Plot: What’s it about?
Freddy (Thom Mathews) has just been hired at the medical supply warehouse, where skeletons, prosthetics, and even cadavers are housed. Then whenever medical schools or the military need these materials for tests or what not, the workers box up the goods and send them out of the warehouse. The sole reason Freddy was given this job was because his uncle Frank (James Karen) has been employed there for years, so he pulled some strings and landed his nephew the position. After a spook tale about some government barrels being delivered by mistake, Frank agrees to show a doubtful Freddy that he wasn’t lying. And to his word, the basement houses some barrels with toxic corpses inside. When Frank slaps the side of one of them to show how strong it is, a gas leak occurs and both men find themselves knocked out. Once they’ve come to, they discover the corpse has escaped the barrel, the gas has caused them to become sick, and a cadaver has come back to life on them. Can they contain the situation and prevent an outbreak, or will this horrific event spread to a nearby graveyard?
A stupid mistake leads to a battle between punk rockers and the living dead, not much else we could want from an 1980s horror flick, eh? Dan O’Bannon’s film tries to do what so many other horror movies fail at, the blend of scares and laughs, but in the end, The Return of the Living Dead walks the line and succeeds. The comic moments deliver and break up the tension, but the scares remain intact, thanks to atmosphere, solid writing, and of course, hundreds of bad ass zombies just waiting to munch on some fresh brains. The zombies in this movie are not the slow moving, dense ones as seen in Romero’s pictures either, instead they can speak, think, and even move in quick bursts, making them a much more dangerous breed. This adds volumes to the scare levels, as it would be hard to imagine how the band of survivors could overcome the zombie masses, even within the confines of a horror movie world. O’Bannon sticks to his guns and delivers a high impact finale also, which gives us a terrific overall genre picture. This movie belongs in any horror buff’s collection and with MGM’s low priced, well crafted disc, there’s no reason for this release not to be right alongside other 80s horror fun on your shelves.
I know her role is a small one here, but if you want the most memorable character from this movie, I’d have to nominate Linnea Quigley’s Trash. Yes, it is based mostly on the fact that she takes her clothes off right away and hardly ever has them on again, but this is a horror movie and that kind of stuff is what we want to see, of course. While she has been in several genre films before this one, her outrageous presence and naked form here put her on the map and on the road to her place as a horror movie staple. Yes, Quigley would go on to become one of the all time Scream Queens, but she has this film to thank and of course, fans have her to thank for getting naked and being one fun zombie to watch in action. Other films with Quigley include Night of the Demons, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, Kolobos, and Innocent Blood. The cast also includes Clu Gulager (The Hidden, Tapeheads), Thom Mathews (Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, Mean Guns), and Jewel Shepard (Caged Heat II, Scanner Cop II).
Video: How does it look?
The Return of the Living Dead is presented in a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, with a full frame edition included on the disc’s flip side. As this was a low budget horror movie from the 1980s, the transfer can’t be expected to look pristine, but MGM has done some terrific work here and given us a fine visual effort. It all starts with a solid looking print, which appears cleaner than previous releases and by turn, provides a cleaner, sharper overall image presence. The colors have been improved too, so all the hues come across in superb form and flesh tones look natural at all times, also a welcome improvement. I saw no real issues with contrast either, as even the darkest of scenes was crisp and showed no detail loss. I am very pleased with MGM’s work here and of course, fans should be nothing short of thrilled as well.
Audio: How does it sound?
As expected, the included mono track is dated and has little dynamic presence, but in the end, all the elements are in acceptable form. I noticed no hiss or distortion in the track, which is excellent news, of course. The punk rock soundtrack comes across in decent fashion, but is held back by the limits of mono, so don’t expect much punch on the whole. The various sound effects are well presented too and while not that impressive, you can’t ask much else from a low budget 1980s mono horror movie soundtrack. I found dialogue to always be clean and crisp however, with no signs of muffled vocals or recording issues. This disc also includes a French language option, as well as subtitles in English, Spanish, and French.
Supplements: What are the extras?
An audio commentary with director Dan O’Bannon and production designer William Stout serves as the main supplement, but it isn’t quite as insightful as I had expected. The two discuss the challenges of shooting the film on such a limited budget, discuss the cast members, and of course, talk about the zombies, but I had other topics in mind. I was interested in how the storyline evolved, as well as O’Bannon’s influences, but those issues aren’t touched upon in this session. This disc also includes a fourteen minute look at the zombie creation process, some still photos, a total of ten television spots, and two of the film’s theatrical trailers.
