A Volta dos Mortos Vivos 2

In this sequel to 'The Return of the Living Dead', three neighborhood kids stumble upon one of those army drums and accidently release the gas that revives the dead. What follows is basically the same horror mayhem as its predecessor. Zombies rise from the graveyard and remarkably manage to eat the brains of everyone except for the few people within which the movie revolves around. The two movies are pretty much similar in terms of content, but what is lacking this time around is freshness.

The first movie took a satirical approach to George Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead', and it worked in terms of humor and creepy fun. In this film, which is basically a carbon copy of the first, it is not quite as much fun. Rather, it seems to be more silly than funny. The script strains for humor throughout the movie, particularly in a scene in which the movie mocks Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video. But its flaws don't really matter because this is not the kind of movie to be taken seriously. I guess that it can be a decent movie to watch on a Halloween night.

Rating: (5/10)

Honestly, this is a very bad movie. The first Return of the Living Dead was a great movie, and highly entertaining. This second part, however, was just plain stupid! The acting was poor, the script was poor, and there is virtually NO GORE! I think there are only three or four deaths in this film, and they are all incredibly LAME. The zombies in this film are supposed to be funny, but I never laughed once. Stay away from this one, watch the first one instead.

In what's essentially a loose remake of the original, a barrel with a zombie inside falls out of a truck and is discovered by some kids. They open it, toxic fumes are unleashed, they get sick, and start craving brains. Soon enough, zombies are coming out of the ground with the same cravings for brains.

Return of the Living Dead Part II is a much sillier film than the original, which is saying a lot because the original could get pretty silly at times, too. James Karen and Thom Matthews return as different characters, but these characters are far more shrill, whiny, and annoying than the ones they played in the original. Even worse, there's a girlfriend character who only adds to the shrillness.

There are a couple of funny gags throughout the film, but it can't hold a candle to the original.

While transporting drums of the dangerous Trioxin gas, one of them falls from the army truck into a river. In the morning, the boy Jesse Wilson (Michael Kenworthy) is bullied by the older Billy (Thor Van Lingen) and Johnny (Jason Hogan) and he hides himself under a bridge nearby the cemetery. The two bullies find Jesse and they see the barrel. Then the bullies lock Jesse in a mausoleum and they decide to open the barrel, releasing the Trioxin and breathing the toxic gas. Meanwhile the grave robber Ed (James Karen) hires Joey (Thom Mathews) to help him to pillage the graves and they go to the cemetery in a van with Joey's girlfriend Brenda (Suzanne Snyder). Ed and Joey go to the mausoleum and Jesse is released and runs home. His sister Lucy Wilson (Marsha Dietlein) tells him to do the homework. Then the cable guy Tom Essex (Dana Ashbrook) arrives to fix the television and he recognizes Lucy from the high- school. Soon the Trioxin awakes the dead in the cemetery and the town is crowded with hordes of zombies. Ed, Joey and Brenda run to Jesse's house and team up with Lucy and Tom trying to survive to the brain eaters.

"Return of the Living Dead: Part II" is a funny zombie cult movie. This sequel is a comedy with action, with good special effects and creepy zombies. There are the usual stupid attitudes from the characters but it is highly entertaining. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Volta dos Mortos Vivos - Parte 2" ("The Return of the Living Dead: Part II")

Disappointing experience. First of all, it's supposed to be a sequel but two of the main characters from the first movie come back in totally different roles and that was very distracting: I've spent the first 15 minutes wondering whether it was really a sequel or maybe some sort of weird reboot, a la Evil Dead 2. But the main problem is another one, and much much worse. The problem is that they took away everything that made The Return of the Living Dead great (witty dialogues among well-written characters, convincing zombies, splatter & gore...) and the result is an ordinary and quite boring movie about whining and unpleasant human characters constantly crying and yelling while a bunch of suddenly stultified undead chase them around. Yawn.