Return of the Living Dead (1985)

This semi-sequel to George Romero’s cult chiller is a wonderful tongue-in-cheek horror flick. “They’re back. They’re hungry. And they’re not vegetarian,” blared the poster.

A missing army shipment of top-secret toxic gas is released into the atmosphere by Frank (James Karen) and Freddy (Thom Mathews), two bumbling employees of the Uneeda Medical Supplies company, causing zombie corpses to rise from the dead, in search of human brains to eat.

Their target: a bunch of punk rocker teens who are partying on the tombstones, one of which (scream queen Linnea Quigley) takes off her clothes in a graveyard and spends the rest of the film running around naked.

Two of the characters actually “die” but remain conscious. Rigor mortis even sets in on them – and man is it painful. The trapped survivors barricade themselves in a nearby mortuary and watch as paramedics and police officers are attacked and consumed.

Director Dan O’Bannon cleverly makes the zombies – rather than the actors – the real stars of this movie and, unlike the Romero variety, these can speak, though they’re mostly limited to spouting, “Brains, more brains!”

Later, after munching on some policemen, a zombie calls the local precinct and orders them to, “Send more cops!”.

A must for horror fans, this was followed by two sequels of varying quality.

The soundtrack features music from The Damned, The Cramps, TSOL, The Jet Black Berries, and The Flesheaters.

“Did you ever fantasise about all the different ways of dying – violently?”

Burt
Clu Gulager
Frank
James Karen
Ernie
Don Calfa
Freddy
Thom Mathews
Tina
Beverly Randolph
Chuck
John Philbin
Casey
Jewel Shepard
Spider
Miguel A Nunez Jr
Scuz
Brian Peck
Trash
Linnea Quigley
Suicide
Mark Venturini
Colonel Glover
Jonathan Terry
Colonel’s Wife
Cathleen Cordell

Director
Dan O’Bannon

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