Synopsis: Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the cemetery – those brain-eating zombies are back and hungry for more tasty mortals. A fiendish mix of outrageous humor and heart-stopping terror, The Return Of The Living Dead is a “veritable smorgasbord of fun” (LA Herald-Examiner) filled with skin-crawling jolts, eye-popping visuals and relentless surprise!
On his first day on the job at an army surplus store, poor Freddy unwittingly releases nerve gas from a secret U.S. military canister, unleashing an unbelievable terror. The gas re-animates a corps of corpses, who arise from their graves with a ravenous hunger for human brains! And luckily for those carnivorous cadavers, there is a group of partying teens nearby, just waiting to be eaten!
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Let’s face it: there’s a dearth of good zombie movies. And, by “good” I mean “that has a decent story and that is properly executed”. Oh, that and the requisite zombies screaming: “Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaains!!!”
Well, ROTLD is one of the good ones. And, by the time of its release in the mid-’80s, it was one of the few. Granted, there had been quite a few zombie movies in the ’70s but, aside from the Romero ones, most of them were crass and cheap.
ROTLD is by no means a high-budgeted, award-winning masterpiece, but it stands out from the rest for its overall quality: the story makes relative sense, the humour is well-paced and placed, the gore is spread appropriately and in moderation and the acting is efficient. Oh, it’s nothing that can really be taken seriously – but that’s the point of this movie anyway.
If not for the fact that it’s very dated, I would give it a higher rating; it just hasn’t aged well at all! But the collector’s edition DVD is worth the extra mile nonehteless – not only does it have featurettes, but it has such novelties as zombie subtitles and an audio commentary featuring the cast and…. zombies.
Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaains!!!
thecriticaleye 