The Return of the Living Dead (1985) 91m.
Dan O'Bannon, whose scripts always show inventive moments and wry humor, finally got the chance to direct with this suitably offbeat horror movie. Part inspired by the zombie films initiated by George A. Romero, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD elaborates wildly upon its predecessors. This isn't a sequel - it's a reinventing of how zombies had been seen on the screen up to that point. Story starts in a medical supplies warehouse (already, you begin to think "uh-oh") where newcomer Freddy is told by his supervisor the "truth" behind Romero's film NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Sure enough, curiosity leads to meddling, and before you can say "Braaaaiinns..", the dead have been reanimated and Freddy and his dropout buddies are surrounded by a horde of ghouls.
Film uses the 'siege' scenario of the Romero stories, but ironically its protagonists shelter in different storehouses of death - the warehouse, a cemetary, a crematorium, and a mortuary. The dead are outside, in the land of the living; the living have barricaded themselves in the domain of the dead. O'Bannon keeps playing with this intermediary zone until we can't remember any difference between a living body that is slowly turning undead or a dead body that is struggling back to life. To blur the line further, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD's zombies don't act like the lethargic, green-hued somnambulists of other films that so distinctly separate themselves from their human victims. These zombies talk, move adeptly, and get organized. Added to that, several characters in the film aren't your normal band of sympathetic protagonists - their eccentricity, vulgarity, or nihilism doesn't make us care too much whether they join the ranks of the undead or not (with the exception of one girl-next-door type whose association with her friends seems very unlikely).
RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD was a revelation at the time - its style has been much imitated since, though it owes a debt to the hip, humorous horror of AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. It manages the unlikely feat of turning a zombie film into an action piece; its demented plot veers in almost any direction right up until its conclusion. Picture has everything you could in a zombie flick: splatter, rock music, and scream queen Linnea Quigley (who has surely fought more monsters than any other actor in living memory).
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