Starring:
James Karen as Frank Thom Matthews as Freddy Clu Gulager as Burt Wilson Don Calfa as Ernie Kaltenbrunner Beverly Randolph as Tina
The
date: August 16, 1985.
The occasion: The Zombie
Master’s birthday.
The
party location: The Hwy 51 Drive-In for the opening
night of Return of the Living Dead.
I will never forget that night.
While most of my friends were cowering in disgust, I had a grin
on my face that took weeks to pry off. Come to think of it,
my phone didn’t ring quite as much after that night. Oh well.
Return
of the Living Dead starts with Uncle Frank (James Karen)
showing his nephew Freddy (Thom Matthews) around UNEEDA Medical Supply
on Freddy’s first day of work. During conversation, Frank
proceeds to tell Freddy that the movie Night of the Living Dead was based
on a true story. How does Frank know? Because the military
inadvertently shipped some containers to the UNEEDA warehouse that
contain dormant reanimated corpses.
Seeing that Freddy thinks that
he is full of it, Uncle Frank takes Freddy down to the basement to see
the containers. Wanting to show the scared Freddy that he has nothing
to worry about with the canisters being there, Frank decides to show
that they are indeed durable by smacking the side of one of them. This
of course creates a crack and releases a very
dangerous toxin (Trioxin 245) into the air vents of the warehouse.
This being a
medical warehouse, there just
so happens to be a cadaver in the freezer section
which just so happens to come in contact with the Trioxin 245 and
spring to life. Frank and Freddy try to kill it by putting a pick
ax into its head. This does not work (to be discussed later)
and they cut off the head. When this doesn’t work, they
decide that the best thing to do is to burn it in the crematorium
across the street.
This then
sends the ashes, and the toxin, into the outside air where it is
raining - and the toxic rain falls on a graveyard where a bunch of
Freddy’s friends are waiting for him. I think we all know
where this leads.
Return of the Living
Dead is among the classic zombie films of all time. It is a
must see for any aspiring “Zombie Master”. It also
breaks just about the entire list of zombie movie rules. The zombies
can not be killed by a shot to the head. They don’t
even die when you sever the head. Zombies shouldn’t
have an intelligence level higher than a potato bug let alone be able
to call in police backup. Zombies should not be able to carry on a
conversation.
So why do I like Return
of the Living Dead so much? Because writer/director Dan
O’Bannon didn’t write a serious zombie movie, he
wrote a satirical zombie movie. He meant to break the rules and he
succeeded in creating a movie that had fun at making fun of its self. Return
of the Living Dead is a truly funny movie that should not be
taken seriously. Return of the Living Dead also has
some great zombie gore that can stand up to the
best in the genre.
Now...why do I really
like Return of the Living Dead?
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Return
of the Living Dead starts with Uncle Frank (James Karen)
showing his nephew Freddy (Thom Matthews) around UNEEDA Medical Supply
on Freddy’s first day of work. During conversation, Frank
proceeds to tell Freddy that the movie Night of the Living Dead was based
on a true story. How does Frank know? Because the military
inadvertently shipped some containers to the UNEEDA warehouse that
contain dormant reanimated corpses.
This then
sends the ashes, and the toxin, into the outside air where it is
raining - and the toxic rain falls on a graveyard where a bunch of
Freddy’s friends are waiting for him. I think we all know
where this leads.
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Technorati
Y!
MyWeb