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The mysterious DwC returns. He walks among us, and yet we do not know which Outposter he really is. All we know is that every so often he finds hidden depths that others may have missed in previously dismissed movies such as Burial Ground and The Gates Of Hell. These works get revisited as Masterpiece Theater. This time, DwC turns his admiring eye on Nightmare City.
Nightmare City
Directed by Umberto Lenzi. Starring Hugo Stiglitz, Laura Trotter, Mel Ferrer, and Francisco Rabal.
**This analysis will contain spoilers**
When an accident at a nuclear power facility results in a radiation leak, reporter Dean Miller (Hugo Stiglitz) is assigned to the story and dispatched to the airport to interview arriving radiation expert, Professor Otto Angherback (José Canalejas), about the risk of contamination.
Just as Dean arrives at the airport, a mysterious military transport makes an unannounced landing and is promptly surrounded by security.
When the door to the plane opens and the professor steps out looking confused and disheveled, all hell breaks loose. Dozens of zombies armed with knives, axes, and chains pour from the craft and attack everyone within reach. Dean escapes back to the television station and attempts to broadcast breaking news of the event, but the broadcast is shut down by orders of the government.
With the infection spreading rapidly and the city falling into chaos, Dean and his wife, Anna (Laura trotter), flee the city while the military tries desperately to destroy the zombies and regain control before all is lost.
Earth in the 1970s was generally not a pleasant place to be. Terrorism was rampant, crime rates were reaching new levels of pants-soiling insanity on a daily basis, disco ruled the charts, and the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan signaled an end to the fragile détente between the world’s two major nuclear superpowers.
As fears of nuclear Armageddon mounted, it was only a matter of time before someone in the arts and entertainment business would offer up a blistering critique of this madness loosed upon the world.
Given the highly sensitive nature of this subject matter, only the most skilled of artists could be trusted to deliver a nuanced, thought-provoking filmic treatise that would capture the worldwide milieu of the time. Dear reader, I present to you, Umberto. Fucking. Lenzi.
As a director, Lenzi was no stranger to greatness. One of his many accomplishments was the invention of the “jungle cannibal” horror subgenre, which would lead to an entertaining game of one-upmanship between himself and Ruggero Deodato to see who could craft the most violent cannibal film. A contest from which Deodato would emerge victorious with the release of Cannibal Holocaust, which to this day is considered the best and most preposterously violent film the genre had to offer.
During this period, Lenzi would create his magnum opus and subject of today’s analysis, Nightmare City. Years before Zack Snyder’s remake of Dawn of the Dead, Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, and the zenith of cinematic perfection, Dan O’Bannon’s Return of the Living Dead, Lenzi gave us cinema’s first ‘running’ zombies. He was that much of a pioneer.
The impression it made was not a small one, as Quentin Tarantino himself was so enamored with it that he named Til Schweiger’s character in Inglorious Basterds after the star of this film: Hugo Stiglitz. It is a nice homage, but given the sheer, unbridled awesomeness of this movie I’m surprised he didn’t just name Brad Pitt’s character Lt. Night M. Arecity.
Lenzi wasn’t content in merely providing thought-provoking subject matter however, he also wanted to pin your ass to the back of theater with ferocious, unrelenting action and terror. He succeeded in spades. From the airport scene that opens the film until it’s jaw-dropping conclusion, Nightmare City never relents in its intensity.
After a brief title sequence we meet our protagonist, a character who was this close to being portrayed by the original Django himself, Franco Nero. The producers however, felt there was an untapped market for this kind of film in Mexico and demanded the role go to a Mexican. Enter Hugo Stiglitz. A giant in the film industry who continues to work in the business to this very day.
A brief introduction tells us everything we need to know about the character; a staunch professional who isn’t afraid to break the rules if that’s what it takes to keep the people informed. Then he’s off to the airport to interview the professor.
Dean arrives just as authorities are alerted to an unidentified aircraft on the radar. I’m no radar engineer, but I’m pretty sure there is nothing at all on the radar screen, making this discovery even more impressive. Upon landing, the plane is promptly surrounded by security forces while Stiglitz, his spidey senses tingling, instructs his cameraman to start filming.
Lenzi brilliantly ratchets up the suspense here as security approaches and gives the occupants of the plane thirty seconds to disembark.
When time runs out, the order is given to take the plane by force. Then the door opens, and Professor Angherback emerges to everyone’s surprise.
As if a cue to the other “passengers,” he produces a large knife and plunges it straight into the chest of the security captain as dozens of the sharpest dressed zombies you’ve ever seen sprint out of the plane and begin chopping, stabbing, strangling, and drinking the blood of everyone within reach.
Their faces may be hideously misshapen from radiation burns, but their leisure wear is impeccable. The melee is spectacular, but the super-zombies quickly overpower security and arm themselves with the discarded machine guns, laying waste to the entire airport as Stiglitz escapes for the television station.
The popular dance show, Disco Music, is in mid production when Stiglitz bursts in and demands airtime. The engineer tries to give Stiglitz a hard time about it, but Hugo shuts that shit down in a hurry and interrupts what is apparently the live airing of Disco Music, much to the chagrin of the dancers. Before he can report on the events at the airport the broadcast is cut off by General Murchison (Mel Ferrer), who is trying to avoid a panic.
Because that’s infinitely more dangerous than the public being unaware of dozens of zombies on the rampage in a major city. Stiglitz doesn’t give a damn about their cover up however, and vows to get the story out. His boss has other plans though and suspends Hugo, obviously not realizing you can’t suspend Hugo Stiglitz; he quits!
Before leaving the station, he calls to warn his wife about the impending disaster, but she’s on her way to her shift at the hospital where I’m sure nothing terrible is going to happen.
At a delightful country estate, we’re introduced to Major Holmes (Francisco Rabal, fresh off his costarring role in William Friedkin’s masterpiece, Sorcerer) and his wife, Sheila (Maria Rosaria Omaggio). They’re about to get down to the devil’s business when the phone rings.
Maria Rosaria Omaggio has the unique distinction of playing the first female character in this film to appear topless, and the last character to appear topless voluntarily. The major gets orders from General Murchison to report for duty immediately, but not before he stares in bewilderment at one of his wife’s weird ass sculptures.
At the TV station, Stiglitz is packing up his stuff when a technician on the Disco Music show spots a dead body. Thinking this is a little strange, he nonchalantly goes to get security, but he’s greeted by a zombie. Chaos erupts as zombies are suddenly everywhere.
There’s a brutal axe-to-the-head kill just as a dancer who has had her topped ripped off runs by the camera, raising the topless woman count to two. Not to be upstaged, another zombie rips the shirt off a different woman, immediately raising the topless count to three.
He then proceeds to, uh… Well, let’s say he performs a crude version of breast reduction surgery before helping himself to a geyser of warm blood. Stiglitz immediately knows what’s going on and starts his escape but is intercepted by two zombies. Luckily, there’s an unplugged television set on the table that can be used as a weapon.
Luckier still is that in 1980 the internal components of a TV set apparently consisted solely of gasoline and matches, because when Stiglitz throws it at the zombies it hits the wall and explodes with the force of a dozen hand grenades, sending the zombies flying.
God, I love this fucking movie.
With the station under siege, Stiglitz fights his way outside, commandeers a vehicle, and drives off while a zombie menacingly waves a knife at the car like Jeff Goldblum in Death Wish.
At the hospital, Dr. Anna is speaking with a young boy who is describing a dream he had in which he couldn’t play soccer (or kicky-boppy fiddlefuck, to you Brits) because his leg got ripped off. This kid is a downer. Almost as bad as the grown man in the bed next to him complaining that he feels like he’s waiting for the executioner to chop off his head. The fuck kind of hospital is this?
Then it’s to the war room where General Murchison is mapping out all the areas of the city that have been overrun by zombies. Major Holmes arrives just in time for some exposition from a scientist (Manuel Zarzo) who has been studying a zombie killed at the airport.
The first thing he does is assure everyone that the threat they are dealing with is definitely not aliens, while everyone in the room glances around with a look that says “Seriously? Who thought these goddamned things were aliens?” What they are dealing with, is irradiated humans who possess hyper healing ability, super strength, and a need to drink blood to replenish their red blood cells that are being destroyed by radiation.
They spread this affliction to the people they attack, and the only way to kill them is to destroy the brain. Just like radiation sickness in real life. They aren’t zombies after all, but radioactive mutant humans. Well, shit. The general then instructs his men to “Aim, for the brain” before ordering the implementation of plan H, as plans A through G have obviously been spectacular failures.
Mel Ferrer, starring in Italian films like this after realizing American cinema could no longer challenge him, delivers his lines with such gravitas that it’s easy to see how he landed a hot babe like Audrey Hepburn, to whom he was married for fourteen years.
Major Holmes calls his wife to warn her not to leave the house and to lock all the windows and doors. Which she promptly doesn’t do until after she goes outside and looks around to see… The lawnmower. Cutting the grass. By itself. Thinking nothing of this, she goes back inside where she finds… her sculpture of a human head. With a knife in it. Covered in blood. She decides to lock the place up.
General Murchison orders a call be placed to his daughter, Jessica (Stephania D’Amario), so she can prepare to be taken to headquarters, but she has plans for weekend with her boyfriend, Bob (Pierangelo Civera). They’re going camping with friends, so they sneak away before the guard can escort her to base just as the mutants cut the phone lines and kill the guards. The couple drives away totally oblivious to it all. As they make their way down the drive, the camera pans to another maid who was killed off-screen and had her shirt removed in the process. Topless woman count: 4.
As night falls, Stiglitz arrives at the hospital to get his wife while a group of mutants who were once law enforcement attack the power plant, cutting power to the entire city. As Stiglitz searches the hospital for Anna, the victims are pouring in, pushing the staff to their limits. While searching for some auxiliary lighting, Anna spots an old lady who had just been wheeled into emergency. The old lady has been mutantafied and the attack begins!
As Anna escapes from the old mutant, she finds the kid with the leg nightmare and Mr. Gloomy, among others, dead. Hugo finds her as mutants interrupt a surgery in progress. Lead surgeon Dr. Blake (Eduardo Fajardo), who is a total badass, throws his scalpel at a mutant, the force knocking it back into the wall. I seriously want an entire film dedicated to this guy.
Unfortunately, this has no effect; the mutants kill everyone and drink from the I.V. of blood like drunken winos nippin’ ten cent hooch from a paper bag, even helping themselves to the open chest cavity of the patient on the table and of course the camera pans by another dead, topless woman, raising the tally to five.
Stiglitz and Anna steal an ambulance and get away as the carnage continues with a group of people trapped in an elevator hollering instructions on how to manually open the door. Instructions the mutants are all too happy to follow, with the results you expect. The entire set piece is mayhem, but Lenzi films it with such skill and precision you never lose track of the action.
Everything is paced at such breakneck speed that when Stiglitz and Anna escape and things quiet down, it’s quite possible you’ll realize that at some point during the sequence you soiled yourself.
Major Holmes is assessing ground conditions from a helicopter as General Murchison decides that with the entire city overrun, now is the perfect time to declare a state of emergency. Here, Lenzi expertly links all these characters together when the major sees the escaping ambulance piloted by Stiglitz as he and Anna make their way to the sparsely populated countryside.
Anna then gets philosophical regarding man’s hubris in thinking he could tame the atom in a scene that hammers Lenzi’s point home. That these are forces beyond man’s control and will eventually lead to disaster. Maybe not in the form of kill crazy, blood drinking, sweater vest wearing mutants, but disaster nonetheless.
Elsewhere, Jessica and Bob, who I forgot were in this movie, have set up camp in a peaceful setting fifteen feet from the road and waiting for their friends to show when Bob hears of the state of emergency on the radio. He wants to leave, but Jessica refuses to give up her weekend. She then finds a dead mutant and is somewhat frightened by this, but Martha and Ted pull in and it’s quickly forgotten.
That is, until Martha and Ted get out and Ted points a weird harpoon gun thing at Bob, who smiles stupidly and asks:
“Hey, what are you doing with that gun?”
Ted replies with actions and shows Bob exactly what he’s doing with that gun, while Martha stabs Jessica to death and drinks her blood. With General Murchison’s daughter dead, it’s time to see what Major Holmes’ wife, Sheila is up to. Why, she’s repairing her sculpture that apparently wasn’t stabbed by a mutant, or perhaps it’s the most patient mutant in the film because hours have passed since we last saw her.
Either way, it’s pretty goddamned strange that she didn’t think a bloody knife planted in the face of her sculpture or a lawnmower moving on its own volition was cause for alarm.
Then her friend, Cindy (Sonia Viviani), shows up in a panic. Sheila lets her in and they decide on a few stiff drinks, but they hear a noise in the basement, reminding Sheila that she forgot to barricade the coal hold. While checking it out they hear another noise upstairs, so obviously they split up. Sheila goes upstairs while Cindy just, hangs out in the basement.
To the absolute shock of no one, mutants are in the house, and I gotta tell ya, the one that attacks Cindy is one creepy, sweaty bastard of a mutant. This guy really looks like he’s enjoying himself as he stabs her right in the teet with a fire poker. Jesus. But that’s not enough so he gouges her eye out with said poker before ending it all and ripping off her shirt so he and another mutant can get to that blood, elevating the topless woman count to six in the process.
Sheila hears the screams, sees the carnage taking place, and grabs a gun…
Meanwhile, Stiglitz and Anna are getting low on gas. They stop at a gas station where Stiglitz sees a bloody axe embedded in the wall, but no mutants, so they decide to rest up. As Anna continues to lament the use of nuclear power, Stiglitz loads up on provisions including, of course, booze, and prepares to head out just as mutants arrive.
They spot the couple and start breaking into the diner and ransacking the ambulance blood supply. Watch for the mutant that casually sits down against the tire drinking a bottle of blood like she just got done mowing the lawn and it’s now Beer:30. Stiglitz makes a Molotov cocktail and tosses it at the ambulance where all the mutants have gathered, blowing it and the mutants to pieces.
It’s fantastic, but now they must make a go of it on foot. Once they are safe Anna has a nervous breakdown, but Stiglitz knows just the cure for that and gives her a taste of the back of his hand. This being 1980, Anna gets a little turned on by this act of domestic violence and they start making out, just like it happens in real life. Overhead, Major Holmes is on his way to an air base to implement a gas attack on the city and sees nothing on the ground but mutants. Thousands upon thousands of mutants.
Continuing their trek through the countryside, Stiglitz spies a church in the distance. Anna, who has been blaming science and man’s misuse of it for the entire film, suddenly thinks that since the mutants drink blood, maybe they’re actually supernatural vampires and therefore cannot enter a church. Stiglitz gives her the exact look you would expect, but agrees to go inside anyway.
Wouldn’t you know it, standing at the dais is a priest whom Anna calls out to. Maybe our protagonists have found safety after all… Of course they haven’t. The priest turns to reveal his radiation burned face and Stiglitz switches into bad ass mode, crushing the mutant’s skull with a big candle stick. Anna’s psychological breakdown continues as Major Holmes arrives at the air base to find all the pilots dead, stopping operation gas attack before it can even begin.
Thinking this might be an opportune time to check on his wife, he takes a little detour. Walking into the bedroom he’s relieved to find Sheila working on her sculpture. The relief is short lived however, as Sheila turns around to reveal that she is a mutant. She starts towards him with a big fuckin’ knife, so the major does what needs a doin’ and shoots her right the goddamned face, blowing her head clean off, presumably after telling her to go ahead, make his day.
Stiglitz, still trying to get Anna to pull her shit together, realizes they have wandered into a deserted amusement park littered with corpses. Stiglitz see a Jeep, grabs a few guns and a bag of grenades, and they make for the vehicle just as the mutants spot them. Stiglitz, still in a bloodrage after killing the mutant priest, starts blowing heads off and tossing grenades like he’s Schwarzenegger in Commando.
The effects work on the headshots in this scene is incredible, and the whole thing is again expertly staged by Lenzi. Running out of ammo and with nowhere else to go, Hugo pulls the infamous “throw the empty gun” maneuver and they start climbing up a rollercoaster.
A brilliant tactical decision by Stiglitz as the mutants must pursue them in a single file line, saving bullets and making it easier to hit those big Rosie O’Donnell sized heads. Amid all this action, Major Holmes spots the couple on the rollercoaster and flies in for the rescue, tossing down a rope. They grab it and start climbing to safety, but Anna is losing her grip.
As Stiglitz screams in despair, she falls, smacking every single support beam of the coaster on her way down. Then…
Hugo wakes up from this terrible nightmare. The entire movie has been a dream. He shakes it off and leaves for work where, he’s assigned to go the airport to interview a professor about a radiation leak. When he gets to the airport, a mysterious military transport plane lands and is surrounded by security. None of this seems familiar to Stiglitz.
The door to the plane opens, the screen freezes, and the following appears:
THE NIGHTMARE BECOMES REALITY!
Roll credits.
What a magnificent cinematic accomplishment by Umberto Lenzi and his crew. The pulse pounding score by Stelvio Cipriani is stellar, and his work certainly did not go unnoticed as he would go on to work with Guy Ritchie, Quentin Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez, among many others. Working continually until his death in 2018, he made contributions to the soundtrack for Curb Your Enthusiasm and had a posthumous credit in this year’s Ti West film, Maxxxine.
The makeup effects work is staggering and the attention to detail impeccable as we see the irradiated mutants appear in three distinct phases: the newly infected who appear normal and are thusly able to fool the unaware, the second stage in which blisters and skin discolorations become visible, and the third stage in which their faces become ravaged with huge tumors and their skin blackened, expertly depicting the real life progression of radiation exposure.
The performances from the cast are terrific, no doubt elevated by subject matter of such importance. Most impressive however is the screenplay, and while Lenzi did not receive a writing credit, he was instrumental in making sure this film would serve as a stark warning against the dangers of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons, with the film’s ending symbolizing the choice humanity had: shake off previous nuclear disasters as though they were bad dreams, or learn from them and work to prevent future calamity.
Fortunately, this warning was heeded, for less than ten years after its release the Berlin Wall came down, the dissolution of the Soviet Union began, and the end of the Cold War soon followed.
To think this film played no part in these events is the height of naivete. It was, in fact, instrumental in setting history in motion and without it, the world would be a very different place today. In this regard, Nightmare City may be the most important film ever made. So, thank you Umberto Lenzi, for saving us from nuclear annihilation.
10 ripped-off blouses out of 10
DwC
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