All Rise...

Judge Patrick Naugle doesn't even return his library books.

Editor's Note

Our review of Return Of The Living Dead (Blu-Ray), published September 24th, 2010, is also available.

The Charge

They're back from the grave and ready to party!

The Case

AMC's hit series The Walking Dead captured the nation's viewers like no other show, especially considering its antagonists: zombies. The shambling, rotting corpses have been a huge hit for the network and ushered in an era where zombie movies became all the rage: from Brad Pitt's big budget adaptation of the hit novel World War Z to comedies like Life After Beth and Warm Bodies to TV shows like iZombie, the undead have taken over viewer's brains. What many younger viewers don't realize is there was a time in the 1980s when zombies seemed ubiquitous in movie theaters: from George A. Romero's 1985 sequel Day of the Dead to Fred Dekker's 1986 opus Night of the Creeps to Stuart Gordon's 1985 classic Re-Animator, the dead were truly in-vogue. At the height of their mid-1980s popularity came director Dan O'Bannon's raucous horror comedy Return of the Living Dead which, for my money, was one of the best zombie movies of the 1980s and maybe one of the best horror movies I've ever seen.

O'Bannon's Return of the Living Dead is a near perfect horror comedy that keeps the horror and suspense going until the final reel of the film. The story is rather simple: Frank (James Karen, Poltergeist) and Freddie (Thom Matthews, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives) are two warehouse workers at the Uneeda Medical Supply Company. After their boss leavaes for the day, Frank gives the newly hired Freddie a tour they inadvertently open a canister containing a zombie and a toxic gas, 2-4-5 Trioxin, which brings the dead back to life. After calling in their boss Burt (Clu Gulager, Feast), the gas brings back to life a cadaver in the warehouse's cooler. Freddie, Frank, and Burt dismember the cadaver and haul it to a local mortician next door, Ernie (Don Calfa, Weekend at Bernie's), and he agrees to let them burn in the crematorium. The gas eventually finds its way into some storm clouds and then into the rain, which in turn seeps into a graveyard where a group of teenage punk rockers are partying. The rain brings the dead back to life, forcing the punk teens and the Burt's employees to join forces to stop the living dead from eating their brains!

I have seen Return of the Living Dead so many times that I can practically quote it word-for-word. The film works as a horror movie and a pitch black comedy, but works best when it combines both elements into a truly entertaining stew of guts and guffaws. Return of the Living Dead's history is long and winding; the film was originally a novel written by John Russo, who co-created Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) was originally attached to direct the film, but dropped out and was replaced by Dan O'Bannon. O'Bannon's script was vastly different than Russo's novel, which was intentional—O'Bannon didn't want to step on Romero's toes any more than he had to, so he directly mentions Romero's film in Return of the Living Dead (O'Bannon's film can be seen as a lighthearted homage to Night of the Living Dead). Return of the Living Dead opened in theaters on August 16th, 1985 and was a modest hit, bringing in $14 Million on a $4 Million budget.

Return of the Living Dead feels like lightening in a bottle—the film shouldn't work as well as it does. So many ideas and concepts are mashed together that the film should be a resounding failure; from the obscure punk soundtrack to the off-kilter performances and a script that clearly steals a lot of ideas from Romero, Return of the Living Dead clicks in spite of itself. Actors like James Karen, Thom Matthews, and Don Calfa seem to understand just how to take the material seriously enough to make it unsettling but silly enough to make it a blast. The teenagers playing the punk rockers also have distinct personalities, from wannabe preppies (Point Break's John Philbin and Freaks of Nature's Beverly Randolph) to hardcore punks (Night of the Demons' Linnea Quigley and Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning's Mark Venturini), the cast is peppered with funny, interesting characters. O'Bannon's was notorious for being hardcore about what he wanted, and Return of the Living Dead succeeds because O'Bannon had a clear vision of the final film: this is a movie unto itself, with no imitators or equals. Case in point: the film's most memorable zombie, Tarman, whose melted body and skeletal frame is a true wonder to behold.

More than it's initial but minor success in theaters, Return of the Living Dead became has become a cult classic on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray. Over the years the film as amassed a large following, and rightly so. This is a zombie movie that feels truly unique and unlike any other living dead movie before or since. O'Bannon's choices—the often comical acting choices of the cast (especially a riotous James Karen), the punk rock song choices, the fact the zombies run instead of shamble—are what give Return of the Living Dead it's party atmosphere. This is a movie that's not just scary but scary fun. It comes with my highest recommendation.

Return of the Living Dead is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen in 1080p high definition. Scream Factory presents this transfer from a 2K scan of the interpositive, and the results are awesome. MGM's original Blu-ray release years ago was fine, but the image wasn't great. This time around the image is much, much clearer with better detail and vibrant colors. There's a noticeable lack of heavy grain (which was present on the previous edition), and the overall impact is often startling. While viewers shouldn't expect image quality on the level of Marvel's The Avengers, this transfer of Return of the Living Dead is heads and shoulders above any other previous release. The soundtrack is presented in both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround, as well as DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo. The 5.1 track is fine and filled with a fair amount of surround sounds, but the big news is the 2.0 Stereo mix which includes almost all of the original music and sound effects from the film's original theatrical release (something that was missing from previous editions). While neither track is going to blow away audiophiles, these are solid mixes that will please fans. Also included o this disc are English subtitles.

Once again Scream Factory steps up to the plate and offers up a definitive version of a horror classic. This "Collector's Edition" of Return of the Living Dead features two Blu-ray discs.

Disc one includes a brand new audio commentary with co-author Gary Smart ("The Complete history of the Return of the Living Dead") and Chris Griffiths, a new audio commentary with actors Thom Matthews, John Philbin, and make-up artist Tony Gardner, an older commentary with the late Dan O'Bannon and production designer William Stout, another older commentary with multiple cast and crew members (including zombies), a featurette on '80s horror ("The Decade of Darkness"), some theatrical trailers, TV spots, still galleries, subtitles for the zombies in the film, and another weird feature title "In Their Own Words: Zombies Speak."

Disc two contains a bevy of brand new featurettes ("The F/X of the Living Dead," "Party Time: The Music of Return of the Living Dead," "Horror's Hallowed Grounds: Revisiting the Locations of the Film"), an original work print version of Return of the Living Dead, a comprehensive documentary (previously released in a stand alone edition) titled "More Brains: A Return to the Living Dead," a final conversation with writer/director Dan O'Bannon, an interview with John Russo, and two older featurettes from previous DVD editions ("The Dead of Risen" and "Designing the Dead").

Return of the Living dead is one of the best horror movies of the 1980s, and one of most fun zombies films ever made. Director Dan O'Bannon may be gone but his punk rock zombie opus lives on and continues to find a justifiably rabid fan base. Scream Factory steps up to the plate and offers up a truly excellent transfer, solid audio, and a treasure trove of both new and old extra features. The only thing missing a real life human brain.

The Verdict

The definitive version of this cult classic!

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