The story is not all that deep. The implications make it interesting, thinking about what the priest could have been into that led to the suicide opening of the gates, what other secrets may be held in that book that Mary reads from — it all makes the story more epic than it may actually be. On the other hand, who is watching this for deep and insightful storytelling? That is the appetizer; what horror fans want is the steak dinner that is the gore.
City of the Living Dead piles it on with women crying bloody tears as they rip the skull caps off the nearest victim, exposing the gray matter beneath. Not to mention the expulsion of guts from a woman's mouth, which people still discuss the reality of. Did Lucio actually make her swallow animal entrails only to regurgitate them? I think not, but a couple of shots are rather convincing. Then there is the table drill to the face and the maggot storm.
Like most of the Fulci films I have seen, the pacing is slow, but the punctuations of gore more than make up for that. Actually, the pacing may make the gore shots all the more effective. Fulci is great at building tension and atmosphere where the dread builds up inside you in anticipation of when the next shoe will drop.
The stories are surreal and nonsensical, the dialogue (usually dubbed due to the international casts all speaking their native languages) is nothing all that great, and the performances? Forget it, they are effective but usually far from anything that could be called "good."
City of the Living Dead builds a world without hope, where nothing is waiting for you but a gruesome death that you cannot escape. Faith in religion? Forget it, a priest started this mess, remember? Hope in an ancient book? Nope, you get a short time frame to stop it, but it is never enough time. This is all about the dead coming back, one way or another. The future is written and you are not going to like it.
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