A zombie hung on the bell rope
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | A zombie hung on the bell rope |
| Original title | Paura nella città dei morti viventi |
| Country of production | Italy |
| original language | Italian |
| Publishing year | 1980 |
| length | 93 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK confiscated nationwide |
| Rod | |
| Director | Lucio Fulci |
| script |
Dardano Sacchetti Lucio Fulci |
| production |
Giovanni Masini Robert E. Warner |
| music | Fabio Frizzi |
| camera | Sergio Salvati |
| cut | Vincenzo Tomassi |
| occupation | |
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| chronology | |
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Successor → |
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A zombie hung on a bell rope (original title: Paura nella città dei morti viventi ) is a Gore film from 1980 and one of the most famous films by the horror film director Lucio Fulci . The titles of the FSK-cut versions are A dead person hung on a bell rope and a corpse hung on a bell rope , both of which were sold on VHS and confiscated according to Section 131 of the Criminal Code ( representation of violence ) . The film was also marketed under the titles The City of the Living Dead and Gates of Hell .
action
A pastor commits in the small town of Dunwich in a cemetery suicide . This scene is observed by a medium in a spiritualistic session , who then apparently dies. The leader of the group suspects the fulfillment of a prophecy from an ancient book, which also predicts that the dead will be resurrected after the suicide of a priest in the cemetery in Dunwich.
The reporter Peter is in the cemetery where the deceased medium is being buried by two gravedigger . However, they stop working and when Peter wants to leave, he hears noises and frees the still living Mary from her grave. She tells him about her vision , but doesn't know where the scene is, and so both of them go to look together.
Emely is looking for her boyfriend Bob in Dunwich. When she finds him, they hear noises and Bob runs away. Emely is killed by the dead priest. Her body is found shortly afterwards. The autopsy officer says she died of fear. Emely's father suspects Bob. In the morgue they discover that a number of people have died as a result of strange circumstances. Shortly afterwards his deceased sister appears to Emely's little brother, Johnny, and asks him to come with her. Horrified, he runs to his parents.
Gerry, another man from Dunwich, receives a call from Sandra, who tells him to stop by quickly because something unimaginable is going on. When he comes to her, she has a gun with her. The cause of their upset is a dead body suddenly appeared in their home. They have a drink in the kitchen and when they come back the body is gone. When they go up one floor, the light goes out briefly and the window shatters, blood flows out of it.
Meanwhile, Peter and Mary find a priest who knows a lot about Dunwich. He explains the way to them and tells them that the city was built on the old witch town of Salem . Bob, who stayed in a car, is found by the car owner's daughter, who is a friend of his. However, this comes and kills him because he thinks he is the murderer of the people who have died.
Gerry is now looking for the director, who he hopes will help, in the cemetery. There he meets Peter and Mary. They want to find the pastor's grave in order to destroy him. They go into a house where Sandra is waiting for them. There the window opens and a rain of maggots falls on them. After this stops, the phone rings: It's little Johnny who calls her for help because his sister killed his parents. They pick him up and drive to the morgue. There they separate. Sandra goes to the studio with Johnny, the others go to the morgue, where all the coffins are empty.
When Sandra wants to enter the studio, she is killed by a zombie . Johnny runs to Gerry, meets Emely beforehand, but Gerry finds him in time. The group meets the police. Johnny is left there. The others go to the cemetery to find the priest's tomb. They find him in the family vault and enter. Inside, they meet Sandra, who has meanwhile become a zombie and kills Peter. Gerry can stab her with a crucifix. They go on until they are at the grave of the priest, while behind them numerous corpses awaken as undead .
Finally the priest appears. Gerry stabs the cross again, and the priest catches fire, as do all the other zombies. As Mary and Gerry climb out of the crypt, Johnny happily comes running towards them. The film ends with Mary stumbling, everything goes dark and you hear a scream.
Reviews and awards
- The majority of film critics were opposed to A zombie hanging on the bell rope . For example, the christian film service judges : “Abstruse horror film; a product that follows the tried and tested mix of vampire films and ' exorcist ' to amplify the resurrection of rotten corpses with sadisms and the usual horror effects. - We advise against it. "
- At the 10th International Festival of Fantasy and Science Fiction Films in Paris, the film received the audience award.
censorship
The film caused a sensation when it was released. Although had Lucio Fulci with Zombi 2 already made a similar film stored within the burgeoning wave of zombie movies, but surpassed City of the Living Dead , according to many critics the limits of Zeigbaren. The debate was exacerbated by the advent of the VHS cassette , which enabled these films to be more widely distributed among the population. Such was City of the Living Dead at his theater first use not covered by such a controversy about media violence.
Due to the fact that the FSK only checked cinema films at the time and videos could be borrowed from practically people of all ages, the ZDF report mentioned Mama, Papa, Zombie A zombie hung on the bell rope as an exemplary example of the violence in the then new media . The reporting made the film known to a wider public, so that a few years later the indexing was followed by a seizure by the Munich District Court. In addition to the first edition, a shortened second edition was also confiscated, and even a third cut version was confiscated again in 2001. Only a fourth cut with the title A carcass hung on the bell rope was approved with FSK 16. The shortened versions were published under the titles A corpse hung on a bell rope and A dead man hung on a bell rope .
Others
- Other famous scene in which a man in long shots with was drilling the skull drilled is. Director Fulci saw in this scene "an outcry against the latent fascism in provincial cities". This justification was often classified as implausible, but the director dealt with this topic several times. a. in his previously released film Don't Torture a Duckling .
- The content of the German version was already heavily shortened in the first edition, which was uncut in terms of violence . This brought the drastic depictions of violence even more to the fore. The brutalities were emphasized even more in the 33-minute Super 8 cine version released in 1981, in which the plot is even more condensed, but the scenes of violence are unabridged.
- The German dark metal band Eisregen refers to Fulci's film on their album Wundwasser with the song Am Glockenseil . Another version of this song can be heard on the album Schlachtwerk by the death metal band Eisblut (side project of two Eisregen members). The CD label of the indexed Eisregen album Krebskolonie shows that part of the film in which the blood flows from a woman's eyes.
- In the comedy Voll normaaal (1994) by cabaret artist Tom Gerhardt , the film title is mentioned as an amusing addition to a series of otherwise fictional film titles such as Executioners have fat arms and Dracula 12 - Slaughter at the Central Cemetery .
- In the second act of Daedalic Entertainment's point-and-click adventure Edna breaks out, there is a game scene in which a corpse is hanging on a bell rope; based on the film title.
literature
- Ronald M. Hahn & Volker Jansen: Lexicon of the horror film. Bastei Lübbe, Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-404-13175-4 .
swell
- ↑ A zombie was hanging on a bell rope on Schnittberichte.com, accessed on May 15, 2013
DVD releases in Germany
- Label: Laser Paradise (Blood Edition), May 23, 2000
- Label: Laser Paradise (Lucio Fulci Collection), August 15, 2001
- Label: ASTRO (cult classic uncut), 2001
- Label: X-Rated (Limited to 66 copies), 2009