Return of the Living Dead

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VideoGameCritic
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Return of the Living Dead

Postby VideoGameCritic » September 29th, 2020, 10:27 pm

Just watched this the other night and I think it's a really underrated zombie flick. I love Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, but they were overly long and pretty heavy handed with the social commentary.

Return of the Living Dead is just plain fun - balancing the laughs with the screams perfectly - which is not easy to do. Great acting (!) and fun soundtrack too.

The Blu Ray has a wealth of excellent special features including interviews with the original characters. I was fascinated that the girl who ran around naked in the movie wore a "Barbie doll piece". Otherwise it might have been X rated!

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velcrozombie
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Re: Return of the Living Dead

Postby velcrozombie » September 30th, 2020, 9:39 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:Just watched this the other night and I think it's a really underrated zombie flick. I love Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, but they were overly long and pretty heavy handed with the social commentary.

Return of the Living Dead is just plain fun - balancing the laughs with the screams perfectly - which is not easy to do. Great acting (!) and fun soundtrack too.

The Blu Ray has a wealth of excellent special features including interviews with the original characters. I was fascinated that the girl who ran around naked in the movie wore a "Barbie doll piece". Otherwise it might have been X rated!


It really is an excellent movie and I regret putting off seeing it for as long as I did. Along with what you said about it, it's surprisingly intelligent - the characters usually do the best they can with the ridiculous circumstances they are put under. I also like the gradual change from a gruesome comedy to a more serious horror film as things take a turn for the worse.

As for calling NotLD and DotD overly long and heavy-handed, I'll give you DotD on both counts (I need to rewatch it though - it's been close to 20 years at this point) but not NotLD - it never felt bloated or preachy to me. Someone had it playing in the breakroom at work last year during lunch and I was impressed by just how much power it still has.

The girl in RotLD is Linnea Quigley - she's a scream queen who showed up in various states of undress in a bunch of horror and B-movies starting in the late 70s. I didn't know she was wearing anything at all and was shocked that they got away with it - I guess that answers my question!

matmico399
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Re: Return of the Living Dead

Postby matmico399 » October 3rd, 2020, 5:01 pm

I've never seen it before but you guys have me interested now.

Ozzybear
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Re: Return of the Living Dead

Postby Ozzybear » October 9th, 2020, 7:39 am

Send ... more .... paramedics.

Critic , now watch part 2 , you’ll get a great
Laugh how things are continued !

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Re: Return of the Living Dead

Postby C64_Critic » October 9th, 2020, 6:38 pm

This has been one of my favorite horror flicks since I first watched it in High School. I don't know if you even remember that I borrowed your copy a few years back when I saw you had it during one of your Halloween parties. Great movie, and yes a fantastic soundtrack (I own the CD of the soundtrack) that stands on it's own merits. More horror movies could learn from this one, it doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't try to be something it's not.

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Re: Return of the Living Dead

Postby VideoGameCritic » October 9th, 2020, 7:44 pm

Ozzybear wrote:Send ... more .... paramedics.

Critic , now watch part 2 , you’ll get a great
Laugh how things are continued !


Don't think I ever saw this but it holds a rare 0% (!) on Rotten Tomatoes.

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velcrozombie
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Re: Return of the Living Dead

Postby velcrozombie » October 10th, 2020, 11:15 am

C64_Critic wrote:More horror movies could learn from this one, it doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't try to be something it's not.


Can you give me an example of a movie (or specifically a horror movie) that tries to be something it's not? I hear this phrase a lot and while I think I understand what it's referring to, I can't actually name any real-world examples.

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Re: Return of the Living Dead

Postby C64_Critic » October 10th, 2020, 4:11 pm

velcrozombie wrote:Can you give me an example of a movie (or specifically a horror movie) that tries to be something it's not? I hear this phrase a lot and while I think I understand what it's referring to, I can't actually name any real-world examples.


Sure. It's been a while, but I feel like "The Happening" by M. Night Shyamalan would qualify. I *think* he was trying to make a campy, quasi-fun horror movie you didn't have to think too much about, but it ended up being a boring, incoherent mess where he tried to shoehorn in some environmentalism message that had me rolling my eyes. In fact I think that Shyamalan in general believes himself to be a much better director/producer than he actually is.

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Re: Return of the Living Dead

Postby velcrozombie » October 12th, 2020, 11:49 am

C64_Critic wrote:Sure. It's been a while, but I feel like "The Happening" by M. Night Shyamalan would qualify. I *think* he was trying to make a campy, quasi-fun horror movie you didn't have to think too much about, but it ended up being a boring, incoherent mess where he tried to shoehorn in some environmentalism message that had me rolling my eyes. In fact I think that Shyamalan in general believes himself to be a much better director/producer than he actually is.


I have no idea what he was trying to accomplish with the film so I can't say one way or the other. Lady in the Water has some incredibly awkward attempts at humor but I can at least tell when there is meant to be a joke. While I can't understand why you'd cast Marky Mark as a science teacher if you were making a serious film, I'm going to chalk up the campy bits to incompetence - every scene has the same ominous tone no matter how silly the onscreen carnage gets. Maybe James Gunn (based on Slither and his Troma past) could have done something fun and outrageous with the premise.

I will say that I'd rather have accidental gold like The Happening over something competent but boring (which is what 80 percent of films end up being).

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Re: Return of the Living Dead

Postby JustLikeHeaven » October 20th, 2020, 8:54 am

Return of the Living Dead is one of the best zombie movies ever made. It dances on the razor's edge of horror and comedy like few films can. Dan O'Bannon, one of the writers on Alien, directed and he had a heavy hand in re-writing the script. I believe this is the first film to show zombies craving brains specifically. Actually, I think quite a few common zombie tropes stem from Return of the Living Dead. It has so many wonderful characters and iconic moments...naked cemetery dancing, characters named Burt n Ernie, the slimy zombie "Tar Man", the kicking soundtrack. It's a special film and it has only grown more popular in recent years.

Part II is corny and silly. Seemed to be more kid friendly. Part III is killer with madman Brian Yuzna in the director's chair. Lots of body horror and gross out effects. It's a solid little trilogy, but the first flick is clearly the best.


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