The City of the Dead

Plot synopsis:
Jim finds Danny alive as the book opens but the living dead soon converge on their location. Frankie and Martin join Jim in the house and they are soon trapped in the attic. As they see Danny's neighbor in his panic room across the way the zombies set fire to the house. They rig a ladder between the two houses and everyone but Frankie makes it across, Frankie however has a two story fall into a swimming pool below. Meanwhile: Don, Martin, Jim, and Danny regroup and make a run for Don's Ford explorer. Upon escaping the garage they find Frankie fighting zombies in the front yard badly hurt from the fall and shot several times. They rescue her as she goes into shock.
Back in Hellertown Ob has taken Baker's body and is instructing his minions to make a motor pool from all the abandoned vehicles. Ob is distressed that Jim is alive and escaping him, he begins to fantasize killing Martin and Jim. Here he divulges that the Sissquim can see the life auras coming from the living. Ob is then killed by some hiding guardsmen who he discovers.
Their escape is short lived as Frankie left the keys in the Humvee and the zombies are in hot pursuit. They use the Humvee to force the car into an accident. Jim regains consciousness as zombies are trying to pull Danny from the wreckage and biting his arm. Jim loses it and violently kills the zombie, punctuating each blow with the words "I told you to leave my son alone." Martin has been thrown from the car and his head had turned a full 180 degrees around. Jim smashes his head in with a rock as he reanimates proclaiming "There is no God". Jim leads the zombies away distracting them from his party including a very badly injured Frankie making plans to meet them in what looks like an abandoned parking structure. There is a legless zombie hiding in a car who alerts more zombies to the groups presence. Jim races back to the structure as the group races for the roof. Almost simultaneously a helicopter shows up using a powerful sonic device that kills all the zombie birds and almost kills Jim. They rescue Jim and take him to Ramsey towers.
Ob Reanimates in a new body that is in great shape. His host died of a heart attack while masturbating. His old host had knowledge of secret armories for the NYPD as well as the National Guard. He uses this knowledge to help arm his army as he sends for his forces in Hellertown as well as across the country. He also learns that all human life in Europe and Asia has been eliminated.
Ob then lays siege to last remaining humans holed up in Ramsey towers, using heavy artillery he is able to breach the supposedly impenetrable building. With the approaching forces the remaining humans are falling apart as the zombies storm the towers and eradicate them. Jim, Frankie, and a few others escape into the sewers only to be followed by Ob and his forces. Three of the company are killed by Zombie rats, one of a gunshot wound, one eaten by a zombie crocodile, and one having his throat slit by another zombie. Ob personally confronts Jim telling him he is glad to be the one ending his incredible journey; Jim then uses a flame thrower on a gas line killing Ob and the surrounding zombies. Frankie and Danny are eventually killed by zombie rats in their sleep.
Sometime before the final act however, Frankie has a dream in which the spirit of Martin talks to her, laying out the complex plan set up by Ob and his minions. The plan shows her that surviving the zombies would have been just the first ordeal. The undead were merely the first wave, with the purpose of eliminating all human and animal life. Once that task is accomplished, other obots would begin the assimilation of the plants and insects. It is also revealed that Jim, Danny and the rest of the characters from the books are reunited in some sort of afterlife and are happy.

Tags: good versus evil, cult, gothic, murder, flashback

Review:
I have now seen it 6 or 7 times over the years including twice in the last few months with the VCI Entertainment version of the dvd.The movie doesn't scare me like it used to, but it still amazes me how it transports me into it's own world of the fog shrouded town of Whitewood, Massachusetts.
Her professor, Alan Driscoll (Christopher Lee), gives her directions to the town of Whitewood where 300 years earlier an alleged witch was burned at the stake.
Her brother then goes to the hotel where she was last seen, and runs into all kinds obstacles, not the least of which is the innkeeper of the Whitewood Inn, who just happens to look exactly like the witch burned 300 years earlier, and also Christopher Lee who happens to be a long ago resident of WhitewoodThere is an old, blind priest who stays in his church despite the fact that he has no congregation.
Having not taken much time to watch older movies of this genre, I was pleasantly surprised by how comprehensive the film was.Black and white photography rarely seems to look this good, and has been one of the things that has turned me off such films before now.
The visuals in City Of The Dead are so sharp and foreboding that they serve to accentuate the small town paranoia perfectly.In terms of the characters, Patricia Jessel as Mrs Newlis and Christopher Lee as Prof Driscoll, are supremely sinister, whilst Venetia Stevenson as Nan Barlow, is hopelessly deserving of the viewers compassion as the witches prey!I've come to love this film, not just for the sake of the film itself, but because it proved me so wrong in my assumption that most movies of this type/age are dull, it's incredibly watchable and tense..
******SPOILERS****** After listening to a lecture by Prof.Alan Driscoll, Christopher Lee, on the town of Whitewood Massachussetts back in 1692 where a local witch, Elizabeth Slwyn, was burned at the stake one of Prof.
One of the common threads with this movie is that if you saw it when you were a kid it scared the heck out of you.No doubt you caught it on a creature features afternoon show back in the 60's or 70's.And the movie stayed with you.The basic plot is simple enough.A town basically made up of a coven of 300 year old witches are looking for human sacrifices.(Ergo the classier title City Of The Dead).A young student is guided to Whitewood for research and well anything else would just spoil it for you.Just expect the unexpected.I love showing this movie to people and then telling them it was filmed in England with a British cast.The cast does an outstanding job with their accents.This is a film that relies on mood and suspense rather than cheap shocks.But it does contain its share of shocking moments that aren't uncalled for.It is also one of the foggiest films I've ever seen but that just adds to the atmosphere.Great black and white photography and a director that got the most out of a limited budget but stellar cast.Pick up the dvd if you can and skip the bootleg tapes..
The City of the Dead is a British made horror starring industry legend Christopher Lee.It tells the story of a student studying witchcraft who decides to go to a sleepy town drenched in rich occult history.
There she finds more than she could have ever expected.The movie is years ahead of it's time, it looks great, it plays out perfectly and I walked away considerably more satisified than I expected.It almost felt like a Hammer Horror except without any of the goofiness, in fact the film is really quite merciless by comparison and would have heavily stood out back in 1960.A very enjoyable effort for all horror fans.The Good:Looks greatVery dark for its dayPerfectly pacedThe Bad:Ending is weaker than the restThings I Learnt From This Movie:It's best to invite someone into your home after they're already inWitches though bulletproof are vunerable to guns actually being thrown at them.
Starring Christopher Lee. It's notable for being the first feature film produced by Amicus- in their attempt to rival the Hammer horrors.It tells the story of a young female university student who is passionate about her studies into satanism and the occult.
I first saw horror hotel as a kid,it was on creature features.and it scared the hell out of me.the great legendary;Christopher Lee shines as a professor with a class about witchcraft and the occult.a young and naive female student visits the town where a witch was burned years and years ago.the town is very creepy and foggy.and the town folk are equally creepy.its in black and white but you overlook that since it is a good story.i recommend the widescreen version which is available very cheap from diamond entertainment,with the second bill; carnival of souls,another classic shriek show.i am a huge fan of Christopher Lee,and i believe this ones one of his many best,Lee who made at least a thousand movies,maybe more,is'nt slowing down anytime soon.i believe he holds the Guinness book of world records on his many movies.i think the other title city of the dead does it an injustice.
The Great Christopher Lee. horror hotel(aka;city of the dead)is a vintage black and white horror film that its extremely spooky and creepy.its a good Halloween movie.
made in england on a modest budget it rivals Mario Bava's;black Sunday(aka;mask of Satan)a long dead witch curses an entire town as she is being burned at the stake,thats all I'm going to give away.i believe anyone who enjoys horror movies will like horror hotel,and any fan of the great Christopher lee,who is one of my favorite actors of all time.
i got this as a double feature DVD for a buck at a place called dollar tree.the other movie on the disc is terror in the crypt also with Christopher lee,two awesome horror films.the horror hotel print is in widescreen which i like.I'm not a fan of pan and scan.watch this on Halloween night with all the lights out,10 out of 10..
This truly is a genuinely scary and terrifying cinematic experience that no Horror lover could possibly afford to miss."The City Of The Dead" ingeniously begins in 1692, when the accused Witch Elisabeth Sewlyn is dragged to the stake and burned by the people of Whitewood, Massachusets.
the burning of Elizabeth Selwyn as a witch is terrifying and its a nasty little film that has the power to shock as its disturbing as horror hotel is evil get it for one hell of a shock.some films are nasty this is one of the worst it is not totally bad unlike carnival of souls which is pretty evil what do you think get it as you wont like it no way.
Fast forward to the end of the fifties, and student Nan Barlow is all hooked on the history of witches by her teacher Christopher Lee, who suggests that if she's so interested in witch burnings, she should head for the New England town of whitewood and check out the history there.This she does, much to the protests of her boyfriend and her teacher brother.
Heading to Whitewood, she discovers that the place has a really bad fog problem like some late eighties Italian film director has been let loose on the place, the locals are creepy bastards who love staring at her, and the landlady of the local hotel is a dead ringer for Elizabeth Selwyn!
It's up to her brother and boyfriend to get to the bottom of what's going before someone else is sacrificed for Satan.Very atmospheric, not to mention foggy, with a lot of visual references to fire, great use of shadow with even a noirish quality to it all, Horror Hotel may not be the most eventful film but certainly has a certain vibe to it all.
Note to Jethro - after this burning is over you might want to leave town because praying to Lucifer with a condemned witch is just not good form in a paranoid conformist society such as 17th century New England.Cut to present day (1962) and a professor (Christopher Lee) is lecturing students on this particular incident on his series of talks on witchcraft.
Let me just say that this is one of those horror fllms in which the characters refuse to acknowledge the clues/warnings that would turn most of us in the opposite direction, but then we would have no movie if everybody had their curiosity tempered by self preservation.With cinematography by Desmond Dickinson that is wonderfully atmospheric and eerie with one of the great inspired endings to a horror film.Eeriest scene to me?
RELEASED IN 1960 and directed by John Moxey, "The City of the Dead" (aka "Horror Hotel") takes place in Massachusetts when a curious college gal (Venetia Stevenson) vacations in the remote village of Whitewood to investigate its infamous roots in witchcraft/satanism.
A curious student visits a mist enshrouded village to investigate the historical case of a witch burned at the stake, but she finds more than she expected ...Wonderful opening scene - although not original, the madness of the faces sets the mood for what is a fairly straight horror thriller that sadly doesn't follow through the emotional arcs of its good guy characters.
A good part of this lingering feeling no doubt comes from the stifling atmosphere of gloom which the film positively oozes thanks to the fog-soaked contained soundstage sets shot in stark black and white and the presence of the ever foreboding Christopher Lee. In the movie Lee (famous for clocking in the most amount of screen representations of Count Dracula) plays Professor Driscoll, an American demonologist who is encouraged by the interest one of his students, Nan Barlow (Venetia Stevens), has shown in the legend of the 17th Century witch Elizabeth Selwyn (Patricia Jessel), who was burned at the stake in Whitewood, Massachusetts in 1692, and advises her to visit the town to conduct first-hand research.
Following Nan's disappearance, concerned friends and family trace her to the town and in seeking to discover her whereabouts uncover the occult secrets of the town.The "town cursed by a witch consumed with flames" story comes from the pen of Milton Subotsky (who would later go onto to found Amicus productions which would go toe-to-toe with Hammer Films in the classic British Horror sweepstakes) and unfortunately suffers from having been done-to-death (no pun intended) since, well, the Sixties.
This is a shame as while 'Black Sunday' has taken more than its fair share of praise since its release, 'City of the Dead' certainly deserves much more recognition than it has received as the film carries its story along well and maintains suspense throughout with a tight script, good performances, and manages to hit the kind of creepy New England Gothic atmosphere that H.
Throw in a good mystery story carried by solid acting and The City of the Dead/Hotel Horror is great entertainment courtesy of a time when CGI and uber-realistic make-up effects were non-existent.
The basic plot: A young female student hoping to do some research on witchcraft goes to a suspiciously moody town to do it, but she disappears and her skeptic brother and boy-friend go to investigate , but find some supernatural stuff going on.....The praise: Atmosphere and performances are the best.
However, don't be confused by the title, it is definitely not anything like George Romeros 1968 classic "Night of the Living Dead", but it does give a pretty good indication of a well crafted 1960's "drive-in" horror flick.What I liked best about this film is the atmosphere and the acting of an incredibly young Christopher Lee. If Peter Cushing would've showed up in this flick I'd probably like it even better!!!!There are plenty of creepy images of fog covered graveyards, Salem witches, burning warlocks, secret dungeon chambers and a burnt body.
Hundreds of years later undergrad Nan Barlow travels to the still foggy Whitewood on the advice of Driscroll, her Witch Studies Professor, played by Christopher Lee, to do research for a senior paper on witchcraft in the 17th Century.
He uses his sharp eye for detail, lots of fog and shadows for atmosphere, a fairly literate and tight script, and some pretty good acting to create this wonderful, oft-forgotten horror film about witchery in modern New England.
Although not as good as Black Sunday, City of the Dead is a film of the same ilk from the same year and a film that certainly should not be forgotten.The story revolves around a professor (Christopher Lee) that tells his young female student to travel to the small New England town of Whitewood, where a witch was burned and a curse was put upon the town, to enable her to carry on her studies in the subject of witchcraft.
While there, the girl becomes a sacrifice for the witch's celebration of Candalmas Eve, and disappears.City of the Dead is a fantastic example of how to build atmosphere; with just a small set and a load of fog, director John Moxey is able to build a creepy, eerie New England town that overflows with atmosphere and manages to actually be quite scary.
The film builds up it's tension through the creepy atmosphere and finishes with a terrific third act, which is both exciting and lives up to what the rest of the movie has being building up to.City of the Dead is not a masterpiece, unlike Bava's Black Sunday, but it is very good and fans of Black Sunday, Carnival of Souls, The Haunting etc, or horror fans in general will have lots to like about this movie..
Soon her boyfriend and father travel to the village to find answers about her disappearance and find help with a local girl.A chilling and 'VERY' atmospheric low-budget horror film, which is quite grim in tone and superior in cinematography, setting and atmosphere, especially at night with its misty fog smothering the ghost town and a few but creepy townsfolk that are wandering around seem pretty lifeless just like the roaming dead and add an crazed old reverend to the mix.
While Moxey paces the film rather well and truly gets stolid performances out of his cast.Excellent performances from the cast, especially from Patricia Jessel as the icy Elizabeth Selwyn/Mrs. Newless the witch that was burned at the stake- but who is now running the hotel and luring people as sacrificial victims, Venetia Stevenson as the elegantly naive Nan Barlow and Christopher Lee has a small- but sharp role as the mysterious college Professor Allan Driscoll.It's not a totally scary experience...
John Llewelyn Moxey's "The City of the Dead" is a wonderfully atmospheric and sinister witchcraft tale.There is a distinct air of dread over the entire film and the sets are all appropriately fog enshrouded.The acting is pretty good and the score is really nice.A young student Nan Barlow(Venetia Stevenson)goes to an old town called Whitewood that is recommended by her creepy professor,Alan Driscoll(Christopher Lee).The town was the site where the famous witch Elizabeth Selwyn(Patricia Jessel)was burned at the stake almost one hundred years ago,and Nan thinks its a perfect place to do her research.Where Nan's family and boyfriend don't hear from her in almost two weeks,they organize a search that ends up revealing the truth about town and its mysterious residents..
The Raven's Inn. John Llewellyn Moxey directed this atmospheric thriller about a young college student named Nan Barlow who, over her boyfriend's objection, goes to a small New England town called Whitewood to do research for her paper about witchcraft that her Professor(played by Christopher Lee) has requested.
Certainly filming in color would have diminished this film's effectiveness, and the cramped sets create a sense of claustrophobia that is not at all unhelpful.There are a lot of special treats in this film: the great Christopher Lee doing an American accent, a virginal ingénue giving the audience a pleasant glimpse of herself in kinky underwear, and a wonderful jazzy soundtrack...the satanic chant being both beautiful and creepy.Despite this being a true B-grade film, the direction is A-level...of special note is one particular Jump Cut, coming at the climax of a human sacrifice scene, which is probably the greatest single Jump Cut in the history of B-grade horror cinema...more than that I cannot say without spoiling the film.It is interesting to note that this film was made in 1959, yet strangely anticipates several of the distinct aspects of the 1960 mega-hit 'Psycho.' I will conclude with a comment on the theology of this film, where the magic of the Devil is quite strong, apparently only slightly less strong than God's magic.
Horror Hotel was one of my favorite movies of all time.Fright scenes happened when you least expected them.A great scene is when the poor mute housekeeper writes a note to warn a guest of the dangers only to get strangled for her good intentions.Patricia Jessel was great as the witch with her calm demeanor yet evil doings.Valentine Dyall was also good with his extremely deep voice and threatening presence.Christopher lee feigning innocence throughout the whole movie finally gets what,s coming to him deservingly.I recommend this movie.It is one of the better british movies..
Christopher Lee stars as the seemingly benevolent Professor Driscoll, who sends his eager student Nan (Venetia Stevenson) to the town of Whitewood, Massachussetts to research local legends of witchcraft.
Yet City Of THe Dead, or Horror Hotel as it's also known, was actually made just before Psycho, an interesting case of parallel plot development.We start with the afore mentioned witch-burning of Elizabeth Selwyn (a fantastic Patricia Jessel).
The acting was OK & Christopher Lee is on hand in a small role to lend a bit of class.The City of the Dead is a great horror film the likes of which we will probably never see again, that's definitely a bad thing as far as I'm concerned.