The City of the Dead (1960) Review

The City of the Dead was directed by John Llewellyn Moxey (who also directed Desire: The Vampire, Home for the Holidays and The Night Stalker) and stars Christopher Lee (from Extraordinary Tales, The Wicker Tree), Betta St. John (from Corridors of Blood, The Snorkel) and Valentine Dyall (from The Man in Black). It’s about a woman who travels to a small town with a history of burning witches, only to find out the town happens to be cursed by said witches.

300 years old! Human blood keeps them alive forever!

The City of the Dead is similar to Psycho (which came out the same year) in many ways. You have the woman traveling alone at night to a forgotten hotel. She gets in over her head and doesn’t make it home. Then a sibling and a lover show up to the same creepy hotel to investigate her disappearance. There’s even a jump scare featuring a mummified woman in a chair. There’s no dude in a dress, but the similarities are still uncanny.

Overall this movie felt generic. It didn’t break any new ground the way Psycho did. The story was underwhelming, the character roles boilerplate and the pacing was slow. Christopher Lee was great, as usual, but he wasn’t able to carry the film on his own.

I wasn’t really expecting much from City of the Dead, and it didn’t give me much. So, let’s call it a wash and move onto the next movie.