The Return of the Living Dead [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Thom Mathews, Beverly Randolph, John Philbin, Jewel Shepard, Miguel A. N��ez Jr., Brian Peck, Linnea Quigley, Mark Venturini, Jonathan Terry, Dan O'Bannon, Derek Gibson, Graham Henderson, John Daly, John A. Russo, Rudy Ricci, Russell Streiner: Film & TV

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Amazon.co.uk Review

Return of the Living Dead is a parody-cum-sequel spin-off from George Romero's superior Night of the Living Dead films. A corpse-containing canister gets breached and releases an oily, loose-limbed, brain-eating zombie tatterdemalion and a gas that revives anything dead in the vicinity, even a bisected dog preserved as a vet's teaching specimen and a case of pinned butterflies. The dim-bulb leading characters--earnest Clu Gulager, goofy James Karen and Thom Matthews--burn up a mess of surplus living body parts, but the rains wash the ashes into the earth of a nearby cemetery and a whole crowd of brain-eating zombies claw their way out to terrorise a group of teens who sport the kind of 1985 fashions, hairdos, slang preferences and musical tastes that will never feature in a TV nostalgia programme.

There are plenty of in-jokes at the expense of the Living Dead films (learning that shooting 'em in the brain doesn't work, the appalled Matthews gasps, "You mean the movie lied?"), and director Dan O'Bannon, the writer of Dark Star and Alien, hurries things along through some gruesome action and terror-by-zombie bits until the surprisingly cynical anti-government conclusion. It's not as wittily outrageous as Re-Animator or Braindead, but it has an amiable, drive-in-cum-home video grunge about it. Frequently naked exploitation regular Linnea Quigley makes an impression as the punkette zombie who goes on the rampage wearing nothing but leg-warmers and body make-up.

The frill-free DVD is full-screen (boo hiss!) except for the titles, offers only the trailer and inadequate cast and crew notes as extras, but it looks okay. --Kim Newman

Special Features

English
Region 2

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Customer Reviews

36 Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 stars (36 customer reviews)

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You will laugh till you die!, 13 Feb 2007

By

M. Dyer (London UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Return of the Living Dead [DVD] (DVD)

My favourite Zombie movie (and I've seen a lot!!) Brilliant performances, great post-punk atmosphere and soundtrack. It has tragedy ("It hurts to be dead") comedy that will seriously have you falling on the floor laughing, and in a bizarre way it's scarier than most Zombie films. The fact that you actually care about the dumb humans gives it an edge.

Also the ultra cynical ending is perfect (who says it's not political)

Personally I can't stand CGI effects, they always look the same and nobody believes their eyes.
In this film you won't believe your eyes either but for different reasons; the sheer grotesque imagination of the film makers will stun you!
[...]

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A modern zombie classic, 30 May 2006

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I. R. Kerr (Lancashire) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Return of the Living Dead [DVD] (DVD)

A good twist on Romero's living dead. This time the dead are rising due to chemicals from chopped up living dead bodies being burned and their ashes combining with rain and falling onto a graveyard. Well, would you have made it that complicated?
The acting is not strong outside of Clu Gulager and James Karen, and Don Calfa plays a wonderful mortician with several clues as to a possible nazi past scattered around.
The punks are cannon fodder, only Linnea Quigley being memorable for obvious reasons. The sight of 2 of the male leads succumbing to rigor mortis is priceless.
The creatures themselves are a change from the hobbling zombies of yesteryear. Only the tar-man hobbles in his quest for "more Brains". The idea that they eat brains to take away the pain of decay is briliantly disturbing "it hurts to be dead". Add to that the classic line that has inspired at least one rock band "send more paramedics".
All in all this is a well crafted horror comedy.

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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars . . .almost as good as the evil dead bunch, 13 Dec 2002

By

spoon_lamp (Albion) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Return of the Living Dead [DVD] (DVD)

Been missing my video copy of this for nearly a year now so I'm glad to find it being released on DVD.

This is classic over-the-top gore/ black comedy/ horror, very much in the vein of Evil Dead 2.

The story is about a group of friends which gets smaller and smaller as the film progresses as is traditional in the 'schoolies go off to the log cabin for the weekend' type of horror films. Here, the first character has just got a new job at a medical supply warehouse. His new boss is giving him the guided tour, trying to spook him with ghost stories etc - gas used by the government went bad, remains of a test subject in a barrel downstairs, that sort of thing. Anyway the barrel is accidently cracked open and the gas escapes- as do the remains of the unfortunate trapped within. This gas then starts making the dead rise from their grave and its all hell on earth from there.

This is all fairly preposterous stuff but its meant that way. Theres not so much suspension of disbelief (ahem. zombie film...) as setting the stage for whats to come. The 80's seemed to spew these type of films out but apart from the Evil Dead bunch, the Romero classics and this they all seem to have disappeared (thank god!). But the cast do well to realise their characters with what they're given and they ARE characters, not the typical 80's almost-jock with a checked shirt and body warmer, looking either terrified ,angry or confused all through the film.
Director Dan O'Bannon (Lifeforce amongst others) has learned from his earlier releases and has gone straight for the comedy jugular with this one. Although the humour is never too in your face, the almost slapstick duo of the boss and his employee is hilarious as they complain of sickness and extreme pain due to the gas they were directly exposed to takes hold of them (I guess they become unalive rather than undead, but the eventual effect is much the same!). Nor do they shrink for the horror aspect. These zombies don't just shuffle and mumble, they want to eat your brains! And once the ambulance crew have been polished off as an appetiser, one blood soaked zombie gets hold of the radio as it requests a report and says simply '...send more paramedics' as though ordering the next round of drinks (to mix my metaphors).

Great B movie fun, silly plot, this has energy and pace to it as well, unlike most 'zombie' flicks, and the nearest we get to romance is the last words of the boyfriend who calls to his hiding girlfriend ' if you really loved me you'd let me EAT YOUR BRAIN!'

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic tongue in brain zombie horror
Return of the Living Dead works on so many levels. Gore, outrageous over the top punks, great music, solid acting well from some, a cynical wonderful ending, humour and so... Read more

Published 2 days ago by Colonel Decker