Nightmare City / Incubo sulla città contaminata | 1980

Nightmare City

Nightmare City follows TV news reporter Dean Miller (played by Hugo Stiglitz) as he witnesses the collapse of order in a city overrun by ghouls who drink radioactive blood. The chaos intensifies as victims rise from the dead to join the horde.

Nightmare City 

American TV reporter Dean Miller is waiting at a small European airport to interview a scientist about a recent nuclear accident when an unmarked Lockheed C-130 Hercules military plane makes an emergency landing. The plane's doors open, and dozens of armed, deformed men attack the soldiers on the runway, including the scientist. These men are immune to most injuries and gunshots, attacking mercilessly and stopping only to drink the blood of their victims. Miller escapes to his TV station to alert the public, but General Murchison of Civil Defense shuts down the news station and quarantines the news team to prevent him from doing so. Miller then sets out to find his wife, Anna, a doctor at a local hospital. The crazed men sweep through the city, their ranks swelling with each victim.

Several zombies attack the TV station, forcing Miller to flee to the hospital. That evening, the horde attacks and destroys the city's power plant, plunging the city into darkness. Miller arrives at the hospital during the attack and rescues Anna. They escape in a stolen ambulance.

Meanwhile, General Murchison meets with military officers and scientists in a hidden bunker and learns that the attackers are contaminated humans mutated by radiation. They suspect that the scientist investigating the leak at the main nuclear plant was infected by radiation and infected others on the military transport plane, causing the outbreak. The infected humans are incredibly strong, fast, and have lightning-fast reflexes. However, they cannot regenerate red blood cells and crave blood, becoming dehydrated and ultimately starving to death without it. The only way to kill an infected person is to destroy their brain.

Murchison's daughter Jessica and her husband Bob are on vacation in the countryside, unaware of the massacre sweeping the city. Murchison sends two policemen to find and bring them to safety. However, by the time they reach the couple's campsite, they have already been infected and killed Jessica and Bob.

Major Warren Holmes, Murchison's aide, calls his wife Sheila, who is staying at their country home, to warn her about the crisis and tells her not to leave the house. Sheila receives a visit from Cindy, who is unaware of what is happening. Two infected men break into the house and kill Cindy. Sheila kills them before they can fully attack her.

The next day, Miller and Anna leave the city and stop at a gas station, where they are attacked by a few infected. Miller makes a Molotov cocktail and blows up the zombies along with the ambulance. The couple continues on foot to avoid the zombies roaming the countryside. They take refuge in a local church but discover an infected priest, whom Miller has to kill.

Meanwhile, Major Holmes arrives at a local airbase, but it is overrun, preventing the military from receiving air support. As the military continues to lose against the increasing number of infected, General Murchison sees the zombies as a form of social cleansing and takes no action, allowing the infection to spread. Major Holmes flies home to save his wife but finds that Sheila has also been infected and has to kill her.

Miller and Anna escape the church and arrive at an abandoned amusement park, which is also overrun. Armed with a submachine gun and grenades from a dead soldier, they kill several zombies and are forced to flee. They climb to the top of a roller coaster to escape, where Major Holmes happens to pass by on his way back to Murchison's command post. Holmes lowers a rope from a helicopter for Miller to climb up, but Anna cannot hold on and falls to her death, shocking Miller.

Miller wakes up in a panic, revealing that the entire story was a dream. He rushes to the airport to meet the scientist, but as he arrives, the military plane makes an emergency landing, repeating the events from the beginning of the film. "The nightmare becomes reality."