Nightmare City – Arrow Video (Blu-ray/ DVD Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1980
Director: Umberto Lenzi
Writers: Antonio Cesare Corti, Luis María Delgado, Piero Regnoli
Cast: Hugo Stiglitz, Laura Trotter, Maria Rosaria Omaggio, Francisco Rabal, Sonia Viviani, Eduardo Fajardo, Stefania D’Amario, Mel Ferrer, Antonio Mayans, Ted Rusoff

Release Date: August 24th, 2015
Approximate Running Time: 91 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVCC
Rating: 18 (UK)
Sound: LPCM Mono Italian, LPCM Mono English
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: £24.99 (UK)

"Our story begins with the arrival of an ominous, seemingly unmanned craft – in this instance, a military plane making an unscheduled landing at a European airport. Upon forcing the aircraft doors open, the waiting soldiers get a nasty shock when out bursts a horde of flesh-hungry, pizza-faced radioactive ghouls. The walking dead are here, and they're hungry!" - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 3.75/5 (Negative Transfer 2K Restoration), 2.75/5 (Dupe Reversal Transfer)

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "Nightmare City has been exclusively restored in 2K resolution for this release by Arrow Films.

The original 2-perf Techniscope camera negative was scanned in 2K resolution on a pin-registered Arriscan at Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. The film was graded on the Baselight grading system at Deluxe Restoration, London. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris and light scratches were removed through a combination of digital restoration tools.

Unfortunately at some point during their history the negative elements for Nightmare City were subjected to heavy damage and photochemical decay, resulting in regular instances of heavy density fluctuation/image flicker, color fluctuation and chemical stains. These instances of damage appear intermittently throughout the film.

Alternate source elements were examined, but the only other existing pre-print element, a 4-perf reversal dupe negative, proved to be of unacceptable quality. As a result, this project relied completely on the damaged but complete original negative as its picture source. In doing so, although much of the worst instances of damage have been minimised, this presentation still shows the considerable problems with the material.”

Here's additional information about the transfer, “Only two original 35mm film elements survive for Nightmare City: the Techniscope camera negative and a dupe reversal negative. Where conventional widescreen systems used lenses that squeeze the image, while Techniscope does not use lenses to squeeze the image. Instead Techniscope fits two widescreen frames in the same space usually occupied by one frame. With the end result is that Techniscope process has half the vertical resolution of a standard 35mm. Unfortunately large sections of the Techniscope camera negative have suffered chemical deterioration and this damage that now exits on the camera negative is irreversible. And this brings us to the dupe reversal negative was in very good shape. There source is not without its own issues which are a softening of the image due to the image being enlarged from 2-perf Technscope to 4-perf 35mm.”

Nightmare City comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 46.4 GB

Feature: 25.7 GB (Negative Transfer 2K Restoration), 17.1 GB (Dupe Reversal Transfer)

For this release, Arrow Video offers two transfers. The first transfer is a newly created 2K master that was created using the camera negative. The good news is that when it comes to image clarity and an image that retains film-like textures, this new transfer is easily the best this film has ever looked. The bad news is that throughout this transfer there are instances of density fluctuation, color instability, and, worst of all, chemical staining. This now brings us to the other transfer provided for this release, which was sourced from the same master that Raro Video used for the North American Blu-ray release.

Audio: 4.25/5 (LPCM Mono Italian, LPCM Mono English)

This release comes with two audio options, a LPCM mono mix in Italian and a LPCM mono mix in English. Both audio mixes are in very good shape, as there are no issues with background noise or distortion. Dialog comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced, and range-wise, ambient sounds and the score are well-represented. Included are English subtitles for the Italian language track and removable English SDH subtitles for the English language track.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a theatrical trailer (3 minutes 45 seconds, LPCM mono Italian with removable English subtitles), alternate opening title sequence (2 minutes and 11 seconds, Dolby Digital mono), an interview with filmmaker Eli Roth titled Zombies Gone Wild! (10 minutes 33 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with director Umberto Lenzi titled Radiation Sickness  (28 minutes 41 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with actress Maria Rosaria Omaggio titled Sheila of the Dead (7 minutes 41 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), a restoration featurette titled The Limits of Restoration (4 minutes 34 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles, text in English), an audio commentary with Fangoria editor Chris Alexander. reversible cover art, and twenty page booklet (limited to first pressing) with cast & crew info, an essay about the film titled Fade Away and Radiate: Umberto Lenzi’s Nightmare City written by John Martin and information about the restoration.

Included with this release is a DVD that has the same content included on the Blu-Ray included as part of this combo release.

Summary:

Nightmare City was directed by Umberto Lenzi, a versatile filmmaker who has worked in just about every prominent genre from Italian cinema’s golden age of cinema. A few of his more notable films include A Quiet Place to Kill, Almost Human and Cannibal Ferox. Key collaborators on Nightmare City include cinematographer Hans Burmann (Open Your Eyes), composer Stelvio Cipriani (What Have They Done to Your Daughters?) and screenwriter Piero Regnoli, a filmmaker in his own right who is most remembered for directing The Playgirls and the Vampire. Alternate titles by which Nightmare City is also known include City of the Walking Dead and Invasion by the Atomic Zombies.

Nightmare City was made during an era where zombie films were in high demand due to the worldwide success of Dawn of the Dead. And though it was often the tradition in Italy to jump on whatever was successful in American cinema and then churn out countless clones. Umberto Lenzi was one filmmaker who refused to follow the trend, and instead he got them to make Nightmare City, a film that transcends all of those aforementioned clones.

Though not as well regarded as his contemporizes and at times maligned as being nothing more than a workman like director. These are just a few things that have plagued the legacy of Umberto Lenzi, a filmmaker whose contributions to the Giallo and Poliziotteschi genres should have cemented his legacy as one of his generation's best filmmakers. Not to be overlooked is how his film The Man from Deep River started what would later become known as the Cannibal film cycle. Years later, he would return to the Cannibal film cycle with Cannibal Ferox, which upon its initial release was banned in thirty-one countries.

One criticism that has been unfairly lobbed at Nightmare City over the years is how poor the zombie makeup looks. Unfortunately this film is not a zombie film and even in its opening setup it is clearly stated that they contaminated due to radiation exposure. And more importantly, Umberto Lenzi, Nightmare City's creator clearly states on numerous occasions that this is not a zombie film. For further proof those who have become contaminated run at a brisk pace, while zombie’s when Nightmare City was made where known to move slowly. This now brings us back to the aforementioned comments about the makeup, and upon closer examination, one could easily see that said disfigurement is due to radiation.

From a visually stand point, Umberto Lenzi makes sure that every inch of every frame is exploited for all they are worth. And this includes the way he holds on gore related moments or how the camera’s leers when there is eye candy to be devoured. Also the frantic pacing to the story at hand ensures that there is never a dull moment. With one scene that shines brighter than any other in the film. And that scene is when the dancers who are performing for a TV show are ambushed and bludgeoned to death by those who have become contaminated.

One thing that you can almost always rely on in Italian cinema from this era is that there was never a shortage of recognizable talent. And Nightmare City more than delivers in this regard when it comes to their cast which features Mel Ferrer (The Big Alligator River) in the role of a general named Murchison, Francisco Rabal (L’Eclisse) in the role of Holmes another high ranking military official, Maria Rosaria Omaggio (Rome Armed to the Teeth) her character is Rabal’s love interest, Antonio Mayans (Sex is Crazy) in the role of a camera man and last but most definitely not the least would be Hugo Stiglitz (Cyclone) in the role of the protagonist a reporter named Dean. Performance wise one would be hard pressed to fault any performances in this film as everyone involved give their all and then some!

Where most companies would pass on a release due to unsuitable elements to work with or, worse yet, put out a release from an inferior secondary source. This is not the case with Arrow Video’s release of Nightmare City, which faced those aforementioned problems head-on. With the end result being a perfect example of how to overcome obstacles while still delivering an exceptional product, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer