Nightmare City – The Unexpected 4K Blu-ray

Filmed in 1980, Nightmare City marks one of the most singular moments in the career of Umberto Lenzi, a director capable of effortlessly moving between giallo, poliziottesco, and adventure genres. Often dismissed as a mere craftsman, despite a certainly non-Hollywood budget, Lenzi once again demonstrates a surprising clarity in exploiting current trends without merely replicating them. If the producers wanted a film "à la Romero", the director instead delivers a work that escapes the zombie movie label to construct a horror closer to post-apocalyptic science fiction.

The infected in the film are not typical living dead but beings contaminated by radiation: they act quickly, organize attacks, use weapons. A choice often misunderstood by critics that somehow anticipates the idea that would explode years later with modern horror cinema and Zack Snyder's reinterpretation of his "running zombies". A long wave that would reach Robert Rodriguez, explicitly cited by him as a source of inspiration for his 2007 film Planet Terror.

Nightmare City - Not Your Typical Zombie Movie

Lenzi pushes the accelerator with a frenetic pace that allows no pauses, with sudden explosions of violence that follow one another in a tight montage and a direction that does not fear excess. The international cast, typical of Italian co-productions of the era, sees Hugo Stiglitz as reporter Dean (Pino Colizzi), flanked by Mel Ferrer (Pino Locchi) and Francisco Rabal (Luciano De Ambrosis), faces that aimed for greater credibility and a certain European scope.

Over time, Nightmare City has become a cult film especially loved abroad, a pulsating, noisy, and visceral film, proof of how Lenzi knew how to transform production constraints into a tense and brutal experience, still capable of surprising today with its anarchic energy. The soundtrack by maestro Stelvio Cipriani is hypnotic and wonderfully vintage, starting from the theme over the opening credits.

Nightmare City - 4K Between Surprise and Critical Issues

The film's restoration represented an (im)possible challenge due to the condition of the original elements that survived time. The original Techniscope negative (2 perforations) shows extensive and irreversible damage from photochemical deterioration (and perhaps also mold), which during viewing manifests as density fluctuations and chromatic alterations, stains, and physical wear.

In 2023, the negative was 2K scanned by the Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna. New color grading with articulated digital restoration aimed at removing thousands of impurities, debris, and scratches, but not everything was resolved. It is not known if this daring 4K version derives from a specific master, here in Dolby Vision. A filmic frame with decent resolution but at the same time critical and therefore difficult to follow for all 91 minutes of the work.

Nightmare City - Unreleased Double 2K Offer

The included BD-50 offers the unreleased alternative of a less defined version, created using a 4-perforation dupe reversal negative, which was discarded by Arrow and its 2K edition in 2023 due to loss of definition, despite better physical conditions. Here, an excessive softening of the image is evident, resulting from the optical enlargement from the original Techniscope format, with grain difficult to separate from the encoding.

For completeness, Plaion chose to also pursue this material, which, compared to the negative, has English opening titles, with different color and graphics (image below). For both versions, the image format is 2.39:1 (2K/4K/24p), AVC/MPEG-4 and HEVC encoding respectively on BD-50 and BD-66 dual layer.

Nightmare City - Audio and Extras

DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (16 bit) Italian and English, both acceptable and capable of doing justice to the direct sound dialogues and the amazing Italian voice cast. The soundtrack is favored, albeit minimally, for the Italian track, with minimal elements in the mid-low range and speech only occasionally noticeably deficient.

The 2K disc includes some amazing extras, starting with the extensive interview with Lenzi by Manlio Gomarasca, exploring his cinema, an unmissable gem for fans of the director (48'). Another valuable piece is Lenzi's B/W short film Ragazzi di Trastevere, directed, written, and scripted by him, made for his diploma at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.

Finally, an interview with Lenzi in English (subtitled) from 2000 and included in a DVD edition, with precious memories of his work as a filmmaker, experiences, significant encounters, and a focus on the production of Nightmare City. In addition, a booklet of textual insights by Nocturno Editore and a commemorative postcard with exclusive artwork by Daniele Serra. Cardboard slipcover, Plaion Gold Edition.