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#228 - The Return of the Living Dead
Dan O'Bannon, 1985
When two workers at a medical supply warehouse accidentally crack open a sealed barrel that contains a zombie, it causes a chain of events that lead to a zombie uprising.
On paper, The Return of the Living Dead seems like a movie I should like. The aggressively '80s punk-rock aesthetic, the twists on established zombie tropes, the comedic overtones, and even a surprising degree of technical competence in regards to both the zombie effects and behind-the-camera methods (there are some noteworthy long takes when it comes to character-driven scenes)...all that, plus it has one catchy theme song. Despite having all those things going for it, I really don't get much out of it. It has a lean running time of less than 90 minutes, yet it manages to feel overly long anyway by spending a bit too much time on setting up its extremely rudimentary plot and characters (most of whom barely leave an impression anyway). Though it's touted as a comedy, I find it decidedly lacking in worthwhile humour as it barely goes beyond explicitly riffing on other zombie movies or even in having its outlandish characters do everything from graveyard stripteases to theatrical displays of shock over the zombies. Weirdly enough, I find it more effective at being subtly unnerving instead of viscerally terrifying - the zombies' true motivation for eating brains actually lends a degree of nuance to their bloodthirsty rampaging. However, for all its nice little touches here and there I still think that this is a largely underwhelming entry into the zombie canon that could have been able to get away with not being scary but suffers greatly when its many jokes don't come anywhere close to landing.
Dan O'Bannon, 1985
When two workers at a medical supply warehouse accidentally crack open a sealed barrel that contains a zombie, it causes a chain of events that lead to a zombie uprising.
On paper, The Return of the Living Dead seems like a movie I should like. The aggressively '80s punk-rock aesthetic, the twists on established zombie tropes, the comedic overtones, and even a surprising degree of technical competence in regards to both the zombie effects and behind-the-camera methods (there are some noteworthy long takes when it comes to character-driven scenes)...all that, plus it has one catchy theme song. Despite having all those things going for it, I really don't get much out of it. It has a lean running time of less than 90 minutes, yet it manages to feel overly long anyway by spending a bit too much time on setting up its extremely rudimentary plot and characters (most of whom barely leave an impression anyway). Though it's touted as a comedy, I find it decidedly lacking in worthwhile humour as it barely goes beyond explicitly riffing on other zombie movies or even in having its outlandish characters do everything from graveyard stripteases to theatrical displays of shock over the zombies. Weirdly enough, I find it more effective at being subtly unnerving instead of viscerally terrifying - the zombies' true motivation for eating brains actually lends a degree of nuance to their bloodthirsty rampaging. However, for all its nice little touches here and there I still think that this is a largely underwhelming entry into the zombie canon that could have been able to get away with not being scary but suffers greatly when its many jokes don't come anywhere close to landing.