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 here are only two correct ways to approach a Zombies
Attack movie: either take the whole thing seriously (Fulci's "Zombie")
or go the spoof route ("The
Dead Hate the Living"). Dan O'Bannon's "Return of the Living
Dead" is really more of a spoof than a serious film, although its comedy is
more along of what I like to call "serious slapstick." That is, the
characters don't know they're in a zombie movie spoof, hence they act
seriously despite all the Tomfoolery taking place onscreen. We, the audience,
are in on the joke, but the characters aren't. (For a direct comparison, take a
look at Dave Parker's self-conscience zombie movie "The
Dead Hate the Living", which has a hard time deciding what it is, and
ends up being uneven as a result.)
The plot of "Return of the Living Dead" is as
simple as they come. Consider this: Two warehouse workers, fooling around at the
workplace, accidentally release chemical gases from a strange, unknown canister
sitting in the cellar. The canister, we learn, is being searched for by the
military, which seems to know it's dangerous. Our two workers, on the other
hand, are too incompetent to know what they've done. Later, the chemical gases
are released into the air and are returned to the ground by a rainstorm (don't
ask). Just in time too, as the cemetery grounds next door becomes a party haven
to a bunch of freewheeling (20-something actors posing as) teens. Soon, the
living dead have awakened, and they only want one thing: human brains!
"Return of the Living Dead" is all about getting
as many laughs out of what's happenings onscreen as possible, all the while
managing to be clever and just a little bit scary. Writer/director Dan O'Bannon
("Alien") absolutely knows his stuff here, and really gives the
audience everything it wants. Besides making references to "movies about
zombies" and the how's and why's to kill one, the film never forgets what
it's about and never ceases to please.
There's plenty of nudity (courtesy of scream queen Linnea
Quigley), humor (Don Calfa's embalmer carries a Luger pistol when working with
the corpses), and when the zombies wake up, wall-to-wall zombie action is had.
Also of note is that "Return" has some of the most hilarious zombie
action around. There is a zombie, nicknamed "tar man" by the creators
(on the DVD version) that gets very creative when trying to get to one of its
victims; zombies fresh from the cemetery kill some paramedics, then calls on the
radio for dispatch to send more paramedics -- which they promptly do!
There is no attempt at being serious with the material, and
"Return of the Living Dead" succeeds because of it. For instance,
after the warehouse boss finds a body in his warehouse coming back to life, he
and his two bumbling employees try to cover it up by beheading the zombie –
which only pisses it off! When that doesn't work, the boss and his employees
head over to the mortuary next door to see if they can burn the evidence. The
mortuary employee decides it's a good idea to help out, and promptly throws the
zombie's severed body parts (wrapped in bags) into the incinerator!
If it isn't already obvious, "Return of the Living
Dead" is a laugh-out loud riot that delivers on everything one expects from
a Zombies Attack movie. The acting is really all over the place, but that's to
be expected in genre movies like this. Besides the presence of veterans like
Gulager and Calfa, the rest of the cast (particularly the teen zombie fodder)
are mostly unknown faces. Being that "Return" is a low budget film,
the gore and prosthetics (for severed zombie limbs) are sometimes too cheesy,
but appropriately so for this movie. For what they had to work with,
"Return" still looks great 17 years later.
Comedy, gore, severed limbs, clever dialogue, and plenty of
nudity. "Return of the Living Dead" has it all. If Romero's "Night
of the Living Dead" is the film that all serious Zombies Attack film is
measured by, "Return of the Living Dead" is the film that all Zombies
Attack spoof films will be compared to -- and rightly so, on both counts.
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