Return of the Living Dead
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The Return of the Living Dead is a horror film that was released in 1985. It was followed by several sequels.
The film came about as a dispute between John Russo and George A. Romero over how to handle sequels to their 1968 film, Night of the Living Dead. The two reached a settlement wherein Romero's sequels would be referred to as the Dead movies, and Russo's sequels would bear the suffix Living Dead. Thus, each man was able to do what he pleased with the series, while still having one another's work distinct and be considered canon. Following this decision, Russo wrote a horror novel, Return of the Living Dead, which he planned on adapting into a film script. Although the film rights were initially sold in 1979, they were passed along by several different studios and directors before finally being obtained by Tobe Hooper, for whom Russo wrote a script. Hooper dropped out of the project, though, and the script never came to fruition.
Following Hooper's departure from the project, Russo, along with his new partner, Dan O'Bannon, wrote a new script (with Russo adapting it into an accompanying novel), also titled The Return of the Living Dead. This project alleviated confusion amongst fans of Romero's work by including a scene in which a character acknowledges the George Romero films and explains that while they are based on true events, the events of the Return series are the "true story." In addition to this separation of the storylines, the films in the Return series are markedly more comedy based than Romero's films, employing "splatstick" style morbid humor and eccentric dialogue. The film also boasted a great deal of nudity, with one character spending almost the entire film without clothes.
Although Russo and O'Bannon were only directly involved with the first film in the series, the rest of the films, to varying degrees, stick to their outline and "rules" established in the first film.
Plot
Medical supply warehouse foreman Frank (James Karen) informs his new protege, Freddy (Thom Matthews) that Night of the Living Dead was a true story, based on events that occurred when a gas (2-4-5 Trioxin) was released into the morgue in the basement of a VFW hospital. As a matter of fact, in the warehouse was an inadvertent recipient of a canister of Trioxin leftover years ago, complete with a dead body -"Tarman" - sealed inside. Due to the canister's less than stellar durability, however, a light tap causes it to burst open. The dangerous gas leaks out of control, not only poisoning Frank and Freddy, but unleashing the now animated Tarman (Allan Trautman). Frank and Freddy awaken to discover that the various body parts (and bodies) in the warehouse are now alive, including disembodied hands and a dissected dog. Themselves slowly turning into zombies due to the effects of the gas, Frank and Freddy enlist the help of the warehouse owner, Burt (Clu Gulager), and his mortician friend, Ernie (Don Calfa), to cremate the cadaver and body parts. Unfortunately, the resulting smoke carries the evaporated trioxin with it, which mixes with an overhead raincloud. The rain begins to fall on the nearby cemetery, seeping into the graves causing the dead to rise. Their first victims are Freddy's friends, who have been partying among the graves.The zombies differ in this movie, in that they are fast, as strong and intelligent as they were in their previous life, and can form words even when they are merely very degraded bodies. Instead of hunting humans for their flesh, they hunt for the humans' brains, stating that only the taste of brains can ease their suffering. It appears that injuries to their brains do not have any effect, and the only way to fully destroy them is to cremate their bodies, although the ensuing smoke also spreads the contagious gas.
Cast
- Clu Gulager as Burt Wilson
- James Karen as Frank
- Don Calfa as Ernie Kaltenbrunner
- Thom Mathews as Freddy
- Beverly Randolph as Tina
- John Philbin as Chuck
- Linnea Quigley as Trash
Trivia
- The film was released on August 16th, 1985, and made $14m at the box office in the USA, nearly double the amount earned by Day of the Dead, a film made by Russo's former partner George A. Romero and released the same year.
- The film gained quick popularity largely due to the performance of Linnea Quigley, who as the "punk queen" Trash performs a full-frontal, gyrating strip-show on top of a tombstone while blasting SSQ's "Tonight (We'll Make Love Until We Die)" on a boom box. Her appearance not only helped to garner the film popularity, but it cemented her place as an 80s horror icon and "scream queen".
- Throughout the 1980s, the film gained a strong following with the punk music scene; not only were a large number of the main characters punks themselves, but the film features an almost exclusively punk rock soundtrack. When the film was finally released on DVD in the early 2000s after years of limited availability in a poorly edited VHS release, it became a best-seller due to what is considered a high nostalgia factor of 1980s pop culture.
- Strangely enough, the film also sparked a new interest in the already strong punk/hardcore scene of Louisville, KY, where the movie takes place.
- The character Ernie is thought to be a Nazi due to his sharing his name with Ernst Kaltenbrunner among other "hints" in the film. Whether these are coincidences, an inside joke, or actual character traits are not known.
- The film features three actors who have been in Friday the 13th films: Miguel A. Núñez Jr. and Mark Venturini, both of whom were in '. Thom Mathews is as well known for his role in this film, as he is for the part of Tommy Jarvis in '.
| The Living Dead films |
|---|
| Official Romero directed films |
| Night of the Living Dead • Dawn of the Dead • Day of the Dead • Land of the Dead |
| Unofficial sequel/spin-offs |
| Italian Zombi series: Zombi 2 • Zombi 3 • Zombi 4 (aka Oltre la Morte or After Death) |
| Other: • Children of the Living Dead |
| Remakes |
| Night of the Living Dead (1990) • Dawn of the Dead (2004) • Night of the Living Dead 3-D • Day of the Dead (2007) |
| Return of the Living Dead series |
| Return of the Living Dead • Return of the Living Dead Part II • Return of the Living Dead 3 • ' • ' |
| Spoofs/parodies |
| Night of the Living Bread • Shaun of the Dead |
External links
- [}}}] at Rotten Tomatoes
- [}}}] at Box Office Mojo
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