This may be the goopiest film trilogy you can watch. Three from Lucio Fulci is perhaps best know for Zombi 2, an unofficial sequel to George A. Romero, and the an extent Dario Argento’s, Dawn of the Dead (or Zombi), which itself spawned 4 additional sequels. It is my opinion that Fulci should be known best for The Beyond. I learned that it was the third part in Fulci’s Gates of Hell Trilogy which I finally watched the final part this year.
City of the Living Dead
Director: Lucio Fulci 
Screenplay: Lucio Fulci, Dardano Sacchetti
Minutes: 93
Year: 1980
Score: 7.33
Release: Arrow Video
This was my second viewing of City of the Living Dead. The VHS box art is one of my favorites with the sickly, greenish, zombie was very confusing when I was starting to revisit my youthful obsession with horror films because the box my local video store had it titled as The Gates of Hell. Twenty-odd years later this rope-a-dope played tricks with my mind.
From DiabolikDVD.com:
“WOE BE UNTO HIM WHO OPENS ONE OF THE SEVEN GATEWAYS TO HELL, BECAUSE THROUGH THAT GATEWAY, EVIL WILL INVADE THE WORLD.”
The Seven Gates Of Hell have been torn open, and in three days the dead shall rise and walk the earth. As a reporter (Christopher George of PIECES) and a psychic (Catriona MacColl of THE BEYOND) race to close the portals of the damned, they encounter a seething nightmare of unspeakable evil. The city is alive – with the horrors of the living dead!
Directed and co-written by the legendary Lucio Fulci (ZOMBIE, THE BEYOND), CITY OF THE LIVIND DEAD features some of the maestro’s most shocking and controversial sequences of all time. This is the definitive version of Fulci’s hallucinogenic masterpiece of horror: uncut, uncensored and presented in all its brain-ripping, gut-spewing, head-drilling glory!
This film is available from Blue Underground but the edition I watched is the Arrow because it what I had. The two appear to be identical based on the 
DVDBeaver reviews but it doesn’t have as much of the wealth in extra features.
The primary value in this movie is probably it connecting the modern (read 70s) zombie lore to Louisianan a state with a very strong history of voodoo which had been a staple of the earlier iterations of zombies in American folklore. It is a tenuous connection, but a connection non-the-less. Aside from this my favorite part of the movie is when the police are super blasé when our three heroes come to them for assistance. They totally accept that there is a threat but essentially offer to guard an NPC while a medium and journalist go to investigate a zombie attack; pure video game logic here.
It is a serviceable horror movie that will keep your attention and bring you back but its best use is in leading your to the next film in the series, The Beyond.
Special Features:
This disc is packed to the gills with special features and is worth a visit when time is on your side.
- High Definition digital transfer of the Theatrical version, presented totally uncut!
- 7.1 Dolby Surround Sound and Stereo Audio
- Audio Commentary with Giovanni lombardo Radice
- Audio Commentary with Catriona Macoll and Jay Slater
- The Many Lives And Deaths of Giovanni Lombardo Radice
- Penning Some Paura – Dardano Sacchetti Remembers City of the Living Dead
- Profondo Luigi – A Colleague’s Memories of Lucio Fulci
- Fulci’s Daughter – Memories of the Italian Gore Meastro
- Carlo of the Living Dead – Surviving Fulci Fear
- Fulci in the House: The Italian Master of Splatter
- Dame of the Dead
- Live from the Glasgow Theatre
- Gallery of the Living Dead
- Original Theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Rick Melton
- Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Calum Waddell
Director: 7 – Cinematography: 9 – Edit: 5 – Parity: 2 – Main performance: 7 – Else performance: 4 – Score: 10 – Sound: 7 – Story: 8 – Script: 7 – Effects: 10 – Design: 8 – Costumes: 6 – Keeps interest: 10 – Lasting: 10
The Beyond
Director: Lucio Fulci 
Screenplay: Lucio Fulci, Giorgio Mariuzzo, Dardano Sacchetti
Minutes: 87
Year: 1981
Score: 8.07
Release: Grindhouse Releasing
Bless you Grindhouse Releasing for making this set. If you are ever given the opportunity to drop a couple extra bucks on a horror movie set that includes a CD soundtrack you own it to yourself and the company to pony up. You will not be disappointed. These companies carefully balance the cost of each element and it they think that redesigning their packaging to include an extra disc trust that they want you to have it.
From DiabolikDVD.com:
The seven dreaded gateways to hell are concealed in seven cursed places…
And on the day the gates of hell are opened, the dead will walk the earth!
From legendary Italian horror master Lucio Fulci comes the ultimate classic of supernatural terror. A cursed hotel, built over one of the seven gateways to hell, becomes a malevolent abyss that begins devouring both the bodies and the souls of all who enter in a graphic frenzy of gory crucifixions, brutal chain-whippings, eyeball impalements, sulphuric acid meltdowns, flesh-eating tarantulas, throat-shredding demon dogs and ravenous bloodthirsty zombies. THE BEYOND is a towering achievement in hair-raising, mind-bending cinematic terror!
While City of the Living Dead has some definitely slimy moments (organ vomit) The Beyond has literal face melting goop. This movie is a gross out 
masterpiece that escalates what a viewer should expect in a Fulci movie. If your stomach doesn’t twist like a gymnast then you are already a doctor who has been elbows deep in a cadaver and probably shouldn’t have interest in gory horror flicks.
The film tells the story of a vengeful zombie caretaker who haunts a young woman who inherits the zombie’s old hotel. Basically the offspring of a zombie movie with a haunted house flick and buckets of gore.
Pealing back the tired story the viewer gets locked into a bonkers, lucid, roller coaster through the depths of Fulci’s necrophiliac delusions. It is a treacherous journey but if you are a gore fan they it is one hundred percent worth the inevitable scars which will haunt you for years to come.
Similar to the Arrow release of City, Grindhouse Releasing have produced a definitive release of this horror masterpiece.
Special Features:
- Spectacular hi-definition digital transfer of the original UNCENSORED director’s cut
- Breathtaking DTS-MA surround sound re-mix
- Provocative commentary by stars Catriona MacColl and genre superstar David Warbeck
- Optional Italian language soundtrack and original mono mix
- New in-depth interviews with stars Catriona MacColl, Cinzia Monreale and Giovanni De Nava, U.S. production manager Larry Ray, make-up artists Giannetto DeRossi and Maurizio Trani, cinematographer Sergio Salvati, writer Dardano Sacchetti, producer Fabrizio De Angelis, composer
- Fabio Frizzi, original U.S. distributor Terry Levene, and Antonella Fulci
- Rare archival interviews with director Lucio Fulci and David Warbeck
- Lost German pre-credit sequence in FULL COLOR
- Liner notes by legendary horror journalist Chas. Balun and EuroHorror expert Martin Beine
- Extensive still galleries and theatrical trailers
- BONUS CD – newly remastered soundtrack album by Fabio Frizzi
- AND OTHER SURPRISES!
- Disc produced by Bob Murawski (Academy Award-winning film editor of THE HURT LOCKER, Sam Raimi’s SPIDER-MAN trilogy and ARMY OF DARKNESS
Director: 10 – Cinematography: 9 – Edit: 8 – Parity: 7 – Main performance: 9 – Else performance: 2 – Score: 10 – Sound: 7 – Story: 9 – Script: 7 – Effects: 10 – Design: 8 – Costumes: 5 – Keeps interest: 10 – Lasting: 10
House by the Cemetery
Director: Lucio Fulci 
Screenplay: Dardano Sacchetti, Giorgio Mariuzzo, Lucio Fulci
Minutes: 86
Year: 1984
Score: 5.87
Release: Blue Underground
House by the Cemetery suffers from goop fatigue. It is not at fault, alone the film is fine. Not great, not bad. But directly after The Beyond it is a floating turd.
From DiabolikDVD.com:
Read The Fine Print… You May Have Just Mortgaged Your Life!
A young family moves from their cramped New York City apartment to a spacious new home in New England. But this is no ordinary house in the country: the previous owner was the deranged Dr. Freudstein, whose monstrous human experiments have left a legacy of bloody mayhem. Now, someone – or something – is alive in the basement, and home sweet home is about to become a horrific hell on earth.
Catriona MacColl (THE BEYOND), Paolo Malco (THE NEW YORK RIPPER), Ania Pieroni (TENEBRE), Carlo De Mejo (CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD), and Dagmar Lassander (HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON) star in this outrageous Italian shocker from ‘The Godfather of Gore,’ Lucio Fulci (ZOMBIE, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD). Now Blue Underground proudly presents the definitive version of THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY: freshly transferred in blood-soaked High Definition from its original uncut and uncensored negative and loaded with exclusive new Extras!
It is kind of goofy with a few strong moments but you can pass on this and live a full, unperturbed life. It is also worth noting that I watched an incredible haunted house movie before writing this.
Special Features:
- Meet the Boyles – Interviews with Stars Catriona MacColl and Paolo Malco
- Children of the Night – Interviews with Stars Giovanni Frezza and Silvia Collatina
- Tales of Laura Gittleson – Interview with Star Dagmar Lassander
- My Time With Terror – Interview with Star Carlo De Mejo
- A Haunted House Story – Interviews with Co-Writers Dardano Sacchetti and Elisa Briganti
- To Build a Better Death Trap – Interviews with Cinematographer Sergio Salvati, Special Make-Up Effects Artists Giannetto De Rossi & Maurizio Trani, Special Effects
Director: 7 – Cinematography: 6 – Edit: 5 – Parity: 4 – Main performance: 5 – Else performance: 1 – Score: 7 – Sound: 3 – Story: 6 – Script: 7 – Effects: 10 – Design: 8 – Costumes: 4 – Keeps interest: 10 – Lasting: 5