The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the cemetery'those brain-eating zombies are back and hungry for more tasty mortals. A fiendish mix of outrageous humor and heart-stopping terror, The Return of the Living Dead is a veritable smorgasbord of fun (LA Herald-Examiner) filled with skin-crawling jolts, eye-popping visuals and relentless surprise! On his first day on the job at an army surplus store, poor Freddy unwittingly releases nerve gas from a secret U.S. military canister, unleashing an unbelievable terror. The gas re-animates a corps of corpses, who arise from their graves with a ravenous hunger for human brains! And luckily for those carnivorous cadavers, there is a group of partying teens nearby, just waiting to be eaten!

A return with respect............

Not munch could be said about this movie, that hasn't been said already. Except excellent return. Love seeing a A+ horror classic getting the respect it deserves. More extras, new cover looks good, and it helps to have a dvd single sided. I said this over, and over again. MGM Midnite movies your the best. Hopefully we'll see Night of the Creeps on dvd soon! November 11, 2008

I Don't Watch Many 80's Flicks But This Was Good

I've heard of so many Living Dead movies that I can never really tell which is which or what is original but I do know that this one was pretty good. Return of the Living Dead is a zombie horror film with some pretty sick and creative creatures in it. The story goes in 1966 a chemical company was ordered to create a secret chemical for the military. The company was told that the chemical would treat soldiers for something but this comes out to be absolutely false. Two idiots accidentally break a can and it leaks in a hospital morgue. The bodies start to come back to life and won't stop until they get human brains in them.

After fighting off some of the zombies, a few men find a way to destroy the newly energized bodies. What these guys didn't know was this plan would make things worse. In fact, this plan would turn out to be so worse that the casualties become ridiculous cause these zombies are smart enough to get what they want and keep on going.

I have to say that for an old movie, the picture and sound was pretty darn good. One major factor in a good zombie flick or anything with such creatures is that they have to actually be scary looking. Not just that, they have to look pretty real as well. The zombies in here were pretty cool, there is this one thing that is covered in tar that looked really sick. This had pretty cool character creations and some crazy scenes with zombies having some late night dinner.

The story was OK, pretty much what you see in most zombie movies where a chemical pretty much leaked out. I guess since this came out so long ago it doesn't really matter. Only thing I didn't like was the acting and script. I don't know if in a movie like this it means a whole lot but when the dialogue is super choppy at times. For example, the actors stumble over their lines as if they're doing improv, it doesn't really help the film. Overall though the movie for Halloween and I would recommend it for a week like this one. October 18, 2008

A complete and total waste of film

This movie is worse than I remember it. If you want a good zombie movie watch something by George A. Romero. July 28, 2008

A rather well done zombie movie

2 warehouse workers inadvertently cause a drum to leak poisonous trioxyn gas into the warehouse. What starts out as a way to dispose of a reanimated corpse causes an entire graveyard to come back to life in search of delicious brains! I believe this was the first zombie movie to introduce running corpses. I slept for 3 days with my light on after seeing that Tarman closeup back when I was 7. May 21, 2008

Rigor Mortis: How does it feel to be dead, or why this is the best Horror B-Movie of the 80's

"Did you see that movie, Night of the Living dead?" Practical Joker middle-aged Frank (Jim Karen) takes the first shot as he trains teenage clueless freddy (Tom Matthews) in a medical supply warehouse. Why? Simply because Frank claims "that" movie was based on real events: An incident in a military base involving a nerve-gas chemical so powerful, it can turn corpses into brain thirsty monsters. And several cannisters of that chemical are hidden in the basement, lost in a delivery confusion. Of course Frank had to show freddy the cannisters and the expected accident happens: The chemical is released, Frank and Freddy inhale it and get knocked-down, while one the most original, outrageous, hysterical, creepy and funny versions of the zombie apocalypse is unleashed: "The Return of the living dead", a bloody title posted in the most gruesome possible way thanks to the melting face of one of the most infamous zombie characters ever conceived, "The Tar-man". Let the angry corpse catastrophe begins, as the medical specimens of the warehouse, included the frozen human corpse in the freezer room, half-dogs and nailed insects come to life in one of the most disturbing but funny nightmares ever filmed.

Ignored by critics and considered just another horror B-Movie popcorn flick, a Romero's satyrical teenage film, garbage as well as the tons of cheap horrors movies saturating the 80's industry, this movie is one of the most funny, entertaining and important Zombie films released in the 80's. Dan O'Bannon directed in 1985 this teen, punk rock soundtrack horror epic that became a legend among horror fans worldwide. Not a masterpiece obviously, and the differences with the Romero zombie mythology are hughe, so let's disect this movie with the help of Romero and find out why this movie is so different and awesome.

- ZOMBIE CULTURE: Forget Zombies, those slow-motion and staring ghouls wondering around without direction, more actual dizzy, pale people. Romero teached us: This is creepy because they are us. Now in 1985, Enter the rotten CORPSES, out of the grave, hungry and angry predators. Compared to these ravenous, frenetic and carnivorous human-remains, Romero's zombies are almost polite, even shy. They can also speak and they scream in pain out of nasty hunger, they run, they eat brains instead of flesh, they are gory monsters, not "us" anymore. And what about the renegade body parts, or the Tar-man, THE zombie of all times: Hear him breathe through his rotten-to-fluid lungs! Creepy! Lucio Fulci's or Mario Bava's rotten corpses? Sand of another bag. This is Comedy after all.

-THE RIGOR MORTIS: By far the most important point: Why reanimated corpses eat brain? How does it feel to be dead? How does the so well described Rigor Mortis functions in order to create a thrilling experience on the viewer, based on Frank and Freddy's "descent to hell of the undead" experience? The sickness, the numbness, the pain. This movie is all about PAIN, the pain of the living dead, not the victims. For the first time in such a goffy, horrific and entertaining way. With Romero, get bitten and after an hour you die and become a ghoul. The transformation in this film is original and agonizing, detailed, long and psychologically tense, devastating.

-PUNK ROCK AND GRAVEYARDS: Silly drunken Teenage punk rockers, why do you love to party in graveyards? Don't you know you will get your brains eaten? Who's fault is that, that we love so much the slaughter of the young in horror movies? Sadism meets a limit here: the teens are clever enough to react fast and with efficiency. Some of the characters are silly but not forgetable as the usual B-horror flick moron teen. They deserve to live, we cheer for them, not against. Cops? They die well. Military? Were are they and who cares. Great action, tension, dense humor and macabre situations. Run just to get trapped. Amazing electrifying action.

Those three points were the most important i can think of right now. A genre defining movie came out this B-movie Popcorn flick. A must see for horror fans, and HEY! New fans of this relentless and commercial new horror industry of re-makes, extreme mutants slashers and torture: CHECK THIS OUT! FUN, FUN, FUN. Cheesy, humurous, gruesome imagery. A real self-aware zombie movie, a total classic.

Last Thing for my fellow horror friends: Who cares about what Zombies "Should" do according to father Romero, as long as we're falling from the edge of our seats!
Think about it. My respects for the father, who i never worshiped fortunately, and for you.

Enjoy this incredibly relentless movie in the best DVD edition available, this one: Look at the box, the extra material. I own the previos MGM release and they are pretty much the same, but for first timers, here's your edition! A must have, definetly.

March 17, 2008

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