Le retour des morts-vivants

"The Return of the Living Dead" has held a special place in my heart for a very long time. This satirical take on Romero's classic (if you don't know which one, you shouldn't be reading this) is one of the greatest horror films ever made and is also one of the most respected. The direction by Dan O'Bannon, writer of "Alien" (also one of the greatest), is superb and Jules Brenner's cinematography is stunning for a film not shot in a widescreen aspect ratio (it was shot 1.37:1 full frame to save money). The scene with the rising of the zombies is best described as hauntingly beautiful yet chilling. The cast gives great performances and the special effects are astounding, as is Matt Clifford's rousing score. The nasty going-ons is highlighted by a powerful metal soundtrack featuring The Cramps and Billy Idol.

The plot concerns some nasty chemical that has the ability to bring the dead back to life. When a barrel of the stuff is accidentally opened, all hell breaks loose: the cast is forced to do battle with scores of zombies (this time hungry for brains). Twists and turns abound as the cast is trapped at Ground Zero-the epicenter of the plague, if you will. All of the characters are likely even though they are mostly sleazy and corrupt. Linnea Quigley is great as Trash as is Clu Gulager as the corrupt warehouse owner. The zombies themselves are fun to watch; be warned, however, that they are not the usual slow, shuffling stiffs we've all come to love.

All in all, "The Return of the Living Dead" is an amazing thrill ride that will remain in your mind long after it's over. Do yourself a favor and seek out this cult classic. You won't regret it!

This movie is like very little else out there. It's a zombie comedy that isn't a full-on splatterfest like most, doesn't offer some overly humorous social satire (there's subtle jabs at Agent Orange and Nazis), and doesn't have a high-concept premise (for a zombie movies that is). What you have is dry as hell, with punk rockers (timely for the time - Repo Man meets zombies?), Nazi morticians smoking pipes and listening to their Walkman while embalming, and Quigley nudity for its own sake, but characters are in on it and equally celebrate and scold her. It has iconic scenes and quotes though I'm sure a lot of people have no idea they're actually from this.

It just works - it's funny, weird, creepy, gory, and always entertaining. A hard mix to pull off and one that happens with success very rarely. It's always said that there's a fine line between horror and comedy - the pros can straddle it like a daring high-wire act and this is one of them. If only the ending weren't so abruptly anti- climactic and there were a few more naked zombie Quigley kill scenes it'd be a perfect cult classic.

Gotta love the very serious Suicide while naked Quigley grinds on him: "No one understands me, you know that." "You think this is a f***in' costume? This is a way of life." "Hey, what's wrong with you, man? Show some f***ing respect for the dead, will ya?" All this because he was called a "spooky motherf***er."

This is saying a lot too, because to me this is the only film of the five Return of the Living Dead films to be above good standard. The sequels varied in quality, with 2 and 3 being acceptable enough though with their problems and 4 (Necropolis) and 5 (Rave to the Grave) being terrible, the latter being marginally worse and being one of the worst sequels ever made. The original however is an immensely enjoyable film, with its very few flaws barely noticeable amidst the huge amount of good.

It is definitely the best-looking film in the series, it is stylishly shot and lit with a wonderful ominous atmosphere, complete with atmospheric sets, above average effects and some great make-up on the zombies. There is a killer 80s soundtrack that still sounds good and haunting rather than cheesy, and instead of the outdated quality it could have had the soundtrack makes one nostalgic for the 80s. As well as a hilarious and clever script that's never forced, doesn't get bogged down in too many explanations or too much exposition, and that is very quotable (which I don't think any of the sequels achieved and it was something that 4 and 5 could only dream of doing so), and a story that seemed tired in concept but felt very fresh in execution with so many funny moments and an equal number of highly disturbing and scary ones.

Return of the Living Dead is directed with adroit class and a clear fondness for the genre by Dan O' Bannon, and while some of the punk teens are annoyingly and one-dimensionally written and acted with not much spark (the sole problems with the film, and they are not that major), the leads are written very likeably and Clu Gulager, James Karen, Thom Mathews and Beverly Randolph are charming and lots of fun (all of them at least knowing what sort of film they're in), Gulager and Karen are particularly good. Don Calfa is also suitably shady. The film also cleverly and wisely makes the zombies the stars and uses them brilliantly, furthermore these zombies actually are very menacing, a real threat, do a lot more than just shuffle and plod around and are wonderfully tongue-in-cheek, exuding real personality. The twist is deliciously ironic, adding to the freshness when it easily could have been tired or anti-climactic.

All in all, immensely enjoyable and the best of the series by some margin, being the only one to be completely satisfying. 8/10 Bethany Cox

ROTLD is one of the rare cases where horror meets comedy to good effect. With some classic lines like "you gotta hit the brain" and "watch your mouth kid if you like this job", this film works because it doesn't rely solely on gore or stupidity; the script is very well written.

ROTLD pays homage to George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" but veers away from the slow lumbering zombies of the '68 classic, and instead gives us "the original" super zombies (ie before 28 days later or Dawn of the Dead remake) that are not so easily dealt with! This proves to be an interesting problem for the script to resolve which I think it does with style by the end of the movie.

The characters are a little predictable and one dimensional except for the lead pair who are introduced at the start of the movie, but that's perhaps the only flaw. What I really like about this movie is that, whilst not entirely a gorefest, it still manages to kick-ass because of the flawless plot. By this I mean that there a few scenarios where you find yourself saying "that's just dumb" or "they'd never do that" etc, which is very rare nowadays in the horror/sci-fi genre. Dramas & thrillers etc get an easy job of it because all they have to do is convince us that their reality is real-life. Horror on the other hand needs to convince that the unreality it portrays is what is real-life, and that's not always an easy task.

ROTLD is funny, sick, clever and above all entertaining if you can stomache some pretty twisted content. Personally, I love it.

"Return of the Living Dead" is an often hilarious, often frightening, often disgusting, and always entertaining horror comedy. The cast is great, the dialogue is snappy and very quotable, and the special effects still hold up very well, nearly 20 years after the film's release. Fans of the horror genre, 1980s buffs, or just folks who enjoy something different occasionally will most likely get a kick out of it.

10/10