Reviews
The Return of the Living Dead (1985) IMDb
Categorization |
Black comedy with a keen edge of shock. It goes to surprising lengths to preserve psychological realism, unlike Re-Animator (1985), qualifying itself as one of very few successful comedy/horror combinations in existence. Also vaguely dystopian. |
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Subject |
Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) was based on a true story, distorted only for dramatic and legal reasons. Hence, like Zombi 2 (1979), this franchise claims to be related to the Dead series, but isn’t really. The dead did not rise in “1969” (an intentional mistake as to the release date of Night of the Living Dead, perpetuated as canon in the rest of this franchise) because of any “mysterious radiation”, but because of a chemical which is still around, misplaced by the army. The chemical, and the corpses it once animated, are in the basement of a medical supply warehouse. Its containers are just waiting to break when roughly handled. Once released, nothing would stop the chemical, especially not a reduction of zombies to hot ashes when the clouds are heavy and there’s a cemetery right nearby. Incidentally, it’s a cemetery full of nihilistic punks, and one of them seems to be taking her clothes off. |
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Commentary |
There are lots of neat touches throughout, such as the disclaimer reading “The events portrayed in this film are all true. The names are real names of real people and real organizations.” Beware of some amusingly bad supporting acting. Read up on the original script (which dodges the cheap epilogue of this one), and ask yourself what Ernie was probably doing in the 1940s. |
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References here: Super 8 (2011). |
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Sequel: Return of the Living Dead II (1988) IMDb
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Sequel: Return of the Living Dead III (1993) IMDb
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