‘The events portrayed in this film are all true. The names are real names of real people and real organizations.’
Thats the first thing we see after that lion roars.
There are very few complaints that can be said about Return of the Living Dead. Or for those of you fans out there… RoTLD. You got an all star cast, you got some awesome 80’s horror. And you got a surprisingly good soundtrack that promotes a good graveyard strip show!!
The movie starts out with Frank (James Karen) and Freddy (Thom Mathews) working at a facility that distributes for medical research. Skeletons, cadavers, prostetics, and half dogs. Length wise even. Frank starts of refering to the original Night of the Living Dead. About a toxic spill that leaked out and caused the dead to come alive.. He continued with ‘it was all real.. and they covered it up.’ Frank then shows Freddy some canisters bound for the military that was accidently delivered to them. Then all hell breaks loose. Now its an all you can eat brainfest. And trying to contain the problem only makes it worse for our heros. As they hold up in the….. Resurection Funeral Home. Get it? Looks like Freddy’s friends aren’t going to be picking him up for that party after all. They are all going to fight for their lives baracaded in the funeral home as more and more dead manage to claw their way to the surface. With only one thing on their minds. Your brains. It gets pretty text book from there. The fight for survival and odds stacked them. Who will make it out alive? I mean, un-alive.
RoTLD brings us a great cast. You might remember James Karen, Miguel Nunez Jr, Brian Peck, and of COURSE…. Linnea Quiqley. We get what you would typically expect from this type of movie. Very little character developement. But, its not that important. You don’t really want too much of that anyway. It takes away from the brain eating time. Another thing this doesn’t bring. Is the typical living dead rules. Talking and thinking. They’re really not the mindless dead we are used to seeing. They’re pretty damn smart for being decayed pieces of flesh. However I think thats what director Dan O’Bannon wanted to do. He is the genius that wrote us the Alien movies and the Vs Predator movies. I have a feeling he wanted to stand out on his own and keep himself seperated from what Romero did. Even though I think he kicked this movie out at just the right time to get in on the zombie genre that Romero perfected. It brought us a little something different that we don’t really associate RoTLD with NoTLD. But, with that in mind. He surely paid his repects to Mr. Romero by mentioning his black and white original. Almost like saying, ‘you’re my inspiration’
OVERALL SUMMARY
In the end. This movie delivers on many different levels. With our now known cast and the special effects that are above and beyond for some of the movies even now a days. We got a winner. And, come on, about any movie with Linnea Quigley in it just seals the deal for good time. This is a must see for the any Living Dead fan. Good soundtrack, plenty of blood, walking dead, throw in a couple laughs… Its a no brainer. Get it?
