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It isn't really a sequel to George Romero's famous
Night of the Living Dead,
but more of a spoof of it, and an homage to it. In fact, it was
released in competition with Romero's own official sequel. Most people have
called it a horror/comedy, but I think gross-out/comedy is more
accurate. There isn't really that much horror. Although the
resurrection of the dead may put some scares into kids under 12, it
basically plays out for gross laughs if you are an adult. Before
Cemetery Man (1994) and Shaun of the Dead (2004) came along, this was
widely considered to be the funniest zombie movie.
It features exceptionally gruesome brain-eatin' zombies in various states of dismemberment and
decomposition, twisted logic, outrageous dialogue, trash talk,
intentionally corny acting, a hard-drivin' rock score,
dumb 80's punk fashions, movie in-jokes,
and a great-lookin' woman who stays stark naked for more than thirty
minutes. |
DVD info from Amazon
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Theatrical trailer(s)
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Commentary from Director/Writer
Dan O'Bannon and Production Designer William Stout
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"Designing the Dead" Featurette
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Conceptual Art by William Stout
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TV Spots
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Widescreen anamorphic format, 1.85
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It ends when the U.S. Army destroys the zombie threat in
the usual measured, rational fashion which defines their movie
behavior - by dropping a nuclear bomb on
Louisville, Kentucky. If that isn't silly enough for you, it turns out
that the fallout from that bomb will probably spread the zombism, not
end it, so the movie ends with the traditional "the end????".
Although the movie is a cult favorite, it has been all but unavailable
for years, so fans should be delighted by the beautiful transfer on
the DVD. According to the comments at IMDb, there was never a
widescreen version of this film. There is now. I guess they created
this one especially for the DVD by hard matting the full frame, then
digitizing the result without the matting into an anamorphic print.
But that's just a guess. However the hell they did it, it looks great |
TUNA's THOUGHTS
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The Return of the Living Dead
(1985) is not really a sequel to Night of the Living Dead,
although it makes no bones about using that film for
inspiration. Further, it is more a comedy than horror. A young
man is working his first night in a medical warehouse that sells
cadavers, skeletons, etc. His girlfriend and their circle of
friends are waiting at the cemetery across the street for him to
get off work. The man training him asks if he has seen "Night of
the Living Dead", then explains that it was a true story, and
that the Army accidentally shipped the zombies to their
warehouse. He takes him to the basement, and they accidentally
release one. The gas overcomes them, and when they wake up, they
are feeling terrible, but are even more concerned that the
cadaver in the freezer is alive and trying to break out. They
call the warehouse owner, admitting what happened, and together,
they all try to kill the zombie. These are not ordinary movie
zombies. First, they are not slow moving. Second, they eat live
brains. Third, destroying their brains, or burning them doesn't
slow them down in the slightest.
After cutting their zombie into pieces, and having each piece
still alive, they decide to cremate it at the mortuary across
the street. The smoke from the cremation mixes with raindrops,
reanimating all of the corpses in the cemetery where the
teenagers are killing time.
By now, the two warehouse
employees are really feeling sick, with headaches, muscle aches,
and chills, so they call in paramedics. The paramedics find no
pulse, no blood pressure, and body temperature the same as room
temperature, and the mortician correctly diagnoses the headaches
and muscle pain as rigor mortis. The two don't take this news
well.
The question then becomes how
to either defeat the zombies, or escape them, but fast,
intelligent and indestructible zombies are a formidable
opponent. |
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The
Critics Vote
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The People
Vote ...
- A modest winner at the box office. Made
for $4 million, it grossed $12 million theatrically.
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| IMDb
guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of
excellence, about like three and a half stars
from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm
watchability, about like two and a half stars
from the critics. The fives are generally not
worthwhile unless they are really your kind of
material, about like two stars from the critics.
Films under five are generally awful even if you
like that kind of film, equivalent to about one
and a half stars from the critics or less,
depending on just how far below five the rating
is. My own
guideline: A means the movie is so good it
will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not
good enough to win you over if you hate the
genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an
open mind about this type of film. C means it will only
appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover
appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you
like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if
you love the genre. F means that the film is not only
unappealing across-the-board, but technically
inept as well.
Based on this description,
Scoop says, "This
film is a C+. I suppose there's no such thing as a great film
that happens to be about about zombies, but there is such a thing as a
great zombie film, in the sense of 'top-drawer entertainment for those who
are favorably predisposed to enjoy zombie
films.'
On that particular beach, this movie was the Big Kahuna of the
80s." Tuna says:
"The special
effects range from good to excellent, the graphic design is very
good, and the acting is not at all bad. With appeal both as
horror and comedy, the proper score is C+."
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