Zombie apocalypse is the concept that began to look much less abstract and closer to home for most of the audience in past few years, making films dealing with the subject less entertaining than they used to. That includes even films that took somewhat of a lighter approach to the subject, like Return of the Living Dead, 1985 horror comedy written and directed by Dan O’Bannon.
The film is, in more ways than one, related to Night of the Living Dead, 1968 film by George A. Romero, which is considered to be the origin of modern zombie genre. O’Bannon’s script is based on the premise that Romero’s classic was actually fictional treatment of the real late 1960s incident that got hushed up by US military. The plot begins on July 3rd 1984 in Louisville, Kentucky, which is the location of medical supply warehouse where some of the cadavers ended after erroneous US government shipment. This is the story foreman Frank (played by James Karen) tells to his young employee Freddy (played Thom Matthews) and, while showing him the cadavers, he accidentally releases Trioxin, chemical compound responsible for reanimating corpses. Soon the warehouse is filled with human and animal corpses becoming alive and, after seeing that conventional methods of killing them don’t work, Frank’s and Freddy’s boss Burt (played by Clu Gulagher) tries alternative approach. Ernie (played by Don Calfa), undertaker and Burt’s friend working in nearby funeral parlour, is asked to burn dismembered but still alive body parts in his crematorium. This action makes thing even worse because of rain that makes ashes containing Trioxin fall on nearby cemetery. This is the exact location where couple of youngsters, including Freddy’s girfriend Tina (played by Beverly Randolph), decided to stage impromptu party before Freddy finishes his shift and join them.
For O’Bannon, scriptwriter known for the work on some of the best science fiction films of his time, this film represented directorial debut. In it he did a decent job, keeping the quick pace and telling his story in within hour and half of running time. Much more important task was finding proper balance between paying homage to and parodying Romero’s film, as well as keeping the balance between extremely violent and gory content (which relied on a lot of make-up and mechanical special effects) and darkly humorous approach. O’Bannon succeeded in it to a degree, especially in the first part of the film, when he introduces many memorable characters played by relatively unknown, but quite talented actors. This includes James Karen as Frank, for whom audience keeps sympathies despite his responsibility for the mayhem. Don Calfa is also great as the undertaker with fondness for German WW2 military music, while Jonathan Terry is also effective in brief role of US Army Colonel Glover whose constantly quiet demeanour in sharp contrast to hysteria and fear felt by almost anyone else. Most memorable role, although arguably for wrong reasons, belongs to scream queen Linnea Quigley who plays Trash, purple-haired punk girl obsessed with violent death who suddenly strips at the cemetery during the party and remains naked for the rest of the film.
O’Bannon was, on the other hand, somewhat less successful in the second part of the film. In an attempt to make his film as different from Romero’s film as film, he imagined much nastier and more dangerous zombies. Instead of slowly walking and eating flesh, they are hungry for the brains of the living, can move fast and even talk and set traps. Protagonists seem to be powerless against such adversary and the general tone of the film remains dark, with action at times too repetitive. Impression is, to a degree, saved by dark and ironic ending, which was in many ways product of 1980s US politics. On the other hand, Return of the Living Dead shows its age with excessive use of punk rock soundtrack with lyrics that at times serve as ironic commentary of the plot, but such songs aren’t likely to be anyone’s cup of tea. This film nevertheless had some success at the box office and later received cult status, as well as four rather obscure sequels.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/10925-the-return-of-the-living-dead Critic: AA
