The first Return of the Living Dead was and still is a hugely enjoyable film, that's clever, immensely fun and very scary, and is and always will be the best of the five films in this particular series, the only film to be above good standard. This first sequel is nowhere near as good, but it's passable stuff and is one of the better sequels in the series (certainly much better than the horrendous Necropolis and Rave to the Grave).
Visually, Return of the Living Dead Part II is not a stunner but it hardly looks amateurish either. It's shot with style, the lighting does evoke a spooky atmosphere and the effects are above average. The soundtrack is haunting and has a charming 80s feel, while not quite being as good as that of the original it doesn't date the film like it did with Necropolis and Rave to the Grave. James Karen and Thom Andrews return, and do great jobs carrying the film, Karen in particular is hysterical. The zombies are at least well-utilised, and while not very threatening at least exude some personality.
On the other hand, while the production values are mostly good the zombie make-up is very much mixed, some of it is okay (while never on the same level of the make-up in the first film, it's never as pathetic as Rave to the Grave) but at other times the zombies look like Thriller-rejects. There is a lot of bad acting here in a film where Karen and Andrews give the only good performances, Suzanne Snyder is particularly annoying as Brenda, one of the series' most obnoxious characters. The characters in general here are very bland, and there's little engaging or endearing about them. The direction is sometimes efficient but sometimes rather languid, while the story is basically just a very predictable and sometimes repetitive re-hash of the first film's but with few of the ingredients that made its predecessor work so well. The film's biggest problem is that it has more emphasis on comedy than scares, this may not seem a problem at first but unfortunately the original achieved a much better balance between comedy and scares whereas this doesn't do very well with either. Scares are barely there in fact and the gore gets tiresome, and worse the comedy is incredibly strained in places with some of the better (if not by much) moments being completely unintentional.
In conclusion, passable first sequel but its predecessor is so much better. 5/10 Bethany Cox
Visually, Return of the Living Dead Part II is not a stunner but it hardly looks amateurish either. It's shot with style, the lighting does evoke a spooky atmosphere and the effects are above average. The soundtrack is haunting and has a charming 80s feel, while not quite being as good as that of the original it doesn't date the film like it did with Necropolis and Rave to the Grave. James Karen and Thom Andrews return, and do great jobs carrying the film, Karen in particular is hysterical. The zombies are at least well-utilised, and while not very threatening at least exude some personality.
On the other hand, while the production values are mostly good the zombie make-up is very much mixed, some of it is okay (while never on the same level of the make-up in the first film, it's never as pathetic as Rave to the Grave) but at other times the zombies look like Thriller-rejects. There is a lot of bad acting here in a film where Karen and Andrews give the only good performances, Suzanne Snyder is particularly annoying as Brenda, one of the series' most obnoxious characters. The characters in general here are very bland, and there's little engaging or endearing about them. The direction is sometimes efficient but sometimes rather languid, while the story is basically just a very predictable and sometimes repetitive re-hash of the first film's but with few of the ingredients that made its predecessor work so well. The film's biggest problem is that it has more emphasis on comedy than scares, this may not seem a problem at first but unfortunately the original achieved a much better balance between comedy and scares whereas this doesn't do very well with either. Scares are barely there in fact and the gore gets tiresome, and worse the comedy is incredibly strained in places with some of the better (if not by much) moments being completely unintentional.
In conclusion, passable first sequel but its predecessor is so much better. 5/10 Bethany Cox