Review #588: 'Return of the Living Dead Part II' (1988)

If you're a fan of the cult horror film Return of the Living Dead (1985), then chances are you've watched this lazy sequel, only to be left wondering where the last 90 minutes of your life have gone. The plot surrounds another lost toxic barrel, containing the chemical gas that will awake the living dead. An obnoxious child witnesses the birth of the zombies after the gas is accidentally released, and the town is soon overrun by seemingly indestructible, brain-eating zombies. A couple of gravediggers robbing the dead are caught up in the midst of the zombie outbreak, and with the boy and his family, try desperately to survive the onslaught.

If the plot sounds extremely dull and familiar, it's because it is. The first film was a very amusing, and often quite clever little movie, bursting with ideas and scenes of pure lunacy brought to life by a cast who look like they're genuinely having fun. Part II obviously knows this, and rather than trying to expand on the originals quirky charm and develop the universe, director Ken Wiederhorn, who ended his relatively short career in television, chose to simply re-hash the first, involving similar scenes and situations, and even bringing back some of the actors. What the film becomes is almost pure comedy, aiming at a teenage audience (although the humour is for infants), and lacking the fun horror and gore from the first. There's nothing that even comes close to the limbless female zombie demanding "braaaiinnnss!" from the first.

What we do get is a wise-cracking severed head with the voice of a finger-snapping black woman, a little boy hero who I was praying to be brutally murdered, and a zombie dressed as Michael Jackson doing the Thriller dance (yes, really). It's such a desperate, pathetic attempt to humour an audience that was most likely getting into each other's pants in the back row, and I fail to see how this would amuse anyone apart from those who are entertained by jangling keys. Even James Karen and Thom Mathews,  who were very funny in the first, look uncomfortable with the crap they are given to work with. It's just one boring, cringe-inducing 90 minutes, made worse by the fact that this is a missed opportunity, given the quirky charm of the first. One fellow IMDb reviewer put it better than I can, so I quote - "not funny, not campy, not scary, not good."


Directed by: Ken Wiederhorn
Starring: Michael Kenworthy, Thor Van Lingen, James Karen, Thom Mathews
Country: USA

Rating: *

Tom Gillespie