Geoff Andrews of "Time Out" found the film "laughably awful", with a "nonsensical plot" that "it could just conceivably be the disreputable movie that surrealists would have loved." John Pym of the "Monthly Film Bulletin" called "City of the Living Dead" a "silly, meandering horror" film. Pym concluded that "there is not much to discuss and little to recommend." Alan Jones wrote in "Starburst" praised the film as finding the film was "what popular cinema was all about [...] Shadow, claustrophobic atmosphere full on menace is the crux of this and there is no doubt in my mind that Fulci is the master of such manipulation." Jones went on to call out negative reception to Fulci, stating anyone describing him as a hack annoyed him, noting that "in each of his recent films he has made, there are so many worthwhile merits. At this stage in the game his talent cannot be called merely accidental."