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Rework, remake, homage, tribute, call Return of the Living Dead (1985) whatever you'd like, I just think it's a damn good film which achieves something not a lot of movies of its kind manage to do in successfully mixing two genres, those being horror and comedy, to create a third, which I call a `hormadey' (look at that, I just invented a new word right before your eyes...patent pending...quick, call the people at Webster's...I bet they pay good money for new words)...Sam Raimi did it in Evil Dead II (1987), although he called it `splatstick', Peter Jackson did it in some of his early like films Bad Taste (1987), and even more so in Braindead (1992) aka Dead Alive, and Stuart Gordon did it in Re-Animator (1985), just as Dan O'Bannon has done so with this film. Co-written and directed by Dan O'Bannon (Alien, Dead & Buried, Blue Thunder), the film features an excellent cast including Clu Gulager (McQ, A Force of One), James Karen (Poltergeist, Apt Pupil, Superman Returns), Don Calfa (Chopper Chicks in Zombietown, Weekend at Bernie's), and Thom Mathews (Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, Alien from L.A.). Also appearing is Beverly Randolph, John Philbin (The New Kids, Point Break), Jewel Shepard (Hollywood Hot Tubs), Miguel A. Núñez Jr. (Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, Carnosaur 2), scream queen Linnea Quigley (Creepozoids, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama), Mark Venturini, who sadly passed away in 1996, and Brian Peck, the only actor to appear in all three Return of the Living Dead films.
As the film begins, we find ourselves at the Uneeda Medical Supply company `You need it...we got it'. It's Freddie's (Mathews) first day as a stockboy, and co-worker Frank (Karen) is showing him the ropes, along with the prosthetics, bedpans, skeletons, and yes, cadavers (man, they weren't kidding about having what I need, particularly in a nice bedpan). A curious Freddie inquires as to what's the weirdest thing Frank has ever seen during his long tenure at the company to which Frank relates a fantastic tale about how some years ago, a chemical created a chemical for the military that had a strange side effect, namely, it brought the dead back to life. The resulting mess was cleaned up, and the reanimated corpses were stuffed into sealed containers. Many of the supposedly true events were then turned into a film that we know as George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (nice acknowledgement), although a number of facts were changed to avoid litigation. Anyway, due to a military snafu, some of the containers were accidentally shipped to Uneeda, and have been sitting in the basement ever since, undisturbed...until now...while showing Freddie the containers, Frank slaps the side of one, a seal breaks, and the gas squirts out all over the two men knocking them out, and also into the air ducts, which, in turn, revives the corpsicle in the freezer. The boys begin to freak, and decide to call the owner Burt (Gulager), figuring he'll know what to do...after some debating, then end up hacking the lively decedent into parts, stuffing the parts into garbage bags, taking said bags across the street to the crematorium and asking the resident mortician Ernie Kaltenbrunner (Calfa), who Burt's been friends with for a long time (get it? Burt and Ernie? Ah well...) to burn the evidence. Ernie finally agrees, and the parts do burn into ash, but an unforeseen result is the smoke from the burning of the body is released through the chimney. This, coupled with the quickly approaching thunderstorm, causes the fumes to seep into the ground, causing a...reaction among the long dormant residents of the graveyard, the same graveyard Freddie's friends are hanging out at while waiting for Freddie to get off work...well, I think you can put two and two together and surmise, like the South, the dead shall rise again, and they do...and they're hungry...for juicy, juicy brains...
I think this is a great movie, for someone who can appreciate it...one of the best aspects of the film are the colorful and distinctive characters, played very well by the actors. There isn't a whole lot of development, but they're still interesting enough to keep you watching. Perhaps my favorite character of the film was that of Burt, the boss and owner of the medical supply company played by Clu Gulager. His pragmatism played off extremely well off the exponentially growing horror of the animated corpses, and created a sort of bizarre sense that he was more worried about how all this was going to affect business, rather than for his own mortality. Eventually he does realize the grievous nature of the situation, but up until then it was pretty funny, particularly because he didn't overplay it...my favorite scene involved the sequence after Burt and the boys hacked up the spastic corpse and then brought it across the street to the mortuary, in an effort to get Burt's friend Ernie to get rid of everything by burning it up in his crematorium. At first Burt tries to explain the wiggling bags as a shipment of rabid weasels, rather than tell Ernie the truth. After awhile, and many questions from Ernie, Burt finally does come clean, but his initial attempts at subterfuge are hilarious. A couple of other great performances are given by James Karen as Frank, the long time warehouse employee seeming happy to have a new apprentice, even to the point of showing off a little, and Don Calfa as Ernie, the gun toting mortician who develops a scientific interest in the corpses. Thom Mathews also did very well, especially near the end of the picture, as the sickness from inhaling the noxious gas earlier finally overtakes him. The walking dead were much more lively and active in this film, more so than I had seen in films previous, which added a nice spin to the notion that the reanimated dead are only capable of lumbering about. In terms of special effects and make up, the detail in the corpses was most excellent, especially that half woman corpse the group captures and Ernie questions in the latter half of the movie. Also, the Tarman corpse, the one that was released from the military container, was exquisitely detailed and the actor who played the part had his movements down perfectly, or at least in terms of how I thought a recently released from his barrel, rotting, festering, slimy corpse would move about. Everything worked so well together here, the directing, the script, quotable dialog, the humor, the nasty bits, the acting, all tied together with a carefully chosen soundtrack featuring bands like, among others, T.S.O.L, The Damned, The Flesheaters, Roky Erickson, and The Cramps. All in all, a completely harmonious balance and truly fun entertainment for the sick and twisted. Oh yeah, there's a couple of great nekkid bits featuring Jewel Shepard, who plays a punky girl obsessed with all things gruesome and morbid.
This DVD release features both the widescreen (1.85:1), enhanced for 16X9 TVs, along with a fullscreen version, both looking sharp and clean. The Dolby Digital audio also comes through very well and clear. As far as special features, there is an audio commentary track with director Dan O'Bannon and production designer William Stout (I was kinda surprised they didn't get any of the actors involved), along with a featurette titled `Designing the Dead' (13:37), conceptual artwork by William Stout, TV spots, and both an G rated and R rated trailers for the film.
Cookieman108
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Worth having on 4k? YES!
I'm taking one star off because this copy must have been a repackaged return. The discs have some smudges, and the extras disc has a full fingerprint on it. Otherwise... fantastic 4k transfer and chock full of extras. Well worth the price.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2024
I'm taking one star off because this copy must have been a repackaged return. The discs have some smudges, and the extras disc has a full fingerprint on it. Otherwise... fantastic 4k transfer and chock full of extras. Well worth the price.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2010
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marco antonio luna
exelente dvd,deve estar en tu coleccion
Reviewed in Mexico on December 2, 2018
