City of the Living Dead - Now with spoilers...

[Frederik Pileborg]

I've just finished watching Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead (a.k.a. The Gates of Hell, The Fear, Pater Thomas, Twilight of the Dead, etc.). I was hoping for something along the lines of a zombie army taking over a city, but it played more for terror and gore instead of actual body count. Only two zombies bite the dust. Despite this it was quite entertaining and gruesome, until the ending that is, where the "hero" kills the lead zombie priest by picking up a big wooden cross and stabs him... IN THE GROIN!

I could not stop laughing. The priest's general groin area was also filled with green muck, adding to the hilarity.

But this is not what I'm here for. I have a question for anyone that has seen this film. After our remaining heroes Mary and Gerry climb back out of the tomb they are greeted by the little kid. Happily he runs to great them, but Gerry and Mary become very frightened and scream. The footage of the kid running slows down to a halt, and the film ends.

What the...? What was that about? Why were they scared of the little kid? Why? I can't think of anything? Did I miss something important? He's not a zombie, I think. Frankly, I'm stumped. I'll appreciate it if anyone can shed some light on this strange ending.

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[Chris K.]

When CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD was going through the editing process, their was an original ending (which, at this moment, I forget what the original ending was). In any case, some dumbass spilled coffee all over the original negative of the ending and all was lost. The director Lucio Fulci went to his producers of Dania Film/Medusa Distribuzonie/National Cinematografica and requested for the ending to be reshot. However, the producers would have to fund up $100,000 to shoot the ending all over again and the film already was behind schedule. So Fulci used the theme of "make do" and stopped the film flat.

And I like the ending. Their are two reasons on what happened:
1.) The girl Mary was ORIGINALLY dead, yet she comes back to life to shut the Gates of Hell. When that is done, Mary returns to who she really was-A DEAD GIRL.

2.) Mary said that "It's All Saints Day" and therefore they are off schedule to close the Gates. When Gerry and Mary think they closed the Gates, the world is still doomed due to being off schedule.

CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD is really a thinking picture (and a gore picture as well). It's a picture that you have to come up with the explanations for. Nobody is gona' look in the camera and say "He's dead" or "We are doomed". We already know that.

I hope the ending explanation answers your question.

[Frederik Pileborg]

Thanks. Now I know why the ending is the way it is, which reminds me of the ending of "Day of the Dead". You know, all the zombies move in for the kill... aaand ....cut to our heroes living happily ever after on some deserted island. You've got to love low budget filmmaking.

The "Mary is dead" idea is nice, but in that case I would have liked some consequences of that in the film since it obviously went right over my head. Is Mary screaming because she's dying? Then why is the kid still laughing? Is he demented? Maybe he likes dead women? Creepy little kid.

A doomed world is not out of the question, especially since we are dealing with a zombie flick. But it would not be the first time a threat is overcome in a horror movie despite breaking the oh so important deadline. With the original threat removed a much greater danger is exposed. Small happy running children will destroy the world. This is true since I know all happy kids to be the servants of Satan.

I guess the moron and the negative is the best explanation after all. The other ones just bend my mind into funny shapes.

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