Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Okay, I’m in a good mood. So time to review something I really like. I must have seen this more times than any other movie. Way into double figures here. I’ll try not to be too biased though.
Superficially Return of the Living Dead seems like another ... Read review
Return of the Living Deadis a parody-cum-sequel spin-off from George Romero's ... more
superiorNight of the Living Deadfilms. A corpse-containing canister gets breached and releases an oily, loose-limbed, brain-eating zombie tatterdemalion and a gas that revive...
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If there is a lesson to be learned from the movie The Return of the Living Dead and its ... more
soundtrack, it's that the only good punk is an undead punk. Many of the songs that underscore this zombification of humankind are bathed in 1980s horror punk rock, most notably from the American hardcore scene. In the opening tracks you have 45 Grave's take on the far-gone dysfunctional family in its hard-edged goth-metal "Partytime (zombie version)", the emotional isolation of TSOL's straight-ahead "Nothing For You", and the trashy, treble-topping nonsense of The Flesheaters' "Eyes Without a Face". But even the most highly exalted examples of filmic camp can articulate moments of self-reflection--or try to, anyway. And what better music to score a man's decision to toss himself into a crematorium oven and stop his transformation into a brain-eating ghoul than the psychedelic misgivings of Roky Erickson's "Burn The Flames"? Scavenging off this initial angst are the Tall Boys with the suicidal romanticism of "Take A Walk" and the quick forays of SSQ into New Wave synth scores--a tasty, bloody dessert to top off this banquet of fresh flesh. --Michael Woodring
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At the movies you can't keep the undead down. Brain-hungry zombies are resurrected with ... more
flair, style and humour in this sly sequel from writer-director Ken Wiederhorn (Eyes of a Stranger, Freddy's Nightmares).A new generation of ghouls is spawned when a barrel of nerve gas, fallen off an Army truck, is cracked open by neighbourhood toughs. The escaping greenish vapour turns the living into zombies and the dead into the not-so-dead. Of course, it seeps into the local cemetery... with groundbreaking results. See a severed hand on a spree in the back seat of a crowded car. Gasp as a zombie torso and its missing legs haplessly seek each other along a hospital corridor. Search no longer, fright fans: this deadfest is lively fun!
Just when you thought it was safe to be dead! When a group of curious kids uncover a drum ... more
containing a rotting corpse they release a mysterious gas. As the graveyard next door begins to stir the dead establish their reign of terror all over again...! There's only one thing on the menu... brains!
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Advantages: Inventive, fast paced, fun Disadvantages: Some weak acting
Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Okay, I’m in a good mood. So time to review something I really like. I must have seen this more times than any other movie. Way into double figures here. I’ll try not to be too biased though.
Superficially Return of the Living Dead seems like another trashy horror film. It has excessive gore, violence, swearing and a smattering of nudity. But this film never claims to be a masterpiece ... ...special make up effects right. Return of the Living Dead does so by the bucket load (literally). Allan A Apone heads up the make up team. He is a veteran of the Star Trek TV Series and Movies and major pictures like Swat (2003) and XXX (2002). He makes the living dead suitable dirty (after clawing their way up through muddy soil) and disgusting. They are soggy oozing, torn apart creatures. FX man Tony Gardner created a decomposed (upper) half corpse ... more
Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Okay, I’m in a good mood. So time to review something I really like. I must have seen this more times than any other movie. Way into double figures here. I’ll try not to be too biased though.
Superficially Return of the Living Dead seems like another trashy horror film. It has excessive gore, violence, swearing and a smattering of nudity. But this film never claims to be a masterpiece and it is that humble attitude and a completely professional production that makes it so successful.
Writer/Director Dan O’Bannon was responsible for the original screenplay of Alien (1979), and has also worked on Lifeforce (1985) and Total Recall (1990). Here, his story is based as an unofficial sequel to Night of the Living Dead (1968), but set in the ‘real world’. The lead characters, Frank and Freddy, work at a medical supply company; a warehouse full of skeletons, medical equipment and the odd cadaver. They talk about the film Night of the Living Dead and Frank shares a revelation that it was based in fact about army experiments with chemicals that resulted in corpses coming to life. He claims to have the proof by way of a lost shipment of the previously reanimated bodies in the basement. He shows Freddy the bodies but accidentally breaks one of their airtight containers releasing the chemical and the body. From here on the chemical and the problem, and later the carnage, spreads. A group of young punks who are waiting for their friend Freddy to finish work, party in the graveyard (as you do), whilst Frank and Freddy contact their boss Burt to try and solve the situation with the help of his old friend Ernie, an embalmer in the next door crematorium.
O’Bannon relies on a breakneck speed story focused on a small area of Louisville; the warehouse, the cemetery, and the crematorium. It creates a claustrophobic and fast paced film, never taking itself too seriously. He also adds some originality to a genre that was rapidly becoming tired and stale. Zombie movies of the past had always been a case of the tortoise and the hare. No matter how slow the zombies were they still always manage to win in the end. This was the first film to give the zombies the edge of speed. Now they are something to truly fear. Few other films have taken this approach; most recently was 28 Days Later (2002).
One of the most important aspects of a gore film like this is getting the special make up effects right. Return of the Living Dead does so by the bucket load (literally). Allan A Apone heads up the make up team. He is a veteran of the Star Trek TV Series and Movies and major pictures like Swat (2003) and XXX (2002). He makes the living dead suitable dirty (after clawing their way up through muddy soil) and disgusting. They are soggy oozing, torn apart creatures. FX man Tony Gardner created a decomposed (upper) half corpse model that would interact with the characters when captured; superb animatronics for 1985. He has since worked on 28 Days Later (2000) and Three Kings (1999) (remember the stomach turning internal body shots).
As far as the cast goes it’s a strange mix. The younger characters are largely unknowns and remained that way, taken form numerous smut and horror flicks. However, there are no really bad performances. James Karen plays Frank and he seems to be in millions of good films when you start to pay attention. All The Presidents Men (1976) Poltergeist (1982) Mulholland Drive (2001) to name a few. He is a good solid character. Clu Gulager provides more solid support as boss Burt Wilson, who looks like he could be Jackie Gleason’s older brother (the mean teacher in The Breakfast Club). Unfortunately he has not had such a notable career. The highlight perhaps being a part in Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show (1971). Don Calfa is great as the gun-totting embalmer at the local crematorium. He also played a great part as an assassin in the Chevy Chase comedy Foul Play (1978). And finally scream queen and general punky gore girl Linnea Quigley has a central role as Trash. I think her name alone deserves attention not to mention her dubious back catalogue of often amusing films. They include Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-A-Rama (1988), Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988), and the Linnea Quigley’s Horror Workout Video (1990).
There is little bad that I can say about this film, other than it is aimed at a rather select market and possibly could have had a slightly higher budget or better cinematography. But it really doesn’t matter that much. It has some lovely finishing touches and attention to detail. The mounted butterflies flap their wings, still pinned to the wall, in the background. The use of a half dog prop (medical school item). The distorted sound of screaming while vocal chords are being severed. The eye chart on the office wall that reads ‘BURT IS A SLAVE DRIVER’. And a fantastic and fitting punk soundtrack featuring The Cramps, The Damned and some decent original music.
The film is very much of the times and many will see it as dated. I prefer to look at it more nostalgically. After all, won’t many of the so called cool films of today be dated within the next decade. Plus it gives the film a clear identity and, in being so stylised, a fantasy world you can grip on to. Finally, I believe that the difference between an alright film and a good or great one is the ending, and here the ending is classic. Basically I love it.
Advantages: Funny, gory, trashy, original! Disadvantages: Slightly weak score, may be too dated for some
And so to bed – the time when nightmares take hold of the brain and rule your sensibilities. In your mind, the threat of being mangled by a stampeding frog-beast seems all too real. You can almost smell the fetid breath of a five-armed demon as she threatens to tear your lungs out with her toenails. Waking up, you can always console yourself in the fact that this kind of thing never happens in real life. By the same token, you can watch a movie ... ...knowledge that there ain’t a face hugger in your jar of piccalilli.
Where zombie movies work for me is the human element. I find the idea of being set upon by a slathering mass of humans far more terrifying than a man in a rubber suit – no matter how much input HR Giger has into it! The psychological reason behind this is easy to spot. It’s hardly likely that the dead will ever walk the earth, but it’s a tad more believable. ...
peppersinclaire 15.05.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Return Of The Living Dead (DVD)
Advantages: Nice special effects Disadvantages: As a Night of the Living Dead 'sequel', it has some stiff competition
This film is about the best that can be done with a sense of humour, a pile of special effects, and something good to make fun of. Pretending to be some kind of follow-up to Night of the Living Dead (a role already filled perfectly by Dawn of the Dead), this film has faster, more talkative zombies, younger, more stupid victims, and gorier, more expensive makeup. It's funny in parts, and never boring, but it hasn't any of its ancestor's atmosphere, ...
Danieru 27.07.2000
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Review of Return Of The Living Dead (DVD)
Advantages: great FX and a cracking soundtrack Disadvantages: none
This has to be one of the best horror movies of all time. It has everything you could ever want in a horror movie - gore, some nasty monsters, tension, humour and a surprise ending. The film takes place in what we would probably know as an industrial estate. The three major structures are a medical supplies warehouse, a crematorium and a graveyard. Thom Matthews (who appears to have become synonomous with this sort of film) plays a green behind the ... ...has gone home this mentor and colleague decides to show him where the military accidently dropped off the bodies captured after the film "Night of the Living Dead". When gas from one of the canisters escapes the two are infected and the gas is spread throughout the warehouse. Things get worse when the corpse in the freezer comes back to life and the only way to dispose of it is by cutting it up and burning it in the (handy) crematorium. Unfortunately ...
Xcom 28.05.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Return Of The Living Dead (DVD)
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Advantages: No more video tapes Disadvantages: None
Here is the ultimate punk comedy, horror musical of all time.
The Return Of The LivingDead is a great movie to own.
It stars James Karen (The original Pathmark supermarket spokesman from years ago)
It also stars Clu Gulager, Dan Calfa and Linnea Quiggley.
The movie starts out with two employees who work for the Uneeda medical supply who are working all by themselves.
Frank who is played by Karen asks his employee if he ever seen the movie Night Of The LivingDead. Then he goes into a short story about how the government supposedly says that even though the movie is based on the truth, that if it wasn't changed around that they would sue who ever said anything about it so, they had to lie in the movie. Frank asks Freddie if he would like to see one of the bodies that was re animated way back then.
So, they both go down into ...
The cover of this DVD claims the film is scarier than Hellraiser – in big bold type. And ‘scary’ it is, though the claim is somewhat in question!
Julie (Mindy Clarke) and her boyfriend Curt (J. Trevor Edmond) are the main stars in this ‘teen love horror story’. The couple hopelessly in love, vow to remain together until death do them part.
Curt’s father is a Colonel in a top-secret mission: to bring the dead back to life and use them as weapons in any future war! [Maybe not as far fetched as we immediately think, considering the recent developments in cloning].
The dead are brought into a supposed secure (with extremely limited security) and then allowed to come in contact with ‘Trioxin’: The chemical that will allow the dead back to life! Once alive, the dead are difficult to re ...
Advantages: Different, focused story, great effects Disadvantages: Actors and plot are secondary to the action
Return of the LivingDead part 3 (1993)
After the truly awful mess of Return of the LivingDead Part 2 (1987), it?s surprising another sequel was made. I approached it with trepidation, but was quite pleased with the end result.
Julie (Melinda Clarke) is the girlfriend of Curt Reynolds (J Trevor Edmond), whose father, Col. John Reynolds (Kent McCord), works at a military research base trying to create new biological weapons using the ?livingdead? chemical and cadavers from the previous films. Knowing that Col. Reynolds works in an exciting place Julie persuades Curt to use his father ID to sneak in to the lab and see what?s going on. They are shocked by what they witness; the re-animation of a corpse. Julie is fascinated while Curt is sickened. One motorbike accident later and Curt is breaking into the lab again with Julie ...
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