surveys the Television Studio
This does have one scene I really like, when a horde of zomboids attack a live disco dance program at the TV station.  For some reason I get a perverse laugh out this scenario.  It's probably my second favorite zombie attack scene of all time, behind the underwater zombie vs. shark scene from 1979's Zombie (aka Zombi 2).  Just bear in mind that this has more to do with my weird sense of humor than it does with the actual quality of the filmmaking.

Disco Inferno
The film doesn't make a lot of sense, and it ends with a ridiculous "It was all a dream!  ... Or was it?"  ending.  The ending would feel like a cheat if this was a good movie, but this movie is so dumb that the ending actually feels about perfect.  This movie is cheaply made, with bad acting, bad dubbing, and Grade Z make-up effects, but it's got plenty of entertainment value if you're a fan of cinematic schlock.

It Was All a Dream!

Or Was It?

More screencaps after the jump...

 
Radar Scope

Binocular Man

Police Car

Gun Soldier

The Man With the Radioactive Face

Dead Bodies

Dead Radio Boy

Live and In Color

"I am... the BEARDMASTER!"

Fun For the Whole Family

The Girl Who Drank Too Much Fluorescent Paint

Burn Down the Disco... Because the Music That They Constantly Play, It Says Nothing to Me About My Life

Zomboids on the March

"Behold My Mustache, Mortal, and Weep."

White Map

Military Men

The General

Dead Zomboid

Not Content to Only Kill Humans, the Zomboids Start Attacking Art

A Zomboid Creeps

Cutting the Phone Line

Mustache Zomboid

White Map With Red Flags

The Lights Are Out in the Blood Storage Room

A Friendly Zomboid Waves Hello

Military Hardware

Inside the War Room

Injury to the Eye

Screamer

Snack Bar Intruder

No Parking

Beardmaster Pours Gasoline on the Ground.  Not Really Sure Why.

Zomboids Kicking Back and Chugging Bottles of Blood.  So, did they kill someone, drain the blood, and then carry it around in a bottle to drink later when they got thirsty?

A Truly Beautiful Man

Radio Operator

A Zomboid Priest Attacks

"Bow Down Before the Power of My Mustache, Fools!"

"A candy colored clown they call the sandman, tiptoes to my room every night..."

Say Goodbye to Your Skull!

Zomboid Kablooie

The Nightmare Becomes Reality...


7 comments:

  1. Okay, I loved your image telling, I in my head added the theme to Courtship of Eddie's Father and thank you for adding the disco scenes... I really hoped it would have ended with one more. :)
    Visiting as part of the "Countdown to Halloween"

    Jeremy H.

    New Look, New Name and Same Stuff...
    [Being-Retro]

    Also, thought I would share this with you... this is the label I work for and we want to get a good turn out this year.. Maybe you like and then share?

    13 Days of Chills [2013] Win Prizes and More!
    Brought to you by "Howlin' Wolf Records", go ahead you should check it out! Remember this runs all month long and it's all about the score music from some of your favorite films and the mention of prizes doesn't hurt either.

    http://www.13chills.com/

    Ps. Word Verification is Awful, if you get the chance PLEASE Turn it Off and set your comment preferences to NO ANONYMOUS! If you need some help on this, please visit my site on "Stupid CAPTCHA"... I have some helpful steps.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not really convinced that captcha is so bad. But I guess I can turn it off for a bit, and see how it works out. I'm not going to set the preferences to "no anonymous," though. I've gotten some perfectly reasonable comments from anonymous people in the past.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ...and, 24 hours later, I got a comment from "anonymous" with a link to a porno site.

      Delete
    2. My intention was not to upset, my poor eyes just cannot read the "CAPTCHA", I hope you find a use for it. I almost never get any crud on my site with the anonymous turned off and I do find a sneaky here and there person who has taken the time to sign up for a blogger account. They don't last for too long, did you want to have the porno thing or was it that it worked in your favor?

      Delete
    3. I'm not upset at all, Jeremy. In fact, I really appreciate the feedback.

      I want it to be as convenient as possible for people to leave comments, while at the same time avoiding spam. Before your post I wasn't aware that the captchas were a problem for some people.

      I've currently got it set up the way you suggested, with both captchas and anonymous comments turned off. I plan on leaving it that way for the next few weeks or so, and see how it works out. Thanks again for your feedback.

      Delete
    4. Awesome... for me, the CAPTCHA thing started with this event I work on too in April and when there is 1800+ people it became madness... it's makes you bonkers. I was visiting like 50 sites a day and then the bus stopped.

      http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

      I do hope it works out for you, you have a very cool site here and I am glad I found you on the road to Halloween.

      Delete