By Michael A. Pytak

     Those of you that have ever heard of the name 
Umberto Lenzi know him for his notorious cannibal 
films.  When I found out that Anchor Bay was 
releasing one of his other films, I was anxious and 
excited to see something new from the infamous 
director of "Cannibal Ferox."  
     "Nightmare City," or "City of the Walking Dead," 
which is the American title of the film, is not what 
one would expect from Umberto Lenzi.
     Basically, it's a combination of two ideologies.  
It is neither a zombie film, nor a film about 
contamination, but a film about a radioactive spill 
at the state nuclear plant that contaminates the city, 
turning the population into blood-thirsty creatures 
that destroy anything and everything that get in 
their way.  
     Sounds like fun?  
     Ten minutes into the film and I am falling asleep.  
Yawn!  
     Why, you ask?  
     I was disappointed for a number of reasons, the 
main reason being a lack of interest in the 
characters and their situations in dealing with the 
monsters.  Who gives a shit about the characters if 
the storytelling is boring!  Kill the bastards or give 
me a refund!!  Needless to say, I was at a loss for 
a positive review on the film.
     A week later, I decided to watch the interview 
segment on the DVD, which features an all-new 
interview with Umberto Lenzi, and, believe it or not, 
it made me look at the film in a whole new way.    
     During the interview, he talked about the 
problems he had on the film, mainly with the 
producer who insisted that he should recreate the 
zombies in the film to look like those in the films of 
George Romero and Lucio Fulci.  However, Lenzi 
insisted that the people who are infected by the 
radiation should not become the living dead, but 
rather a slow process of slight scarring with welts 
on their arms and faces since they were not yet 
reduced to the process of complete contamination.
     He also states that this is one film that he was 
not directly involved with the original concept, and 
it shows.   
     Lenzi also discusses the similarity between such 
real-life contaminations like the AIDS epidemic, 
and how he was aiming for a reality-based concept 
with a twist of fantasy.  I thought it was interesting 
to hear him talk about the present world situation 
and how we live in a world of contamination.
     Those of you who have seen previous films by 
Umberto Lenzi know what to expect:  blood, gore, 
tits and ass, and Mel Ferrer.  Ferrer, a regular 
collaborator with Lenzi, represents the military 
authority in the film. 
     The film also features Hugo Stiglitz in the lead 
as a bumbling news reporter who is caught in the 
middle of the chaos.  Unfortunately, Lenzi 
considered Stiglitz to be a stiff actor, and would 
have liked to see Franco Nero in the part.  Gee, 
I wonder how Django would have been in a 
zombie film???
     All in all, "Nightmare City" is not at the top of 
my list, but not at the bottom of it, either.  Check 
it out!