Review #489: 'The Return of the Living Dead' (1985)

At the Uneeda Medical Supply warehouse, new employee Freddy (Thom Mathews) is shown the ropes by manager Frank (James Karen). In an attempt to impress the brainless but loveable punk, Frank takes him down to the basement where he claims lies the remains of the result of a zombie outbreak, stored by the military, that was the inspiration for the movie Night of the Living Dead (1968). The sealed drums that contain the zombies begin to leak, causing a gas to pour into the warehouse and awakening the dead. Owner Burt (Clu Gulager) arrives in disbelief at the awakened corpse stored in the freezer, and after an unsuccessful attempt at killing it, they take the butchered corpse to the local mortician Ernie (Don Calfa), who incinerates it, causing zombie smoke to leak into the city, and into the nearby cemetery.

After the success of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead, co-writer John A. Russo and Romero agreed that Russo would obtain the right to any film with the title ...of the Living Dead in it, while Romero will continue his own zombie series. 18 years later, The Return of the Living Dead was made, a film that embraced Romero's 'rules', yet making certain tweaks to form an original zombie film in its own right. Here, the zombies can run, speak, think, and having a craving for brains. This film is also a comedy, and a very funny one at that, that both pokes fun at the genre and embraces its charm. While Romero's zombies drag their feet and gaze gormlessly in their eternal search for meat, here we have zombie 'characters' such as the Tar Man and the Half-Corpse - the latter of which manages to explain their longing for brains to the horrified Ernie.

Such is the silliness of the film, and it's an aspect that makes this one of the funniest and most effortlessly enjoyable genre films of its type. There isn't the usual bunch of stock stereotypes that make up the gang you wait eagerly to be killed, but a gang of loveable throwaway characters performed by quality actors (especially Gulager, a former star in the 50's and 60's who took full advantage of the low-budget horror boom in the 1980's). It also has the sexiest zombie ever, not that I can think of any others. So if you like your horror with its tongue firmly in its cheek, and chocked full of clever set-pieces and darkly funny humour, as well as enough blood and guts to satisfy the casual gore-hound, then this is probably the best film ever. For most other people, this will be one of the quickest 90 minutes you'll ever experience.


Directed by: Dan O'Bannon
Starring: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Thom Mathews
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie