The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Director:

Dan O'Bannon

Writers:

Dan O'Bannon (screenplay) and
Rudy Ricci (story)

Release Date:

16 August 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

They're Back From The Grave and Ready To Party!

Plot:

When a bumbling pair of employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air...

Plot Keywords:

Louisville Kentucky | Warehouse | Zombie | Massacre | Sledgehammer

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Clu Gulager	...	Burt
James Karen	...	Frank
Don Calfa	...	Ernie
Thom Mathews	...	Freddy
Beverly Randolph	...	Tina
John Philbin	...	Chuck
Jewel Shepard	...	Casey
Miguel A. Núñez Jr.	...	Spider (as Miguel Nunez)
Brian Peck	...	Scuz
Linnea Quigley	...	Trash
Mark Venturini	...	Suicide
Jonathan Terry	...	Colonel Glover
Cathleen Cordell	...	Colonel's Wife
Drew Deighan	...	Paramedic #1
James Dalesandro	...	Paramedic #2

Also Known As:

Return of the Living Dead (USA) (video box title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:R (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Finland:K-18 (2002) | West Germany:18 (video premiere) (cut) | Norway:(Banned) (1985-2003) (cinema release) | Denmark:16 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Italy:VM14 (new rating) | Italy:VM18 (original rating) | West Germany:18 | Netherlands:16 | Australia:M | France:-12 | Iceland:(Banned) | Mexico:C | UK:18 | USA:R | Finland:(Banned) (1985) | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Hemdale Film

Trivia:

On the DVD commentary, Dan O'Bannon claims he was surprised at how many women were in the initial audiences and said if he'd known he'd have such a large female following he would have shown Suicide (Mark Venturini) naked as well.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The ash from the mortuary incinerator is implied to mix with the rain that is falling to make a zombie creating brew. Even though the amount of rain is shown to be a heavy downpour (several inches accumulate in the cemetery in a short amount of time) there is no way that the rain/ash mix could penetrate through six feet of soil and a coffin in the short time portrayed. Even heavy rains will penetrate no more than a few inches of soil. It takes months if not years for water to penetrate to lower layers of soil. This is even more the case given the soil type that is around the Louisville Ky region where the movie is supposed to take place.

Quotes:

Zombie: Send... more... paramedics.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Slaughter (2006)

Soundtrack:

Dead Beat Dance

Be a man Frank goddamn it!!!

This is quite possibly one of the funniest movies ever made.

It succeeds not simply thru its humor but in the way that it takes the plot seriously. That is, the characters avoid doing anything cliché or 'movie-like'. They react to an amazingly unusual situation in a very logical, sensible way (even as things become more & more desperate). Consequently none of the humor is forced. It all comes from the combination of having to deal with all the insane things that are happening to them in the sanest way that they can. The contrast of these two makes for absolutely brilliant comedy.

For example:

» They have to kill an already dead guy so they put a pick axe thru his head.

» This doesn't kill him so they saw his head off.

» This still doesn't work so they decide to incinerate him in the neighbor's crematorium.

» In order to do that they make up a "rabid weasels" story to tell the neighbor.

All of these things, as hilariously ridiculous as they are, actually make sense in the context of trying to deal with the situation. In other words, if you found yourself confronted with re-animated corpses you would probably do exactly what they do to try and stop them. And even as the situation slowly progresses from bad to worse to desperate the film maintains this idea.

In fact, the film quite brilliantly maintains this idea at the very end. As over-the-top as the ending seemed I can completely picture the military wanting to do exactly that!