The
Return of the Living Dead
1985
Director- Dan O'Bannon
Cast- Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Thom Mathews, Linnea
Quigley, Jewel Shepard, Miguel A. Núñez Jr., Beverly Randolph, John Philbin, Brian
Peck, Mark Venturini, Jonathan Terry, Cathleen Cordell, Allan Trautman
A gang
of punks, looking for a way to kill time, prowl the streets of Louisville
Kentucky on 4th of July weekend. Their personalities are as colorful
as their names and attire. Spider (Miguel A. Núñez Jr.) is even tempered and
good natured. Chuck (John Phiblin) is a doofus who has the hots for Casey (the
eternally lovely Jewel Shepard) but she couldn’t care less about him. Skuzz (Brian
Peck) is a mohawked, switchblade carrying punk but a loyal member of the gang.
Tina (Beverly Randolph) is a complete square, which makes her a kind of outcast
among outcasts. Suicide (Mark Venturini) is the hot tempered Alpha male. Trash
(Linnea Quigley in her greatest role) is a nihilistic nympho looking for her
next distraction.
Tina’s
boyfriend Freddy (Thom Mathews) seems to be the only member of the group
responsible enough to hold a job. He works in the Uneeda medical supply warehouse-
“You need it—We got it,” He is being shown the ropes by his older co-worker Frank
(James Karen). Frank tells Freddy an interesting story about the dead coming to
life. As it turns out, Night of the Living Dead was based on a “true story”,
but the facts got changed all around to avoid law suits. What really happened
was that a chemical defoliant was developed for the Army and a leak
contaminated some corpses and made them jump around as though alive.
To prove the veracity of his
story, Frank takes Freddy into the warehouse’s basement where one of the
corpses has been stored in a sealed container all these years. The tank ruptures
releasing a cloud of toxin that causes a corpse in the freezer (it’s a medical
supply warehouse remember) to come to life. But it’s not just jumping around, it seems energetic and pissed off.
Frank calls his boss Bert (Clu Gulager) who gives Frank an ass chewing and then
decides the best thing to do is to cover it all up. Bert, Frank, and Freddy
chop up the body but it doesn’t die. The pieces are still alive and moving!
Bert decides it’s time to take drastic measures and enlists the help of Ernie (Don
Calfa), the embalmer at a nearby funeral home. He tells Ernie what happened and
asks to use his crematorium to burn up the reanimated pieces. Ernie reluctantly
agrees. When the body burns, the smoke seeds the clouds with contamination that
rains down into the local cemetery.
The gang of punks just
happens to be hanging out in that cemetery killing time including watching
Trash strip down and get naked in one of the most memorable scenes in horror
movie history. The contaminated rain seeps down into the graveyard and the
buried corpses come to life. The punks must seek refuge and team up with the
guys at the funeral home to try and fend off an undead horde.
Full disclosure, this is my favorite
horror movie ever. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen it, but I’m sure it’s
in the triple digits. I only wished I
had been able to see it in the theatre when it came out, but I was only 11
years old so that wasn’t happening. I saw it on VHS when I was 13 and it changed
my life (not to mention leaving a permanent impact on my choice of women, thank
you very much Linnea Quigley!).
It’s a perfect movie in my
opinion. There is absolutely no wasted time. Within the first 10 minutes of the
film we know the premise of the film, we know the tone of the film (definitely horror-comedy)
and we’ve met all of the characters save one. The humor has perfect timing. The
gore and effects look great. The casting was spot on.
The film has an interesting
origin. John A. Russo wrote George Romero’s seminal classic Night of the Living
Dead. Russo and Romero went their separate ways, both retaining the right to
make more films with the Living Dead title. Romero went on to make Dawn of the
Dead and Day of the Dead (which came out the same year as Return of the Living
Dead, only a month earlier). Russo had written a new script and it was picked
up to become a movie with Tobe Hooper slated to direct it. Hooper dropped out
to direct his awesome sexy space vampire movie Lifeforce (which also came out
the same year about 2 months earlier- this was a great year for horror!). When
Hooper dropped out, Dan O’Bannon was brought in to direct. He agreed on one
condition. He didn’t want to step on what George Romero was doing so he opted
to make his film a comedy, in contrast with Romero’s very serious films.
Dan was the perfect choice.
As a screenwriter he had written Alien, Blue Thunder, segments for Heavy Metal
and Hooper’s Lifeforce! He understood the art of movie making having worked on
Star Wars and Alien. Return of the Living Dead was his directorial debut but
you wouldn’t know it by the finished product.
There was a lot of other
talent on display as well. Cinematography was by Jules Brenner who was the
cinematographer for Salem’s Lot. Production design was by legendary fantasy
artist William Stout who also worked on Raiders of the Lost Ark, Conan the
Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer, Buck Rogers, First Blood, House and a hundred
other things.
But the feather in this
movie’s cap is the cast. Everyone was perfect for their roles, not a miscast in
the bunch. Gulager, Karen, Calfa, and Mathews have perfect comic timing and
work off of each other well. James Karen and Thom Mathews especially work well
as the movie’s unlucky schmucks. Their chemistry seemed real and added so much
to the film’s humorous tone.
Miguel A. Núñez Jr., as
Spider, turns in a fine supporting performance as the punk who has to take on
the mantle of leadership for his group. Jewel Shepard makes Casey a kind of mix between a bitchy
bad girl and a bored mallrat. Linnea Quigley though provides the image that
everyone thinks of when this movie comes to mind. With her bright red hair and
mostly naked performance she created a bad ass sexy character that has become
an icon of horror.
This film has a real
outsider quality that endears it to people who identify with the characters. It
doesn’t just have a punk rock look, it has a legit soundtrack with music from
The Cramps, 45 Grave, TSOL, The Damned , The Tall Boys and more. These songs
are used expertly in the film. They don’t just provide background noise. Each
one is used in a precise way to achieve an effect.
Return of the Living Dead
spawned several sequels. Of special note is part 3 which returns the franchise
to its punk roots. The zombie franchise has been run in the ground a bit over
the last 20 years and many people who haven’t seen this film may wonder why
they should spend time watching another entry in what is usually a very derivative
genre. Return of the Living Dead is not like any other zombie film you’ll see
(with the possible exception of Peter Jackson’s Braindead). This movie is sexy
and gory but more than that, it’s fun! It’s completely entertaining from
beginning to end. I can’t recommend the film enough.
Fun fact- Linnea’s famous nakedness was not quite as
naked as we all thought. Originally she was all nude but the studio thought her
bush was too obvious so she shaved it. Then the studio execs thought that the
shaved bush was somehow even more taboo so a kind of fake vagina covering was
made giving her sexless Barbie genitals. It’s not easily apparent and many
people (including myself for about 20 years) were fooled into thinking that they
had seen the promised land.
Fun fact 2- Dinah Cancer (lead singer for the band 45 Grave
that provided the song Partytime for the soundtrack) starred in Fright Night 2
though you wouldn’t recognize her. She wore the monster makeup for when Regine
turned into a giant bat-woman.
Fun fact 3- Jewel Shepard met Dan O’Bannon in a strip
club where she was working. Jewel and Dan became friends and he offered her the
role of Trash. She turned it down because she was tired of taking off her clothes
all of the time and she took the role of Casey instead.
Fun fact 4- Return of the Living Dead and Friday the 13th
have a connection. Mark Venturini (Suicide) played Vic in part 5 The New
Beginning. Miguel A. Núñez Jr. (Spider) played Demon in the same film (those
damn enchiladas!). Thom Mathews (Freddy) had the starring role as Tommy Jarvis
in part 6 Jason Lives.
