RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985) Blu-Ray Review

In one of the many special features packed onto this loaded blu-ray, actor James Karen, who plays the hapless Frank, recounts a story of going to Greece and being greeted with "Send more cops" by one of the locals. If that doesn't speak to the unlikely longevity of this movie, then I'm not sure what does.

This unauthorized semi-sequel to George Romero's zombie trilogy bowed the same year as Day of the Dead and to my mind remains the superior film. Whereas Romero's film was treading some of the same ground as its precursor Dawn of the Dead, O'bannon's Return dove headlong into postmodern territory, expertly walking the fine line between comedy and horror, bringing something new to the walking dead genre while still observing what makes a good zombie picture work.

For the uninitiated, Return starts off in a medical supply company where older employee Frank (Karen) is showing dimwitted new employee, Freddy (Thom Mathews) the ropes. Hoping to liven things up a bit for the new guy, Frank spins a yarn about how Night of the Living Dead was actually based on fact and that Romero was forced to change some elements of the story to avoid getting sued by the U.S. government. The zombies were ultimately contained and stuff into canisters by the Army, and it just so happens that a small cache of those canisters ended up in the basement of the very warehouse where Frank and Freddy work. Frank offers to show the canister to Freddy.

And of course something goes wrong.

From there the film mashes up East Coast punks, a Nazi enthusiast mortician (Don Calfa), fast-moving, problem-solving, talking zombies, and a graveyard striptease by Linnea Quigley in what is certainly one of the most heady mixes in horror memory. The script, by the late O'Bannon (Alien, Heavy Metal, Lifeforce) brings together humor, horror, and hopelessness in the Reagan era. The real baddies are the U.S. military and the future is doomed no matter what with kids like Suicide (Mark Venturini) and Trash (Quigley) roaming the streets.

I've been in the tank, as they say, for this movie since the first time I saw the  "Tarman" zombie shamble towards clean-cut Tina (Beverly Randolph) some 20-some odd years ago. That blackened, oily zombie with the seemingly loose joints played by Allan Trautman lived in my bad dreams as a kid and was the kind of thing I'd talk up when telling my friends about this messed-up horror movie I'd seen. It's a testament to the effects work lead by Allan Apone that the Tarman still holds up today.

Actually, most of Return holds up given the brisk pacing and a cast of characters that never (well rarely) grates - a problem endemic to zombie films. Sure, some of the performances aren't strong (many of the kids in the Suicide's crew were fairly new actors) and some of the veterans weren't afraid to ham it up (Karen's Frank is a screwup in life and un-death). But these elements only add to the charm of an unofficial sequel that itself spawned numerous follow-ups (don't watch these).

Special Features

Although it's not billed as such on the packaging, this blu-ray release is a great commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the film, bringing together the cast and crew for the special features (a few duplicated from the 2002 MGM DVD). This two-disc set includes:

Audio commentary by the cast, crew and the undead
Audio commentary by Dan O'Bannon and Production Designer William Stout
Decade of Darkness documentary
The Dead Have Risen featurette
Zombie subtitles for the film
Designing the Dead featurette
Theatrical Trailer: Bloody Version
Theatrical Trailer: Even Bloodier Version
In Their Own Words - The Zombies Speak
A DVD copy of the movie with all of the features from the 2002 DVD

The real gems are The Dead Have Risen and Decade of Darkness , the former providing some context in the making of the film that no one thought would amount to anything and the latter being a neat 20 minute talking head feature about the horror of the 80's. While not especially deep, it does have luminaries like John Landis, Joe Dante, and Stuart Gordon on board to talk about horror films in the Reagan era and their own attempts during that period to resurrect the supernatural film. It's pretty transparently a marketing piece for the MGM films featured in the doc, but at th same time it's nice to hear some of these directors talk candidly about their work during that period.

The commentary by O'bannon is, I believe, the same one from the 2002 disc, but I don't recall whether there was an additional commentary by the cast and crew. O'bannon is pretty extensive in talking about the experience of making the movie, the challenges of shooting a bunch of costume-clad extras in the rain, and the continued reputation of the film to this day. The zombie subtitles option is kind of cute but the joke wears thin pretty quickly.

As for the actual quality of the disc, it's not going to wow anyone, but the blu-ray is much crisper and clearer than the included DVD. Strangely, the box are doesn't include specs on whether it's 1080p or not and i feel unqualified to say. Speaking of which, the otherwise pretty stellar release is marred by some slight inaccuracies in the film's description on the back (it's a nitpick but Freddy works at a medical supply company, not an Army surplus store), and a lack of detail about how the visuals are presented. Worse, the art on the cover is pretty hideous, dumping the cover used for the theatrical and DVD releases for the fairly awful cover used here which goes heavy on the garish neon green for reasons I don't quite understand. But these are quibbles with what's ultimately a well-produced disc that belongs in any horror aficionado's collection.

Correction: The invaluable Josh Hurtado points out that the included DVD is actually the 2007 re-release and not the 2002 release as I stated in the piece. The 2007 release is missing some of the TV spots included in the 2002 disc. Thanks, Josh!