Saturday, October 1, 2011

31 Movies of Halloween: Return of the Living Dead

Every day for the next 31 days I will be posting a horror movie review. Enjoy!


DAY 1: RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD



The first time I ever saw this movie was probably around 1998. I had just gotten into horror movies and spent lots of time renting horror movies and watching Sci-Fi Channel and Joe Bob Briggs’ Monstervision. One afternoon I was at my grandparents house and Return of the Living Dead came on Sci-Fi. I thought it was a bit slow and talky at the time and my family had to leave before any Zombies showed up; however... I did see a red-head punk rock girl stripping on a tombstone. Sadly it was all edited. I was probably about 7 at this time and despite not being a fan of the movie, I rented a week later just to see the nude scene. I was glad I did.


This is easily my favorite Zombie movie. It’s been for a long time. While I appreciate the symbolism of George Romero’s original Dead series; Return of the Living Dead has the brilliant combination of humor and horror that makes it endlessly enjoyable and rewatchable.


The movie has such a fun variety of Zombies ranging for quick moving recently dead corpses, to slow moving zombies like Tar Man; easily the best looking zombie of all time.



These Zombies can talk. I got into a huge fight with a Quizzo host once because his question was “this horror film had the Zombies moaning Brains”. For the answer he said “Night of the Living Dead”. This however was the first time Zombies spoke.


Return of the Living Dead is about a bunch of punk rockers and mortitions stuck in the beginnings of a Zombie Apocylpse. While it’s got the comedy elements I spoke of, it also doesn’t pretend that the reality of the situation isn’t dark. Suicide is constantly presented, the killing of loved ones and the general mass chaos is all show in complete sincerity.


If you’re even a minor horror buff this film is highly recommended.

No comments:

Post a Comment