Return Of The Living Dead is an iconic 1985 horror/comedy from director & writer Dan O’Bannon. Very loosely based on the novel by John A Russo, Return Of The Living Dead released in the same year as George A Romero released his second sequel to Night of The Living Dead. Unlike Romeros film, which takes place in the same fictional universe as “Night” and “Dawn”, Return posits that the original film was a fictionalisation of a true event (so the film Night Of The Living Dead exists in the world of Return of The Living Dead) and goes from there.
Synopsis:
In Louisville, Kentucky, 2 hapless medical warehouse clerks accidentally unleash the secret military chemical 2-4-5 Trioxin. This causes the dead to rise from a nearby cemetery, and only the hapless pair, some punks, the warehouse owner and a local mortician stand between the undead horde and the end of the world. Will any of them survive the Return of The Living Dead?
So the plot is fairly simple. And it doesn’t need to be anything else. Return isn’t trying to be a social commentary like Romeros sequels are. It’s a pure popcorn movie, full of laughs, scres, and a toe-tappingly good soundtrack.
