The Return of the Living Dead is a zombie horror film that was released in 1985 and directed by Dan O'Bannon
Plot
Template:Spoiler Uneeda Medical supply warehouse foreman Frank (James Karen) informs his new protege, Freddy (Thom Matthews) that Night of the Living Dead was a true story, based on events that occurred when a gas (2-4-5 Trioxin) was released into the morgue in the basement of a VA hospital. As a matter of fact, the warehouse was an inadvertent recipient of a few canisters of Trioxin, all complete with dead bodies sealed inside. Due to the canisters' poor durability, however, a light tap causes one to burst open. The dangerous gas leaks out of control, not only poisoning Frank and Freddy, but unleashing the now animated Tarman (Allan Trautman). Frank and Freddy awaken to discover that some things have come to life which includes mounted butterfly samples, a split dog and a cadaver.
Themselves slowly turning into zombies due to the effects of the gas, Frank and Freddy enlist the help of the warehouse owner, Burt (Clu Gulager), and his mortician friend, Ernie (Don Calfa), to cremate the cadaver and body parts. Unfortunately, the resulting smoke carries the evaporated trioxin with it, which mixes with an overhead raincloud. The rain begins to fall on the nearby cemetery, seeping into the graves, causing the dead to rise. Their first victims are some of Freddy's friends, who have been partying among the graves, while the surviving friends, including Freddy's girlfriend Tina (Beverly Randolph), are sent running for their lives.
The zombies in this movie differ from those in Night of the Living Dead, in that they are fast, as strong and intelligent as they were in their previous life, and can form words despite their physical degradation. Instead of hunting humans for their flesh, they hunt for the humans' brains, stating that only the taste of brains can ease the pain of being dead. It appears that injuries to their brains do not have any effect, and the only way to fully destroy them is to cremate their bodies, although the ensuing smoke spreads the contagious gas. Template:Endspoiler
Cast
(Left side - Up to down)
Trash, Tina, Suicide
(Right side - Up to down)
Chuck, Casey, Spider, Scuz
- Clu Gulager as Burt Wilson
- James Karen as Frank
- Don Calfa as Ernie Kaltenbrunner
- Thom Mathews as Freddy
- Beverly Randolph as Tina
- Miguel A. Núñez Jr. as Spider
- John Philbin as Chuck
- Jewel Shepard as Casey
- Brian Peck as Scuz
- Linnea Quigley as Trash
- Mark Venturini as Suicide
- Jonathan Terry as Col. Horace Glover
- Allan Trautman as Tarman
Soundtrack
- "Surfin' Dead" - The Cramps
- "Party Time" - 45 Grave
- "Nothin' For You" - T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty)
- "Eyes Without A Face" - The Flesheaters
- "Burn The Flames" - Roky Erickson
- "Dead Beat Dance" - The Damned
- "Take A Walk" - Tall Boys
- "Love Under Will" - The Jet Black Berries
- "Tonight (We'll Make Love Till We Die)" - SSQ
- "Trash's Theme" - SSQ
Trivia
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- It is the first zombie film to feature running/fast zombies.
- In the synopsis on the back of the first edition DVD the last paragraph incorrectly says that Frank and Freddie work at an "Army Surplus Store" instead of a Medical Supply Warehouse.
- The film was released on August 16, 1985, and made $14m at the box office in the USA, nearly double the amount earned by Romero's Day of the Dead, released the same year.
- The film gained quick popularity largely due to the performance of Linnea Quigley, who as the "punk queen" Trash performs a full-frontal (though wearing a crotch-covering, flesh-colored prosthetic), gyrating strip-show on top of a tombstone while blasting SSQ's "Tonight (We'll Make Love Until We Die)" on a boom box. Her appearance not only helped to garner the film popularity, but it cemented her place as an 80s horror icon and "scream queen".
- Throughout the 1980s, the film gained a strong following with the punk music scene; a large number of the main characters are punks, and the film features an almost exclusively punk rock soundtrack. When the film was finally released on DVD in the early 2000s after years of limited availability in a poorly edited VHS release, it became a best-seller due to what is considered a high nostalgia factor of 1980s pop culture.
- The film also sparked a new interest in the already strong punk/hardcore scene of Louisville, KY, where the movie takes place.
- The character Ernie is thought to be a Nazi due to his sharing his name with Ernst Kaltenbrunner among other indications in the film (such as the character listening to Nazi march music on his Walkman while he embalms bodies, carrying a German Walther P38 and having a picture of Eva Braun in his morgue). Dan O'Bannon, in the DVD commentary, mentions that Ernie was intended to be an escaped Nazi in hiding.
- The film features three actors who have been in Friday the 13th films: Miguel A. Núñez Jr. and Mark Venturini, both of whom were in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. Thom Mathews is as well known for his role in this film, as he is for the part of Tommy Jarvis in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.
- In an unprecedented move, a fan of the film started an internet campaign to get the movie released on DVD. Going beyond simple fan petitions, Michael Allred created a web page consolidating every bit of news relating to the film, and contacted many of the film's principals including the writer and director Dan O'Bannon. He went on to put O'Bannon in touch with MGM (the studio that owned the film) and work began on getting the film released on DVD. O'Bannon and others who worked on the film credited Allred and his campaign for getting "The Return of the Living Dead" released on DVD. [1]
- The UK punk band Send More Paramedics took their name from a line of dialogue in 'Return of the Living Dead'.
- If the emergency telephone number printed on the canisters of the contaminated dead is dialed, a sex hotline will be reached. Template:Dubious
- The eye-test poster in Burt's office reads "Burt is a slave driver and a cheap son of a bitch who's got you and me here" if you put the letters together.
- In George A. Romero's The Crazies at the end of the movie, the main character is told that the disease might be spreading to Louisville. This is the same place where the events of Return of the Living Dead take place. The contagion in The Crazies is called Trixie, similar to the nerve agent in Return of the Living Dead called Trioxin 2-4-5.
- 4 characters in the film share a connection due to their names, Bert and Ernie are best friends from Sesame Street and Tina was Freddy Krueger's first victim in the Nightmare On Elm Street series.
- In an editied version of the film, Freddie's jacket reads "Television Version". The non-edited version reads "Fuck You".
External links
- The Return of the Living Dead at the Internet Movie Database
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- Template:Mojo title
de:Verdammt, die Zombies kommen fr:Le Retour des morts-vivants