Mortal Zombie

The third part in a series of movies usually is nowhere near the original; however, Brian Yuzna's take on the "Return of the Living Dead" makes the third installment in the famous comedy/horror series, a very different and special movie. Getting away from the slapstick comedy aspect of the previous films, director Yuzna & writer John Penney unfold a tale of doomed love and gory violence spiced up with very dark humor. Quite a change from part 2; in fact, the only thing this movie has in common with the previous chapters is the inclusion of the re-animating gas.

Penney's script is like a bizarre twist on "Romeo & Juliet": Curt Reynolds (J. Trevor Edmond) is an angsty teenager in love with rebel Julie Walker (Melinda Clarke). While sneaking in the military base where Curt's father (Kent McCord) works, they discover that the project his father has been working involves re-animating corpses. After a tragic accident where Julie dies, Curt decides to bring back Julie using his father's experiments with the infamous chemical: 245 Trioxin.

Right after Julie is revived, the action starts and never stops, with the couple running away from both the army and a gang that wants them dead. To make things worse, Julie's increasing urge to eat human flesh and Curt's own anxiety and family troubles collide and make the trip harder for the lovers.

Brian Yuzna really created something special with this movie, the characters are very rich and are the backbone of the movie. The acting is top notch, something quite different from the typical b-movie. In fact, the movie is so well done in those aspects that its flaws in SFx and overall production are easily forgiven.

The movie has a lot of heart and the credit for that must go to Yuzna's direction and Penney's script. The couple of lovers must really grow to face the situation and to face each other's troubles. The acting is very good for the most part, but is Clarke who gives the performance as Julie.

The transformation from self confident daredevil to fearful victim of the circumstances, and then to ruthless killing machine is very believable and one cannot avoid to feel sympathy for her character. A really remarkable job.

Sadly, the movie is not perfect, the low budget hurts the production a lot and the sets look a bit fake, However, it's worth to point out that the make-up effects in the zombies and the gore are quite good for the budget.

By far the best movie in the series, and among the best and most creative horror movies ever done. Director Brian Yuzna has not been able yet to come up close to this achievement, but he earned his place in history with this movie. 8/10. A modern classic.

Return of the Living Dead III is the type of horror film you can watch with your friends, or your girlfriend. It is a film with a romantic (yet tragic) edge to it that saves it from the muck of sequel overkill. The story follows a young man who, after seeing his girlfriend die who he loves so much, brings her back to life in a top secret facility with the gas that brings back the dead from part 1 (without them being able to get electricuted), but then strange things happen. Clever horror with a edge, with it's only problem not stopping too often and of course the sequel overkill. Still worth a look, especially for horror enthusaists who don't believe there's life after part 2. A-

I was reluctant to watch the third part of the series (I have no interest in the second) as I knew the character of Burt would no longer be joining us. The death of Burt in the first ROTLD is one of the most unfortunate things in all cinema and had me depressed for weeks. I had further reservations when the logic of the first one was changed significantly--people in this movie are turned into zombies when bitten by one, which was not part of the original at all (this was also not the case in "Night of the Living Dead," but Romero put it into the sequel. It seems to be a weird detail that was obliquely added to the zombie genre and is now taken for granted). There is also some uncertainty as to why the resurrected character Julie even wants brains. In the first one, the zombies can feel themselves decomposing and only brains can relieve the pain--in this one, she is just inexplicably hungry, and brains... make her full, or something. This leads to a rather hilarious scene in which she's stuffing all sorts of food into her mouth at a gas station and had me wondering if the movie was going to be idiotic, but at that moment the director hits the clutch and the plot veers into full throttle awesomeness. (And in retrospect it's not that big a plot hole; maybe she can't feel herself rotting yet but her body knows it's happening and desires brains.)

We begin following Julie and her boyfriend Curt (weird side note: these are the names of my aunt and uncle!) as they aimlessly run through the streets while pursued by a gang, with Julie becoming more insatiably hungry by the minute. It's top-notch horror. A lot of horror movies have you wondering, "Why don't they just get HELP or something," but here it is clearly impossible for the police or medics to do anything, and you're as stumped about what the characters should do as they are. There's no feeling superior to them, a hard trick to pull off in a horror movie. Eventually, Julie attempts suicide and is rescued by a black man dressed like a Jedi Knight, and here I was no longer sad that Burt wasn't around because this new fellow actually out-awesomes Burt. He takes them to a room in a sewer which he has converted into some sort of temple and announces, "YOU CAN CALL ME... RIVERMAN," whereby I was able to conclude that if I were somehow put in charge of the MPAA rating system, I would rate every movie based on whether or not Riverman was in it (Riverman being played by cult actor Basil Wallace, best known as Screwface from the badass action movie "Marked for Death"). It is while in Riverman's lair that Julie discovers extreme pain can take her mind off brains, leading to the famous scene wherein she mutilates herself beyond recognition (some may see this as another plot hole, since the original ROTLD zombies needed brains to take their minds off pain, but I believe Julie still has enough of a conscience that she prefers the pain to killing). The astute viewer will realize here that all this eating and cutting on Julie's part seems to be referencing some actual real-life issues, although I'm not entirely sure what the point of it is. It might be just a joke, but the tone is dark enough that it makes a sobering addition to an already depressing story.

There's more awesomeness that I don't want to spoil here--I will only say that the freaky zombies from the first movie make an appearance at the end, bringing it all to a chaotic conclusion. Mindy Clarke is AMAZING as Julie--she makes a believable performance out of a role that is far different than the usual teen-horror "scream queen." The doomed bond between her and Curt works as both straight horror and tragedy, and the slick direction and elaborate set pieces make this a fine action flick as well. It's not quite as fun as the first in the series, but it's definitely impressive on its own, and I can honestly rate it as one of the better movies of the 80's. Check it out. 7/10.

Return 3 starts off very poorly. Actors are pretending to be in the military in a very cheap looking set. As usual in many low budget horror movies, moronic teenagers decide to break into a top secret military facility for fun.... <sigh>, and naturally accidentally release whatever the base is trying to contain. I was prepared at that point for the worst and settled myself in for 90 minutes of frustration. Return of the Living Dead 2 was one of the worst sequels I had ever seen, so I really wasn't expecting much from Return 3. But then something happened, and Return 3 got better and better. There was a real story! The director actually tried for some character development! There was suddenly plenty of extremely well done gore! There were some moments of real horror!

The scenes where Julie starts cutting and impaling herself were difficult to watch, that's how well done they were. The movie moves from a cheap horror-comedy into a well put together love story with incredibly gory effects. I actually really felt for the main couple, even though she was slowly turning into a zombie! Normally, one of them would get whacked which would give the remaining person a few lame Arnold-type lines, and an excuse to obliterate whatever (or whomever) is supposed to be the bad guy. However, this movie doesn't follow that formulaic path. It takes a very weird turn halfway through and never looks back.

When Julie makes her transformed appearance in the sewer, it is truly an awe-inspiring site! They actually managed to make her look both incredibly repulsive and very sexy at the same time. This film reminded me a lot of the Ginger Snaps movies in the type of character development pursued within the confines of a horror movie. Very pleasant surprise.

8/10

The third movie in the Return of the Living Dead series marks a change in direction from horror comedy to tragic love story. The plot to this one has a teenage boy (J. Trevor Edmond) using the zombie gas from the first two films to bring his dead girlfriend (Melinda 'Mindy' Clarke) back to life, with horrifying results. This is easily the second best in the series, surpassed only by the first. The '90s wasn't a great time for horror fans. Most of what was being made was cheap straight-to-video stuff. I can count on one hand the number of decent horror movies from that time. This movie would make the cut. It has interesting direction from Brian Yuzna, a refreshing story, and a decent cast. Melinda Clarke is especially good. Definitely worth taking a look at if you want something different.