Movie reviews
The City of the Dead: a town that has rehearsed its welcome
John Llewellyn Moxey’s 1960 witchcraft film makes Whitewood feel less like a place to visit than a performance whose locals already know every line.
Whimsical Woes editorial ·
A stranger arrives in a town that seems to have practiced its friendliness. That is a lovely horror problem: the danger is not hidden behind a door so much as folded into the welcome. John Llewellyn Moxey’s The City of the Dead (also released as Horror Hotel) sends student Nan Barlow to Whitewood to study witchcraft. The British Film Institute identifies it as Moxey’s feature directing debut and describes the film as a misty tale of witchcraft and human sacrifice.
Whitewood has excellent manners and dreadful intentions
Nan does not need to enter a ruined castle to cross a threshold. The town offers an inn, a subject for study, and ordinary conversation. The film’s useful trick is to make curiosity feel like a reasonable reason to stay. An outsider is not foolish for asking questions; she is doing exactly what a student should do. The trouble is that the place has arranged the question-and-answer session in advance.
That setup gives the small town a theatrical quality. A local can offer a room, point out a street, or answer a question while also controlling what the visitor sees next. I like how this turns hospitality into blocking: who stands where, who guides whom, and how long the newcomer remains alone all matter. Whitewood feels as though it is moving Nan through a set of marks on the floor.
The film’s old-fashioned style is part of the bargain
The City of the Dead is a compact studio-era horror film, not a contemporary folk-horror slow burn. Its shadows and fog announce the Gothic rather than pretending to be documentary evidence. That directness is a pleasure when the image gives you a clear shape to worry about. It also means the film can lean on familiar witchcraft imagery instead of making every part of its world feel newly discovered.
The BFI’s account helps place the film within Moxey’s broader work: he moved on to television and became known for directing suspenseful, atmospheric thrillers. That context makes the movie’s clean, efficient staging feel like a craft choice rather than a failed attempt at scale. It is economical, but economy has a cost: some characters function more as pieces in Whitewood’s arrangement than as people with room to surprise it.
Who should check in?
Watch the original 1960 film if you enjoy witchcraft stories built from an outsider’s questions, misty streets, and the pleasure of a town that is just a little too ready to help. The alternate American title, Horror Hotel, points toward a more familiar B-movie invitation; The City of the Dead better captures the whole place as the trap. This is not a claim that every scene is subtle. Some of the fun is how plainly the movie lets the welcome curdle.
For a related story about a community that makes belonging feel conditional, see our [review of The Wicker Man](/journal/wicker-man-1973-music-review). Whitewood’s best invitation is also its warning: if the host keeps choosing the route, ask who the visit is really for.
Questions from the crypt
Is The City of the Dead the same film as Horror Hotel?
Yes. The City of the Dead is the 1960 John Llewellyn Moxey film; Horror Hotel was an alternate release title.
What is The City of the Dead about?
The film follows student Nan Barlow as she travels to Whitewood to study witchcraft and encounters the town’s dangerous history.
Is The City of the Dead folk horror?
It is a witchcraft-centered Gothic horror film with a small-town setting. Calling it folk horror depends on how broadly you use that label; its 1960 studio style differs from later folk-horror conventions.