Jacob's 31 Days of Halloween - Day 28: The Return of the Living Dead

Jacob's 31 Days of Halloween - Day 28: The Return of the Living Dead

Dan O'Bannon is probably best known for writing classic sci-fi screenplays such as Total Recall and Alien (one of my all-time favorite movies). Like the dream of any screenwriter, he got enough clout to direct his own screenplay in 1985, which resulted in cult classic The Return of the Living Dead.

This is bizarre. It's undoubtedly a landmark for zombie movies, since it's the first one to have them actually talk and say their most beloved catchphrase: "Braiiiiiiins...", but at the same time it feels less like a love letter to zombie movies and more like hate mail.

In the beginning of the movie a character who works in a medical supply warehouse explains that Night of the Living Dead is based on real events that happened in Pittsburgh involving some sort of massive shock that caused corpses to flail around. He then shows the new employee a secret chemical from the military that they have, and then he accidentally releases the toxic gas from it and things go downhill from there. Meanwhile, a group of the most blatantly stock teen characters I've ever seen are out for a drive. They include: a permanently pissed-off punk, a nerdy guy, a goody two-shoes, a party girl, a lusty goth girl, and a stereotypical black guy. They all dress and play their type to a degree I didn't even think was possible, and are what largely makes me feel like Dan O'Bannon was in a very cynical place when he made this. At one point the goth girl becomes so uncontrollably horny she has to get naked and remains so for the rest of the movie, which feels very exploitive and sad as opposed to remotely sexy. There's also a stock military colonel character who we occasionally see at his house being horrible to his wife, and eventually making a big decision at the end of the movie.

The rest of the movie is a pretty typical zombie survival story, with some really cool effects including a zombie who's cut in half and is strapped to a table. It's the first time the idea of zombies specifically wanting brains is introduced, which is revolutionary for the genre, but other than that it really doesn't do anything that Romeo wasn't doing already, other than just being far more over-the-top and humorous.

The ending is a bummer, and not particularly surprising or interesting. It's pretty anti-climactic, which is especially disappointing considering how ridiculous the rest of the movie is, so I was hoping for a fittingly ridiculous ending.

It's a cult classic, so if you love horror and you haven't seen it you should definitely check it out, but it didn't do much of anything for me personally. I didn't find it particularly funny or even that entertaining, but it's certainly at its best when they get creative with the zombies.