Brightlyme
i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.
Seraherrera
The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
Christophe
Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
Scotty Burke
It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review
chrislawuk
This movie is one of my favourites. Its very unique blend of 80s punk culture and the zombie movie works so well. The acting is 1st class providing some unparalleled performances. To have such a magnificent selection of odd ball characters in the same movie is one in a Billion. The late Dan O'Bannon died far to early and this movie is testament to that. The music, characters, script, and some of the best use of traditional prosthetics and effects techniques ever, all help make this movie a cult classic. It definitely deserves to be up there on center stage next to George Romero's work, in fact its in a class of its own.
mjsmjs-46362
This film lands in an absolutely perfect spot somewhere in between horror, spoof, and dark comedy, not an easy task to pull off. It has just the right amount of each to make it perhaps one of the most entertaining and fun to watch films of the genre, one of the most influential, and arguably one of the best.It's well cast, the actors deliver solidly convincing performances of their respective characters, and the dialogue is good. The sets are well done and the cinematography is excellent. The special effects are great considering the era it was made and the budget used, and create some very memorable imagery that will stay with the viewer long after watching the film. The punk rock soundtrack and theme music go perfectly with the film and do a wonderful job of enhancing the overall mood and viewing experience.I suspect some of the negative reviews of the film were made by viewers who either don't like the genre to start with, or they had preconceived ideas of what the film should have been going into it. Since it doesn't land solidly in either the spoof or horror category, viewers expecting it to do so may be disappointed. The key to this film is to simply let it entertain you, it does a marvelous job of that. Those who point out the clichés in this movie fail to recognize that this is the film that actually started most of them in the first place. Brains!!!This movie has aged well, and completely deserves its status as a cult classic masterpiece. No collection of good horror movies is complete without it.
morrison-dylan-fan
During the IMDb Horror board October Challenge I got the chance to watch a number of excellent movies starring "Scream Queen" Linnea Quigley.Talking to a fellow IMDber,I got told about one of Quigley's most well-known titles that I had somehow overlooked,which led to me getting ready to see the living dead return.The plot:Sorting out human skeletons to be sent to medical schools,Frank tells new employee Freddy that the factory they are working in has a basement filled with military canisters which contain an army toxin that went wrong,which on the one time it was unleashed,inspired a group of film makers to shoot Night of the Living Dead.Going down to the basement,Frank & Freddy clean the drums up,and discover that the toxin is actually zombies.Moving the drums around,Frank accidentally opens one of them up,which leads to him and Freddy suddenly being knocked out.As Freddy lays KO'ed,his pals Tina,Spider,Suicide, Trash, Scuz, Casey and Chuck decide to drive down and pick Freddy up from work.Arriving early,the gang decide to wait round for Freddy by hanging out at a near by graveyard.Waking up,Frank and Freddy find the tin drums empty. Initially believing that the zombies have melted away,Frank and Freddy soon discover that along with unleashing the zombies,that they themselves will soon join the walking dead.View on the film:Looking like a prime piece of Pop-Art,Linnea Quigley (who also appears naked) gives a terrific performance as Trash,whose swinging dance moves and flaring red hair perfectly set the wonderfully strange atmosphere of the film.Joining Quigley, Miguel A. Núñez Jr. (who was homeless when he got the role) gives a whip-smart performance as Spider,whilst Don Calfa gives the movie a touch of the "Mad Scientist" as Ernie.Backed by a sinister score from Matt Clifford and roaring Punk Rock songs,co-writer/(along with Rudy Ricci/John A. Russo and Russell Streiner)director Dan O'Bannon & cinematographer Jules Brenner open up a stylised,blood-drenched Comic Book.Splashing the credits over the title in dripping red,O'Bannon and Brenner turn the movie into a dazzling living cartoon,thanks to Punk leathers,burning blood and slimy gore being drizzled across the screen.Along with the animated atmosphere,O'Bannon also digs his teeth into vicious horror,with O'Bannon giving each of the zombies unique,eye-gauging designs from half cut dog skeletons to a deformed bodybuilder-like super zombie.For the screenplay of the film,the writers smartly decide to make the characters well aware of what zombies are from movies,which leads to hilariously frantic chase scenes,as the surviving humans discover that all the "guides" that the films gave in how to defeat a zombie are completely useless in real life.Whilst the movie largely has a colourful mood,the writers hit the film with some sly satirical jabs,by having the army/government be completely disconnected to the terror taking place on the ground,and the device that they use to kill the zombies (complete with cartoon sound effects!)making the situation go from bad to worse,as the living dead return.
TheLittleSongbird
This is saying a lot too, because to me this is the only film of the five Return of the Living Dead films to be above good standard. The sequels varied in quality, with 2 and 3 being acceptable enough though with their problems and 4 (Necropolis) and 5 (Rave to the Grave) being terrible, the latter being marginally worse and being one of the worst sequels ever made. The original however is an immensely enjoyable film, with its very few flaws barely noticeable amidst the huge amount of good.It is definitely the best-looking film in the series, it is stylishly shot and lit with a wonderful ominous atmosphere, complete with atmospheric sets, above average effects and some great make-up on the zombies. There is a killer 80s soundtrack that still sounds good and haunting rather than cheesy, and instead of the outdated quality it could have had the soundtrack makes one nostalgic for the 80s. As well as a hilarious and clever script that's never forced, doesn't get bogged down in too many explanations or too much exposition, and that is very quotable (which I don't think any of the sequels achieved and it was something that 4 and 5 could only dream of doing so), and a story that seemed tired in concept but felt very fresh in execution with so many funny moments and an equal number of highly disturbing and scary ones.Return of the Living Dead is directed with adroit class and a clear fondness for the genre by Dan O' Bannon, and while some of the punk teens are annoyingly and one-dimensionally written and acted with not much spark (the sole problems with the film, and they are not that major), the leads are written very likeably and Clu Gulager, James Karen, Thom Mathews and Beverly Randolph are charming and lots of fun (all of them at least knowing what sort of film they're in), Gulager and Karen are particularly good. Don Calfa is also suitably shady. The film also cleverly and wisely makes the zombies the stars and uses them brilliantly, furthermore these zombies actually are very menacing, a real threat, do a lot more than just shuffle and plod around and are wonderfully tongue-in-cheek, exuding real personality. The twist is deliciously ironic, adding to the freshness when it easily could have been tired or anti-climactic.All in all, immensely enjoyable and the best of the series by some margin, being the only one to be completely satisfying. 8/10 Bethany Cox