ReturnoftheLivingDead

The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

So I have to assume that if you are chilling here at Gutmunchers.com then you probably have already seen The Return of the Living Dead. But just in case you haven’t I’ll give you a brief plot synopsis.

What happens when a couple of less then competent employees (Frank and Freddy) at a medical supplies warehouse accidentally releases a chemical that raises the dead? A hell of a lot of fun is what happens! Frank and Freddy call the boss when the entire inventory at the medical supply shop comes back to life and instead of calling for help they incinerate the evidence. Unfortunately this only leads to the chemical ending up in the clouds that then dumps it into the cemetery across the street when it starts to rain. Before you know it there are brain eating zombies digging their way out of the ground and chasing Freddy’s friends, who while waiting for him were hanging out in the cemetery.

Rather then try and do a serious zombie movie director and writer Dan O'Bannon decided to play this movie more for laughs. Now that isn’t to say that there aren’t good effects, hell Tarman is one of the coolest zombies ever (more on that later). But there isn’t any social commentary and the characters are much sillier then you would expect in a Romero or Fulci flick. And honestly I’m okay with that, because Return of the Living Dead is good fun. The story is paced well and again is filled with silly, but interesting characters that you can root for. Even if the movie were only the employees of the warehouse and the embalmer next door (Ernie rocks!) you would have plenty of characters to root for. But adding in Freddy’s friends, which are a wacky group of ‘80s stereotypes and fashion mistakes makes it even better. Plus the movie just wouldn’t be the same without Trash (my favorite Linnea Quigley role). Only good things can happen when you have a solid story and interesting characters, which is what Return of the Living Dead brings to the table.

Lets talk the gore. The one thing that I noticed on watching the movie for review is that there really aren’t that many on screen kills and most of them are kind of tame. You do get to see some brains getting scooped out of cracked skulls, but this is mostly after the fact. Compared to some of the gut munching gore fests of the ‘70s and ‘80s the movie is a bit tame. That said where Return of the Living Dead excels are the zombie makeup effects. From the ½ woman that they question, to many of the undead that crawl their way up out of the ground there are many memorable undead that populate this one. It is also kind of cool that unlike other zombie movies they give some cool lines to the dead folks. Who can forget the classic, “Send more paramedics.” And then we have one of the most famous zombies ever to appear on screen, Tarman. There are just a select few zombies, or monsters period, that are instantly recognizable and he is one of them. So you have to be doing something right with your effects when you create a classic movie monster like Tarman.

For this review I watched the recent Blu-Ray release of the movie. It includes the same special features as the special edition DVD that came out a couple of years ago, but they are worth mentioning here. First up is an older feature called Designing the Dead. It is only about 12 or 13 minutes long, but does feature interviews with production designer William Stout and the director, the late Dan O’Bannon. There is another making of feature called The Dead have Risen. This is slightly longer (around 20 minutes) and includes interviews with several of the cast members, including Clu Gulager and James Karen. Both of these are very entertaining and worth watching. If commentaries are you thing there are 2 to choose from. You have one with Dan O’Bannon and William Stout that is informative and interesting. There is also one with several of the cast that is more fun, though the zombie gag gets a bit old.

The last thing that I wanted to mention is a feature called The Decade of Darkness. This isn’t a ROTLD documentary, though the movie is mentioned. This feature is all about the horror boom of the 1980s. The people interviewed for it are impressive. You have John Landis, Joe Dante, Stuart Gordon, Bill Mosley, and Tom Holland. If you dig ‘80s horror then you will want to watch this one.

Getting back to the movie at hand if you haven’t seen Return of the Living Dead you should also check it out. Along with the Fulci and Romero flicks this is one that scarred… I mean inspired me to create the comic and site known as Gutmunchers.com. That alone should make you guys want to check it out.

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer