The City of the Dead (1960) on Netflix
PG-1319601h 16mHorrorMysteryThriller
Student Nan Barlow takes her professor's advice and spends her vacation researching witchcraft in Whitewood, Massachusetts, a town with a witch burning in 1692. She lodges at the Raven's Inn.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb6.7/109,871 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes75%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1692 the witch Elizabeth Selwyn is burned at the stake in Whitewood, Massachusetts, after she and her accomplice Jethrow Keane pledge their souls to Lucifer for eternal life, revenge on the town and two sacrifices a year. Three hundred years later, history student Nan Barlow chooses the town for a vacation project on witchcraft after her professor, Alan Driscoll, recommends it and suggests she stay at the Raven's Inn, kept by Mrs. Newless. In Whitewood she meets Patricia Russell, who lends her a book on witchcraft, and the blind Reverend Russell, who urges her to leave at once. The book marks the day as Candlemas Eve.
Cast
- James Dyrenforthas Garage Attendant
- William Abneyas Policeman
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The City of the Dead (1960)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Scenes from the film turn up in heavy metal videos: Iron Maiden's 1990 "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter", King Diamond's "Sleepless Nights" and UFX's "Bitch"; Rob Zombie used Christopher Lee's opening words to preface "Dragula", and the Misfits wrote a song called "Horror Hotel".
- George Baxt wrote the script as a pilot for a television series starring Boris Karloff; producer Milton Subotsky then rewrote it at greater length, adding a romantic subplot about the boyfriend who goes searching for Nan after she disappears.
- Dialogue that clarified the plot was cut from the American version of the film; the lines survive in the original British version, which Turner Classic Movies has shown.
