Cast:
Clu Gulager (Burt Wilson), James Karen (Frank Johnson), Don Calfa (Ernie Kaltenbrunner), Thom Mathew (Freddy Hanscom), Beverly Randolph (Tina), Miguel A. Núñez Jr ("Spider"), John Philbin (Chuck), Jewel Shepard (Casey), Brian Peck ("Scuz"), Linnea Quigley ("Trash"), Mark Venturini ("Suicide"), Jonathan Terry (Colonel Horace Glover), Cathleen Cordell (Ethel Glover, Colonel's Wife), Drew Deighan (Jerry, The Paramedic), and James Dalesandro (Tom, The Paramedic) Directed by Dan O'Bannon.
Review:
Ever heard of a fork in the road for "Dead" movies? You might remember that Night of the Living Dead (1968) was co-written by John A. Russo and George A. Romero that had plenty of input from each side. The movie was, well, a hit, so naturally Romero and Russo would become involved with something totally interesting to follow it...well, not quite. There's Always Vanilla was directed by Romero while Russo was just a co-producer. They basically split after that and did their own things. Russo did a few horror novels (such as The Return of the Living Dead) and movies of his own. Apparently, in 1978, Russo and Romero did an agreement where Romero got to produce and distribute Dawn of the Dead while Russo got the right to do his Return of the Living Dead, as long as it was not promoted as a direct sequel to Night of the Living Dead. The story is credited to Rudy Ricci, John Russo (who, well, wanted to make a straight feature), and Russell Streiner, although it had had plenty of re-writes in the screenplay by Dan O'Bannon, who became the one to direct the movie when Tobe Hooper backed out to make the movie Lifeforce (1985). O'Bannon would direct just one other film with The Resurrected (1991) prior to his death in 2009 at the age of 63. Of sorts, the movie spawned a franchise, in that one could call a number of movies called Return of the Living Dead a franchise (1988, 1993, 2005, 2005) despite having little to no involvement from O'Bannon and company; Romero apparently was more annoyed that Russo didn't get his script made into a film. There are a few versions of the movie. The 2002 Special Edition DVD had music alterations because of copyright issues, while the 2007 release altered the basement zombie voice. A 2012 UK release had the original audio and soundtrack. Funny enough, even with "2K scan" and "4K scan" versions of the film for home media, the song "Dead Beat Dance" is hard to actually include. Even funnier, there was litigation over who had the rights to the intellectual property of the film as late as 2024.
For whatever reason, the movie was first released abroad in April 1985 before hitting the States on August 16, 1985 (paradoxically being ahead and behind Romero's Day of the Dead, which was released in July 1985 in the States). I guess you could say it was a send-up of the Dead movies. But if that was the case, why call Night of the Living Dead as a movie based on actual events for this movie? Of course, this movie is the one that says zombies need brains, so there's that. For a person that rather liked Day of the Dead, it is a bit strange to call The Return of the Living Dead as merely a fine movie. Taking place in 1984 Kentucky (as one does when using the "based on a true story" trick), it certainly is a movie fit for a late night that would love to hear about a supposed cult classic and just roll with its action (91 minutes). It is a bit unwieldy in its humor, but it does have a killer look to its creatures and has some worthwhile mayhem with its death sequences because at a certain point, death spiraling can be gruesomely funny. The bumbling between Gulager and Karen and Calfa is amusing for a time, although one really does need more of a divide between them and the resulting punks, who really are just folks too bored and too cynical than punk, arguably; Quigley and her suggestive grace probably steals the show among the rest. It does have a thin plot, as one does with a siege movie that has people eventually run and board things up before having a dour ending that probably had in mind to top Night even if it is a bit loopy. The zombies not just being easy to shoot or torch is interesting and probably served as an interesting jumping point for future films involving the dead, that's for sure. I like the effects for the zombies that have a good deal of muck (one is even chained up and others might be zombified animals), and the movie does have a general sense of mayhem for its entertainment. As a whole, it is a solid zombie flick with a few chuckles and gruesome fun that likely will be fit for a dark and stormy night that clearly has had staying power for four decades for good reason.
Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.
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