ZombieWiki
Zombie Wiki / All zombies / Film
Illustration of The contaminated of Nightmare City
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
File No. 103 of 446

The contaminated of Nightmare City

Also called: Incubo sulla città contaminata, City of the Walking Dead, La invasión de los zombies atómicos
FilmInfected, still aliveRunsRadiation1968 to 1999

Lenzi's irradiated attackers overrun a European city at a run. They are living, contaminated people rather than corpses, and the director rejected the word zombie for them. Reviews were poor, but the film is often cited as a precursor of the fast-zombie trend.1

Battle it
First appeared
1980
Released 1980
Source work
Nightmare City (1980)
Umberto Lenzi
Made in
Italy, Spain
What causes it
Radiation
A leak at a nuclear power plant mutates people into blood-drinking killers.
How you become one
Contact with the contaminated; their victims join them.
How it moves
Runs
Very fast, with lightning reflexes.
Weak spots
  • destroying the brain
  • starved of blood they die

When did it first appear?

Ancient worldMiddle Ages1500 to 18991900 to 19671968 to 19992000 to 20092010 to today1980

Released 1980

field notes

What the sources say

1

Lenzi preferred to call them infected or contaminated rather than zombies1

2

They cannot regenerate red blood cells and need blood to survive1

3

Often cited as a forerunner of the fast zombie1

4

A major influence on Planet Terror (2007); Quentin Tarantino has praised it1

5

Released in the US in 1983 as City of the Walking Dead, cut by four minutes1

Could you outrun it?

Speed class from how the sources describe it (runs), not a measurement.

You, walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
You, jogging about 10 km/h (6.2 mph)
A fit adult sprinting about 24 km/h (15 mph)
The contaminated of Nightmare City about 24 km/h (15 mph)
A fast cyclist about 37 km/h (23 mph)

Sources

  1. Nightmare City - Wikipedia

Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at [email protected].

Feed the horde. No ads, no trackers, paid for by one person. A tip keeps it online.Leave a tip

Same era: 1968 to 1999

Ghouls of Night of the Living DeadNight of the Living Dead (1968)Thriller zombiesMichael Jackson's Thriller (1983)Zombies of Dawn of the Dead (1978)Dawn of the Dead (1978)BubDay of the Dead (1985)DeaditesThe Evil Dead (1981)Jiangshi of Mr. VampireMr. Vampire (1985)
Feed the hordeLeave a tip