Experts? You make the call.

Cannibal movies, even though the "infected" in NIGHTMARE CITY don't seem to do much more than lick people's wounds. There's no reanimated dead in either, so they ain't zombie flicks. Them's the rules I abide by.

CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE = Cannibals not Zombies. They have a yen for human flesh on the bone, and they are alive. Zombies are dead cannibals. Saxon may be somewhat wooden as an actor, but rigor mortis hasn't full set in. Cannibal with overtones of Vietnam Vet Post Traumatic Disorder, STDs, Vampirism,and midlife crisis alienation and sexual hankering for young flesh as well as flesh on the bone, a syndrome related to what Kevin Spacey has in AMERICAN BEAUTY

NIGHTMARE CITY's smart, fast zombies are a little harder to judge and their condition is less explained and reflected upon aloud (they're too busy killing to seek psychological counseling, unlike Saxon and company). Maybe they're cannibals? I dunno. Are they dead yet?

Well, the reissue title for Nightmare City was City of the Walking Dead. But on the other hand, the ghouls were running everywhere, not walking, so...

...even the distributors had no idea.

NIGHTMARE CITY is a wonderfully trashy liitle gem and Lenzi keeps it fast-paced so it is never boring.

It's no zombie film in the ordinary sense, also the make-up looks a bit ridiculous.
And Hugo (NIGHT OF A THOUSAND HELICOPTER SCENE..sorry CATS) Stiglitz is good in the male lead part.

Talking about helicopters, I particularly enjoyed the scene where they are trapped by the zombies at the top of the Rollercoaster track, and the scene with the female artist having made a sculpture in clay that has a certian quality of impending doom to it...

What I also enjoy is the pretentious "existentialist" theme, it might not deceive Euro-cult buffs but pseudo high-brow intellectuals might swallow it.

They certainly don't make films like this any more!!!

I consider 'em both "contagion" movies, alongside RABID, I DRINK YOUR BLOOD, THE CRAZIES and others. But I'm funny like that.

That sound right to me. I'd also include 28 Days Later in this genre.

Count me in as a big NIGHTMARE CITY fan as well. In a film full of ridiculous moments, the most bizarre for me has always been that strange, forced blink greeting that Mel Ferrer gives Francisco Rabal when he enters the war room early on. Just not how I see career military men greeting one another.

In the span of 1980-1981, how does Mel Ferrer go from doing two of Lenzi's trashiest movies (this and MANGIATI VIVI) to TV's FALCON CREST to Fassbinder's LILI MARLEEN? I'd love to hear the stories that guy has to tell...

I just checked IMDb, and I was surprised to learn that Ferrer is still alive. I thought for sure he was long gone. Yes, somebody please get him for an audio commentary or something.

I also am surprised to see that he is apparently not Jose Ferrer's brother.

Yeah, he's still alive but apparently retired. He actually turns up in an interview on the DVD of WAIT UNTIL DARK, which he produced, and while his voice sounded a bit weak, he appeared to be in good spirits and of sound mind. So, it's obvious that he'll put in DVD appearances if it's something he cares about. However, for a guy whose career highpoints included RANCHO NOTORIOUS, LILI, WAR AND PEACE, and being married to Audrey Hepburn and being the media's Star Couple of their day, I don't see him being all that eager to sit down and talk about paycheck jobs like MANGIATI VIVI (do you think he even knew what was in the rest of the film?). If you look at his filmography, there's a LOT of stuff on there that had to be quite a step down from where he once was. It's too bad, because Ferrer's got the potential to be the ultimate Eurocult DVD raconteur, especially from the perspective of an American actor, which we don't get to hear about very often.

Ferrer was poised to be a dancer until polio sidelined him into an early career in radio, as well as a sideline as a writer; I'd say Ferrer learned early on to roll with the punches and to make the most of what was available to him. While EATEN ALIVE may seem like a comedown from WAR & PEACE, work is work and any actor worth his salt would rather grumble about an undignified assignment than sit and stare at a phone that never rings.

I totally agree, there is an anecdote ( I can't recall the title now, told by Christopher Lee in an interview) on a film where Cushing and Lee acted together (perhaps their first film together?), where Lee complained to Cushing about the dreadfulness of the project, when Cushing replied that he agreed, however, he said that the two being true professionals, they would make sure that it would be the most professional dreadfulness made.

The team of Cushing-Lee proved that even crappy projects could be worthwhile.
Who remembers HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS for more than the last chance to see Cushing, Price, Lee and Carradine together?
Also Max von Sydow defended his not-so-good films such as Conan the Barbarian, with the excuse that you had to give films a chance.

Hey, hey, hey! I'll give you CONAN THE DESTROYER, but CONAN THE BARBARIAN is as good a S&S movie as there ever was.

One could make the case that WAR AND PEACE was only another 'Made in Italy' assignment with a weird assemblage of international stars, albeit a super expensive Dino De Laurentiis version of the same.

Put it this way, having participated in movies like WAR AND PEACE, stars like Ferrer could probably more easily rationalize starring in films like Lenzi's to themselves, the press, friends and family: off to Cinecitta again to work with another crazy maestro (a real artist, crazy stuff but the kids and the critics in Paris seem to love it), two weeks at the Hilton and an Alfa Romeo to seal the deal, pitch that Chekov project with costar Francisco Rabal to Fellini, nightclubbing with Lionel Stander, Jack Palance, Henry Silva and cuties while ducking the paparazzi, what's not to like?

Put another way, I like WAR AND PEACE just fine, but it's got its own laughable-enjoyable pop-kitsch aspects: Anita Ekberg as Russian aristocracy, Henry Fonda as a schoolboy, Audrey Hepburn being Cinderella at the Ball, having silly voice-over interior monologues as she pulls adorable, pensive faces ('Does glamorous Prince Mel even know I'm alive???'). Just the stunt of pairing the real life couple as a romantic item here threatens to turn this into Classics Illustrated comic book, incipient 'Fumetti Movie Making', Finest Italian Plastic.

I really like fumetti movies of all sorts, romantic classic comics and cannibal zombies. The Lenzi film is very enjoyable in its own right and nothing to be ashamed of ...and besides, Ferrer hasn't had one of those terminally junky careers that end up in direct to DVD slashers shot in Culver City: he's bounced between classy Junk (Falconcrest) and small-scale classy drama adaptations, not such a bad life for an actor

And, possibly, THE OMEGA MAN, which we all know was a novel written in the 1950s...that was the basis for I AM LEGEND starring Will Smith... :lol:

Also, Jean Rollin's Grapes of Death...although that one gets really in the gray area.