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

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