Line #53 Film/CityOfTheDead


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3	''The City of the Dead'' is a 1960 British horror film directed by John Llewellyn Moxey and starring Creator/ChristopherLee.
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5	Professor Alan Driscoll (Lee) teaches the history of witchcraft at a Chicago university. He encourages his star student, Nan Barlow (Venetia Stevenson), to take a field trip to the sleepy village of Whitewood, Massachusetts, the site of a famous 17th-century witch burning. Both Nan's skeptical brother Richard (Dennis Lotis) and her fiancé Bill (Tom Naylor) try to dissuade her from going, but her curiosity proves too powerful. After arriving in Whitewood, Nan finds accommodation at the Raven's Inn hotel, run by Mrs. Newless (Patricia Jessel), and plunges headlong into the town's satanic history. Little does she realize that she has been lured to Whitewood for a very sinister purpose.
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7	Compare with ''Film/TheWickerMan1973'', another FolkHorror film starring Christopher Lee about a TownWithADarkSecret.
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11	!!This film provides examples of:
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13	* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler:Professor Driscoll]] seems quite amiable at first, [[spoiler:if a bit intense about his specialty, witchcraft.]]
14	* AlternateDVDCommentary: In 2014 the film was the subject of a Podcast/RiffTrax commentary featuring Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett.
15	* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler: Nan who is established as the protagonist is murdered at the halfway mark. Only her brother Dick and her acquaintance Pat survive the film]].
16	* BewareOfHitchhikingGhosts: Jethrow Keane's specialty is to be picked up, provide some expository conversation, and then vanish from the passenger seat.
17	* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Professor Driscoll]] to Nan.
18	* BlindSeer: Satan may have robbed the Reverend of his earthly sight, but he sees clearly what is happening in Whitewood.
19	* BurnTheWitch: Whitewood falls under a curse after its inhabitants burn a witch. Ironically the film was made in Europe (where witch burning did happen) but takes place in America (where it did not[[note]]American witches were hanged, not burned.[[/note]]).
20	* CassandraTruth: Neither Nan nor Pat takes the Reverend's warnings seriously.
21	** Nan and Tom also ignore the gas station attendant's warnings about Whitewood.
22	* ChristianityIsCatholic: Averted. Christianity in Whitewood is some unspecified form of Protestantism, in keeping with the "Old New England" setting.
23	* CoDragons: [[spoiler:Professor Driscoll]] and Jethrow Keane both serve Elizabeth Selwyn. The former leads potential sacrifices to the coven; the latter kills for her when she doesn't want to get her hands dirty and also had a hand in turning Whitewood into UnholyGround.
24	* CreepyGasStationAttendant: Nan stops at a remote gas station on a fog-shrouded road to ask for directions to [[TownwithADarkSecret Whitewood]]. The gas station attendant warns her that god-fearing folk don't go there, but gives her directions nonetheless.
25	* CuriosityKilledTheCast: If only Nan had been less inquisitive, none of this would have happened.
26	* CuteBookworm: Nan, Professor Driscoll's star student. Also Pat, the local librarian in Whitewood.
27	* TheCavalryArrivesLate: Barlow and Maitland arrive much too late to save Nan. However, they arrive just in time to save Pat.
28	* CobwebJungle: The underground passage is full of theatrical wall-to-wall cobwebs.
29	* CreepyCemetery: Complete with fog and big crooked tombstones.
30	* DamselInDistress: Not one but two.
31	* DeadAnimalWarning: On returning to her room after the dancers disappear, Nan finds a dead bird on her bed: impaled by a silver pin shaped like an arrow. Later, Patricia finds one and her grandfather tells her it the mark of the witches.
32	* DeadStarWalking: [[spoiler:Nan Barlow seems to be the protagonist for the first thirty minutes or so.]]
33	* DealWithTheDevil: Elizabeth Selwyn made a deal with Satan for eternal life.
34	* DecoyProtagonist: At first, Nan seems to be the main character. [[spoiler:After she is killed, this status passes to her brother.]]
35	* {{Determinator}}: Maitland. [[spoiler:Even with a dagger lodged in his back, he manages to lift a big wooden cross and carry it around.]]
36	* DutchAngle: Used sparingly: once near the end when Dick Barlow leaves the inn and again with closeups of members of the coven as they try to sacrifice Pat Russell.
37	* EldritchLocation: Whitewood is an UnholyGround covered in an unnatural fog.
38	* EvilLaugh: Elizabeth Selwyn/[[spoiler: Mrs. Newless]].
39	* EveryCarIsAPinto: Tom Maitland's car bursts into flames after he crashes it.
40	* EvilMatriarch: In Whitewood, [[spoiler: Mrs. Newless]] calls the shots.
41	* {{Fanservice}}: A brief, unexpected example occurs when Nan Barlow removes her modest housecoat to reveal risque, cabaret-esque lingerie.
42	* FolkHorror: Dealing with black magic worship in a small town in New England.
43	* GhostButler: While Nan is trying to pry open the locked trapdoor, a key helpfully appears, hanging from the window treatment and tapping against the glass. Nan takes the SchmuckBait without a second thought.
44	* GoneHorriblyRight: Nan goes to Whitewood determined to find proof that witchcraft is real, and she certainly finds it.
45	* GoodShepherd: The Reverend Russell, although he seems less interested in saving souls than in stubbornly preserving the sanctity of his church building (probably because the townspeople are a lost cause).
46	* GreatBigBookOfEverything: ''A Treatise On Devil Worship In New England'', which perfectly satisfies Nan's curiosity.
47	* HellHotel: The alternate title of this film is ''Horror Hotel'', and it's quite appropriate. The Raven's Inn is not a very hospitable place.
48	* HiddenDepths: Tom Maitland comes across as childish at first when he heckles Professor Driscoll and whines about Nan wanting to go away for a couple of weeks to do research. [[spoiler:Yet he saves Pat from being sacrificed and destroys the coven (while dying no less).]]
49	* HollywoodSatanism: The witch coven offers human sacrifices to the Devil — including children — in exchange for immortality.
50	* HolyBurnsEvil: The cross-shaped gravemarker wielded by Tom Maitland [[spoiler:sets the coven on fire. Specifically, the shadow it casts.]]
51	* HotWitch: "Hot" may be pushing it, but Elizabeth Selwyn is reasonably attractive.
52	* HumanSacrifice: The witches must sacrifice two women every year to keep the coven in good standing with Satan.
53	* ImmuneToBullets: Professor Driscoll.
54	* KickTheDog: Mrs. Newless's cruel treatment of the mute Lottie.
55	* LittleBlackDress: Mrs. Newless always wears black, which helps make her seem off.
56	* LovecraftCountry: Whitewood, Massachusetts - with its richly-drawn history and sinister atmosphere - very much feels like one of Creator/HPLovecraft's own eerie New English towns.
57	* MarketBasedTitle: Released in the U.S. as ''Horror Hotel''.
58	* MatchCut: [[spoiler:The knife about to plunge into Nan's chest is echoed by the knife cutting a birthday cake in the next scene.]]
59	* OminousFog: VERY copiously used, to the point of covering the ground in opaque knee-high clouds.
60	* [[OminousLatinChanting Ominous Chanting]]: During the Candlemas Eve festivities.
61	* OnlyShopInTown: Pat has just opened up a shop in a tiny, virtually deserted town that hardly ever receives visitors.
62	* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Both Christopher Lee and Dennis Lotis slip out of their American accents more than once.
63	* PeekABooCorpse: [[spoiler:Poor Lottie.]]
64	* ThePollyanna: Nan responds to the most sinister and menacing things with enthusiastic fascination.
65	* RealAfterAll: After mocking belief in the supernatural, the skeptics are eventually confronted by a real-life witches' Sabbath.
66	* ReligionIsMagic: Especially the cross that shoots Jesus-lightning at the witches.
67	* ReligiousHorror: The BigBad is Satan, and the witches are defeated by the power of Christian symbols.
68	* ScareChord
69	* Scenecut: The film cuts from the coven conducting a HumanSacrifice with the sacrificial dagger descending on [[spoiler:Nan]] to Sue cutting the cake at her birthday party.
70	* SchmuckBait: A key magically appears, allowing Nan to unlock a trap door and descend into a cobwebby crypt. Nothing suspicious about that.
71	* SdrawkcabName: Not drawn attention to but you'll notice [[spoiler: Newless]] is [[spoiler: Selwyn]] spelled backwards with a vowel changed to make an alternate name. [[spoiler: She is only ever called Mrs Newless so as to conceal her first name Elizabeth]].
72	* SecretUndergroundPassage: A tunnel leads conveniently from Nan's hotel room to the stone altar where she is to be sacrificed.
73	* SkepticNoLonger: Barlow and Maitland when it comes to witchcraft.
74	* SlashersPreferBlondes: [[spoiler: Blonde Nan is killed by the witches. Brunette Pat survives. What's more is that blond Maitland dies and brunet Richard survives]].
75	* SoundtrackDissonance: There's a jazzy score over certain scenes that's strangely at odds with the spooky atmosphere.
76	* StupidEvil: [[spoiler:Why did they leave that cross-shaped tombstone sitting around in the UnholyGround cemetery where they make human sacrifices? Since HolyBurnsEvil maybe they ''couldn't'' move it]].
77	* ThreeWallSet: Every scene was filmed on a soundstage, even "exterior" shots of Whitewood and the forest.
78	* ThrivingGhostTown: Whitewood seems to have about twelve residents, tops. We're also told most of the coven only comes in for the Sabbath, so it may be as low as five.
79	* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: In an attempt to stop Bill, Elizabeth throws her large sacrificial dagger the length of the graveyard and manages to nail him squarely in the middle of his back.
80	* TokenGoodTeammate: Lottie seems to be the only employee at the Raven's Inn who is not a murderous witch.
81	* TownWithADarkSecret: Whitewood. Of course the secret is not necessarily that witchcraft was practiced there - which everyone knows about - [[spoiler: but that they still regularly sacrifice people]].
82	* UnholyGround: The town of Whitewood, on account of its history of witch-burnings.
83	* VillainTeleportation: The witches will do this as soon as your back is turned.
84	* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Maitland is supposed to be an American, but sometimes he sounds like an ESL student.
85	* WickedCultured: [[spoiler: Professor Driscoll.]]
86	* WizardsLiveLonger: The devil brings the burned witches back to life and grants them eternal life in exchange for sacrificing young girls twice a year.

Context Film / CityOfTheDead