Return of the Living Dead II (1988) User Reviews

A Little on the Shrill Side

[juliamacon · 6/10 · 3 October 2020]

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.

More of a comedy this time around.

[Aaron1375 · 6/10 · 25 March 2003]

This was an ok sequel to the original. Though I liked the first one much better. This time around one of those drums from the first one falls off a truck and these kids open it, once again awakening the living dead. This time around though, it is definitely more of a comedy than a horror. The first one had quite a bit of comedy in it, but in the end I would say it was more horror...this one has very little horror in it. A kid, his sister, and I think a TV or cable repairman must try to escape the living dead. There is also an old guy who was a doctor. There are also two grave robbers who are the exact two guys who released the chemicals in the first one and a girlfriend of the younger guy. Once again the zombies are seemingly indestructible, but this time a weakness is found in the form of electricity. So the conclusion to this one occurs at an electrical plant. The kid must face down the bully who released the chemical too. Would have been a better movie if it was more horror oriented, but it is still worth a look. The slimey zombie from the first one also makes a brief appearance.

'Return of the Living Dead Part II'

[rah604 · 5/10 · 23 April 2004]

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)

Not much here, pretty stupid actually...

[ehosh2494 · 9 April 2002]

...I hate to say it, but this movie is nothing compared to the original, seriously. Thom Mathews and James Karen are back, playing different roles of course, as grave robbers, and there are also a bunch of young middle school kids, a teenage girl and another guy fleeing in terror from more brain-munching zombies, resurrected from their peaceful slumber yet again by the weird chemical from the original. This is missing the great punk/rock/metal soundtrack, humor, punk rock characters, and gore from the original, so basically it falls flat and never goes anywhere. I was getting really bored. If you want a rehash, this is your dish I guess, but otherwise this movie flat out blows. Watch the first one again.

"Damn kids they have no respect for the dead."

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 13 September 2014]

Much-hated sequel to the '80s classic Return of the Living Dead is better than most people give it credit for being. It's not on the level of the first movie but it's still a fun and enjoyable horror-comedy. The plot is pretty much irrelevant but here goes: a container with a zombie in it falls off the back of an army truck. Some kids mess with it and release a toxic gas that reanimates the dead.

James Karen and Thom Mathews return, playing different characters than in the last movie. They're a treat to watch, just like last time. Karen is especially funny and gets many of the movie's best lines. The main part this time around is a kid played by Michael Kenworthy. He's pretty good in what appears to have been his biggest role. The rest of the cast is fine. It's a fun movie that doesn't take itself seriously at all. I'm surprised it's hated as much as it is but the first movie was terrific so any sequel to it was bound to fall up short by comparison. Could've been a lot worse, though.

Funny Zombie Cult Movie

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 14 January 2015]

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")

Only a couple of decent gags here...stick with the first

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 4 November 2016]

A few moderately decent special effects are probably the best thing on offer in this lacklustre sequel to the classic comedy/horror yarn, in which the non-existent plot serves to vainly attempt to recapture the highlights from the original. For no explainable reason, the stalwart tag-team of James Karen and Thom Mathews are also brought back from the first film, playing different characters, but exactly the same thing happens to them here as it does in the original! Aside from the overwhelming déjà vu, this is a bigger-scope but lacking film, with the overdone comedy a real bore most of the time. Although there are a fair few macabre gags that pay off (the Michael Jackson homage, the severed head scenes, the disintegrating zombies) for the most part this is an irritating film that contains nothing memorable like the original. Even the music is worse.

It's a bog-standard '80s comic horror romp with little brain and even less imagination on offer. The effects of the zombies are decent but the overacting – done by the entire cast now and not just Karen and Mathews – is a really big mistake. In fact there is not one straight character in the film. Just loads of bland teenagers, an annoyingly smart kid, and other extraneous folk who shout and scream a lot. It's pretty embarrassing really. The plot is predictable, the casting instantly forgettable (all long forgotten today, aside from a brief turn by X-FILES star Mitch Pileggi), the jokes just keep getting dumber and dumber. Ignore the bigger budget and heightened effects, the first film in this series is still the one to look out for.

Zombie massacre!

[insomniac_rod · 7/10 · 27 August 2006]

I still remember how I got into this movie. The VHS cover was very cheesy but at the same time it was intriguing. I remember avoiding this one until it was the last VHS on my local video store Horror shelf. When I rented it in the early 90's, I wasn't a bit disappointed but I forgot about it pretty soon.

Years after, I watched it on DVD and the memories are still fresh! This movie isn't better than the original but still has it's own good moments. Thom Matthews reprises his lead role and delivers a great performance. The direction is pretty good for the movie's standards and I must admit that this is a visually stunning low budgeter.

The ending is among the best of any zombie flicks for it's unique cheesiness and non-stop action.

Watch this sequel only for fun purposes, do not watch it as a straight Horror movie because it might disappoint you.

Ernest meets a Zombie.

[Rooster99 · 1/10 · 7 September 2004]

Absolutely awful follow-up to a cult classic. This movie lacked everything that made Return of the Living Dead so enjoyable. In that movie, there was suspense, horror, comedy, good effects, restricted content, etc.. this lame sequel had none of that. It was more like an Ernest film with characters constantly looking at each other and fake-screaming, before running off in every direction as if they were in a screwball comedy. Horrible, just horrible. The acting was terrible, the effects were lame, but by far the worst was the constant "Home Alone"-type action. This movie was made for 5-year olds! Just about as bad as a sequel can possibly get.

R.

Run ! Here Comes The Sequel !

[aesgaard41 · 6/10 · 31 March 2001]

Did we really need a sequel ? We have nearly the same plot, some of the same actors, definitely some of the same lines and practically the same actors. Yet, right when Thom Matthews was about to be type-cast in horror movies, he said, "Sure, I'll do it." Later, you know he screaming, " They drove up to my house and dumped a truck load of money on my front porch......" I mean, what are the odds that two idiots who look exactly alike will befall the same fate ? Admittedly, Thom and James Karen could make a very funny comedy team, but not in the same roles saying the same things like some asinine Martin and Lewis series. That said, this movie is a lot funnier than the first. Phillip Bruns replaces Don Calfa and has some very funny lines. A sub-plot involves juvenile delinquency and acceptance as the zombies horse around, steal the scenes and get in the way. One in particular in a dark suit and a few others just keep returning in other scenes as if that wasn't really obvious. I guess there was a shortage in extras. Mitch Pileggi of the X-Files has a very obvious role and I'm sure I recognized the zombie on the hospital phone as from an old episode of the original Twilight Zone. If I had written the script, I would have tossed in a vampire to spar with the zombies because he sure would have been immune to that bite of their's.

Lazy, boring re-hash

[tomgillespie2002 · 2/10 · 4 March 2013]

If you're a fan of the cult horror film Return of the Living Dead (1985), then chances are you've watched this lazy sequel, only to be left wondering where the last 90 minutes of your life have gone. The plot surrounds another lost toxic barrel, containing the chemical gas that will awake the living dead. An obnoxious child witnesses the birth of the zombies after the gas is accidentally released, and the town is soon overrun by seemingly indestructible, brain-eating zombies. A couple of gravediggers robbing the dead are caught up in the midst of the zombie outbreak, and with the boy and his family, try desperately to survive the onslaught.

If the plot sounds extremely dull and familiar, it's because it is. The first film was a very amusing, and often quite clever little movie, bursting with ideas and scenes of pure lunacy brought to life by a cast who look like they're genuinely having fun. Part II obviously knows this, and rather than trying to expand on the originals quirky charm and develop the universe, director Ken Wiederhorn, who ended his relatively short career in television, chose to simply re-hash the first, involving similar scenes and situations, and even bringing back some of the actors. What the film becomes is almost pure comedy, aiming at a teenage audience (although the humour is for infants), and lacking the fun horror and gore from the first. There's nothing that even comes close to the limbless female zombie demanding "braaaiinnnss!" from the first.

What we do get is a wise-cracking severed head with the voice of a finger-snapping black woman, a little boy hero who I was praying to be brutally murdered, and a zombie dressed as Michael Jackson doing the Thriller dance (yes, really). It's such a desperate, pathetic attempt to humour an audience that was most likely getting into each other's pants in the back row, and I fail to see how this would amuse anyone apart from those who are entertained by jangling keys. Even James Karen and Thom Mathews, who were very funny in the first, look uncomfortable with the crap they are given to work with. It's just one boring, cringe- inducing 90 minutes, made worse by the fact that this is a missed opportunity, given the quirky charm of the first. One fellow IMDb reviewer put it better than I can, so I quote - "not funny, not campy, not scary, not good."

www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Sucks but misunderstood too.

[matrixxservice-96306 · 10/10 · 18 December 2017]

A late afternoon that year 1988 i was in 3rd grade bored after school. I wasn't allowed to ride the schoolbus after my wimpy brother 2 years younger than me started the first grade. Now daily our mom picked us up In a white Chevy Chevette our mom took myself and my little brother too see a random movie at a mall in Barboursville wv. Well it happened to be this one. It was scary to me at that time but when I watch it now i cannot understand except for personal reasons. When I was very young I didn't like horror movies. I would watch them st home and hide my head when sth happened,, a game from times older siblings had hated me saying i would die if i didn't. So being out in a public place with one of those things didn't sound fun. I had made a friend out of shaggy and scooby by Kgrade. My mom agreed if it started bothering me we could leave. Really she like the other kids got a kick out of the hazing. When the tarman came onscreen i got up and left lol which she grabbed me by the arm swearing she paid her 1 dollar 50 cent matinee fare times 3 and wasn't keeping her end of the deal. So i sat through the loud music groans missing all the jokes and cultural schlock like a cowardly housecat forced to partake in a 4th of July fireworks and beer party. Looking back that was the only way it could've scared anyone. Had I been even average for my age I would have picked out the tired and used formula. At least the first film of the series had a few firsts. This one is very derivative of the original. Actors sleepwalking through a repeat role like in the first film just four years older and without O'Bannon a TSOL punk rock soundtrack or any of the edgey feeling the first movie tried to convey. No instead its some annoying kid trying to call the army while checking out his sisters goods. Probably the only gross out the movie pulls off. Memory i have in my life still and I haven't lived near Barboursville or 1988 for an eon. TBH I haven't been to a mall for years by now.

Fairly decent sequel

[asmushar · 6/10 · 7 October 2010]

This movie does not deserve some of the harsh reviews it has garnered here imo. It is a much better horror film than ROTLD 3 and you can totally write off ROTLD 4+5 which were horrendous and I don't mean so bad they were good, I mean god awful! This movie centers around what looks to be a new suburban area ( so new 1/2 the houses are partially constructed). The hero here is a young boy and his sister. The characters are OK and make no mistake this film in no way approaches the original. However I did like the introduction of electricity as a means of destroying the "living dead". It has a certain sci-fi plausibility to it. Electricity essentially fry's the cadavers reanimated cns as well as every other nerve system as well in effect finally eliminating the zombie. Electrical current would also have the effect of dehydrating the reanimated tissue-so like I said sci-fi plausibility. This film is better than average and worth a look if you liked the 1st one. Again, don't expect the same quality though.

Return of the Yawning Viewer

[theandreaceregini · 5/10 · 9 September 2019]

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.

Completely and Totally Inane, but Wildly Entertaining

[WritnGuy-2 · 17 April 2000]

I saw this on the Sci-Fi Channel yesterday, and I was meaning to rent it for a while, so I was glad I'd get a chance to see it. And despite how amazingly mindless this was, it was so entertaining, and kept my interest the whole duration of the film.

Young Jesse is going to be initiated into some club, led by bully and tough-guy Billy. They find a drum of toxic gas at the graveyard, and open it up, only for Billy to be covered in the stuff, and Jesse locked in the mortuary. Meanwhile, teenaged Johnny is leaving his ditzy girlfriend Brenda for a night to help out Ed, who needs to get the heads of some buried bodies for some museum or science lab, I don't remember. They find Jesse, who then escapes home, where his older teenage sister Lucy berates him for being out, and locks him in the room when the cable guy, teenaged Tom, shows up. This is all just the setup of characters when the gas from the drum escapes out into the graveyard, and even comes in contact with Ed and Johnny. Soon, zombies are rising up for fresh brains, and after the town is evacuated (except for the select few, who don't get away) and sealed off by the army, all hell breaks loose. With the help of Doc, next door to Jesse and Lucy, the handful of likable characters fights to escape and survive, all up to the surprisingly suspenseful climax.

This is by far one of the most brainless horror movies, seeing as that it has more comedy than horror, but my God, I could not get over how entertaining this really was. I mean, from start to finish, my interest was held. I liked all the characters, I laughed a few times, I was scared a few times, and really liked this. I recommend this, without a doubt, for anyone looking to just watch something fun and exciting, and not think, for about ninety minutes. Definitely rent, buy, or look out for this on TV. It's a great movie!

munch,munch...mmmm human brains!!

[gpolice_97 · 6/10 · 14 March 2002]

This film is Awesome!!! the zombies are creepy, and the film maintains that "night of the living dead" feel to it....not too campy, just right....and the electrocuted zombies is a classic scene!!!

I Really enjoy this film, this gorefest seems to hold its own with horror fans, and although it has a (part 2) attached,...it isnt really a sequel per se, its more of another telling of zombies attacking people!

this film is horror at its best! its campy, its fun, its Zombie time!

A Fun, Silly Sequel

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 1 April 2015]

Curious kids unearth the barrels that helped revive the dead of the first film, which proves the second time is an undead charm.

In a great many ways, this is not only a sequel to the first film, but something of a humorous riff on it. Which is even more interesting given that the first film was itself a humorous riff on "Night of the Living Dead". The joke of having two of the actors return -- and even repeat some of their lines -- was just brilliant.

We get a few choices moments -- "your brains are spicy" -- and the addition of Dana Ashbrook (who does not get enough screen time). While it never reaches the level of the original... it is world's apart from the garbage that is part four or part five.

Disappointing

[Gafke · 2/10 · 23 July 2004]

This lame sequel has nothing to do with the first film except for the presence of the chemical 245 Trioxin which, at films beginning, rolls off of an army truck and lands in a ditch outside of a planned suburban community. Soon, obnoxious children are munching on their mommy's brains and the military is evacuating the neighborhood. Except they forgot about an annoying, aerobics obsessed teenage girl, her little brother and her potential boyfriend. Or maybe they didn't forget, and just wanted to see them all die as much as I did. James Karen and Thom Mathews are back, but they're given little to do and end up trying to reprise their witty roles from the first film, an attempt which falls sadly flat.

I was terribly disappointed in this sequel to the hilarious and innovative first film. Not even the presence of Brian Peck ("Scuz" from the first film) dressed up as a Michael Jackson zombie, could save this film for me. It's slow, it's dull, the acting is awful, the characters are unlikable and the premise is weak. It could have been so much better. Stick with the first film and skip this flop.

The Problem With Return of the Living Dead Sequels

[academicarbiter · 6/10 · 22 August 2018]

Just like Necropolis and Rave to the Grave, Return of the Living Dead Part II would have been a decent film if it wasn't a sequel to the original. There was a balance between existential horror and comedy in the original that is clearly lacking in its descendants. I wish Russo had been involved, but he's no longer in his prime (Children of the Living Dead was cringe-worthy bad).

Return of the Living Dead itself is a sequel to Night of the Living Dead. We zombie-flick aficionados remember that Romero and Russo took their ideas in different directions. Unfortunately, Part II is almost like watching a goofier re-imagining of Russo's Return of the Living Dead, even though it is meant to be a sequel. Return of the Living Dead Part II is a family-friendly version that would have succeeded on its own merits, but fails to achieve the balancing act that its predecessor made look easy. Classic eighties.

no Don Calfa, no Linnea Quigley, and no Dan O'Bannon

[Son_of_Mansfield · 2/10 · 28 June 2003]

may contain spoiling comments

Strikes one, two, and three for this bad sequel. Everything that is remotely interesting was done better in the original, from the Tarman and two idiots down to the jokes. With the exception of the scene where the zombies come out of their graves, the humor was painful. In one scene early on, the zombies have the repairman right where they want him and then when the TV turns on, the twenty or so zombies let him get away while they watch aerobics. The main cool aspect of the zombies in the first film was that they were the flip side of Romero zombies. They ran, they talked, and they fooled dispatchers. No such fun in this movie. As for our heros, I would not have minded if they were all eaten. The little kid lives through the whole movie? Returning cast members James Karen and Thom Matthews add little, while Clu Gulager and Miguel A. Nunez Jr. are missed.

BRAINS....Part Deux.

[suspiria10 · 7/10 · 23 January 2005]

Once again military hi-jinx creates another zombie fiasco as this time around a bunch of neighborhood brats crack open one of the "sealed" containers containing that lovely green toxin and one slightly hungry brain-craving zombie. Meanwhile back at the cemetery two grave robbers (James Karen and Thom Matthews returning from the 1985 original albeit in new roles) at ground-zero for the buffet. Can the military rescue the survivors and contain the zombie menace…are you kidding?

This second installment is the weakest of the current three films (4 and 5 are on the way). At times it is a little too hokey and the makeup and effects aren't as good this time around. It was funny to see Karen and Matthews return again but they end up basically repeating their previous performances. The other actors serve their purpose but none shine or stand out.

Region 1 DVD Note: As has been stated on the net the Warner DVD has some serious issues with the music score. For whatever reason a new score was added to the English audio track (strangely the audio on the French dub track is the original score) and is really out of place. For most of the film the music wanders around not framing any of the on-screen action. Disappointing and pitiful.

In the end RotLD2 is enjoyable but pales in comparison to the original but is in no way a bad film, a little rushed or under developed but not bad.

Passable first sequel but nowhere near as good as the first Return of the Living Dead

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 24 August 2015]

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

There goes the living dead, and the neighbourhood...

[Renaldo Matlin · 10/10 · 1 February 1999]

Note: I saw this picture for the first time when I was 12, and a decade later I still find it entertaining. When two bullies open an old barrel accidentally dumped by the army, they release a toxic gas that turns the living into zombies and the dead into the un-dead. Spoof on the George Romero-type horror movie mixes in comedy with fair results. It should be exciting and funny enough for the average joe. Young Michael Kenworthy is more than hero enough for kids who should happen to watch this when their parents are out (but beware, the gore is plentiful). James Karen as a gravedigger and veteran comedian Philip Bruns as "Doc" are both a hoot.

Doesn't have the same humor of the first film but is it entertaining enough.

[hu675 · 7/10 · 25 August 2005]

When a chemical canister was accidentally dropped from a moving truck in a small California town. Then three pre-teens discover the chemical canister and that canister could bring back the dead back to life and the only few people are left behind in the town. They decide to fight the zombies before they take over the small town.

Written & Directed by Ken Wiederhorn (Shock Waves) made an entertaining sequel, which is less violent and less gory that the original but this feels more like a remake than a sequel. James Karen & Thom Mathews reprise their role somewhat different from the original film. Robert Elswit did the cinematography on this one, which he's best know for his cinematography work in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights, Hard Eight, Mangolia and Punch-Drunk Love. Look for Mitch Pileggi (Wes Craven's Shocker and T.V.'s The X-Files) in a bit part. (***/*****).

Return of the Living Dead Part II is basically a remake of its predecessor only without the surprise and balance of comedy and horror.

[IonicBreezeMachine · 5/10 · 16 July 2023]

Following an outbreak, a military convoy transports several barrels of Trioxin only for one of the barrels to fall into a ravine near a suburban housing development. The barrel is discovered by young Jesse Wilson (Michael Kenworthy) following an altercation with two neighborhood bullies who eventually open the barrel exposing themselves to the contents as well as a nearby cemetery where graverobbers Ed (James Karen) and Joey (Thom Mathews) are working. While Jesse tries to tell his sister Lucy (Marsha Dietlein) of what's going on she doesn't believe him until an outbreak of living dead swarms the neighborhood.

Following the success of The Return of the Living Dead, producer Tom Fox decided to personally finance a sequel believing it to be a sure investment as his previous two horror films Blue Monkey and Dark Tower failed to match the success of The Return of the Living Dead. Fox hired director and writer Ken Wiederhorn after circumstances prevented him from directing Dark Tower with Wiederhorn only accepting on the condition that the film play up the humor introduced in the original film rather than straight horror as Fox had initially wanted. While Fox envisioned the film as the first entry in a long running horror franchise in the vein of Friday the 13th, Return of the Living Dead Part II didn't match the financial or critical success of its predecessor with most reviews skewing negative and only earning $9.2 million against a $6 million budget. Pretty much everything on display in Return of the Living Dead Part II is a revisit to what was done in the first one, only with the edges filed down and a considerably more farcical tone this time out.

Despite being called "Part II", there's little connective tissue to the first film whose darkly comic implied apocalyptic ending is pretty much ignored for the sake of this sequel being able to exist. While some have stated the film's opening is in reference to the events in the first film, it really doesn't make sense from a continuity perspective as it requires a complete misunderstanding of the events of the first film. The movie even makes a joke of the blatant similarity by casting James Karen and Thom Mathews in roles that while differently named pretty much serve the same purpose with Thom's character even mentioning feeling a sense of déjà vu, but that leads to the underlying issue in that nobody seems to be taking the situation seriously which in turn makes the film less funny. While I was initially interested in the setup of a child protagonist in a zombie film, Jesse is not well written at all with a lot of his decisions lacking sense especially in relation to two characters who seem to be bullies but he goes out of his way to be with because the movie needs him to. When you compare Jesse to similar characters seen in Lady in White, Phantasm, The Gate, or The Stuff the movie just handles the character in a manner where he's inconsistent as well as making some dumb decisions because the movie needs him to.

But it's not like Jesse's the only issue at play as pretty much every character feels massively divorced from logical decision making. While the characters in the first film weren't exactly the best and the brightest, they did exhibit behavior that you could reasonably believe from those kinds of people in that kind of situation and the fact they treated the situation seriously created comic friction with the more outlandish elements. With Part II, every character acts like they're aware they're in a comedy especially a character named Doc played by Phil Bruns whose performance feels like something Ed Wynn would be doing in a 60s Disney film.

Return of the Living Dead Part II isn't offensively awful or poorly made, but it is a disappointment in comparison to its entertaining predecessor. It's a movie that exists because the first one made money with no motivation beyond that point. Just watch the first one as it's pretty much the same film only better and made for less money.