The Return of the Living Dead

This article is about the film. For the novel, see Return of the Living Dead (novel).

Return of the Living Dead
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Dan O'Bannon
Produced by	Tom Fox Graham Henderson
Screenplay by	Dan O'Bannon
Story by	Rudy Ricci John A. Russo Russell Streiner
Starring	Clu Gulager James Karen Don Calfa
Music by	Matt Clifford Francis Haines
Cinematography	Jules Brenner
Editing by	Robert Gordon
Distributed by	Orion Pictures Corporation
Release date(s)	August 16, 1985 (1985-08-16)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$4 million
Box office	$14,237,880 (USA)

The Return of the Living Dead is a 1985 American zombie film that was followed by several sequels. The film was written and directed by Dan O'Bannon and starred Clu Gulager, James Karen and Don Calfa.^[1]

The film tells the story of how three men accompanied by a group of teenage punks deal with the accidental release of a horde of brain hungry zombies onto an unsuspecting town. The film is also known for its soundtrack, which features several noted deathrock and punk rock bands of the era. The film was a critical success and performed moderately well at the box office. It also spawned four sequels.

Plot

On 1984 July 3, 5:30PM EDT, at the Uneeda medical supply warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky, a foreman named Frank tries to impress the company's newest employee, Freddy, by showing him military drums that accidentally wound up in the basement of the building. Containing the remains of an army experiment gone wrong that inspired the film Night of the Living Dead, Frank accidentally unleashes the toxic gas inside the barrel. Frank and Freddy discover that the body inside of the tank has disappeared, believing it to have probably melted. The gas reanimates a corpse inside a meat locker, forcing Frank and Freddy to call upon their boss Burt to help them deal with the situation. When the three fail to kill the walking cadaver by damaging its brain and decapitating it, Burt decides to bring the zombie to the nearby mortuary to have its dismembered parts burned in the crematorium.

Meanwhile, Freddy's friends learn of his new job from Tina, his girlfriend. The group, consisting of Spider, Trash, Chuck, Casey, and Scuz, decide to pick Freddy up after he finishes his shift. Arriving two hours before Freddy leaves his job, the group, along with Suicide, their driver, go inside the nearby graveyard to wait for him to finish. Tina leaves the cemetery and enters the warehouse when the hours pass to find her boyfriend, not knowing he left for the mortuary. Her search brings her to the basement, where she is suddenly ambushed by the zombie Frank accidentally freed from the tank. After a failed attempt to run away, she manages to lock herself inside a closet to prevent it from getting to her, but the zombie finds a chain and winch and tries to pull the door off.

At the mortuary, Burt has Ernie, the mortician, burn the zombie in his cremator until nothing remains. Unknown to them, this causes the deadly gas to contaminate the air and bring forth a toxic rainfall. The burning rain forces Freddy's friends to return to Suicide's convertible, but when the car fails to start and the roof begins to leak, they take refuge in the warehouse. Inside, they hear Tina's crying and they rescue her from the zombie and barricade the basement door, though Suicide is killed during the rescue attempt. Because Casey witnessed Freddy entering the mortuary, the group makes a run through the cemetery to find Freddy. Inside the graveyard, they discover the dead rising from their graves. The shock of this sight results in the group getting split up. Only Spider, Tina, and Scuz make it to the mortuary, while Trash is killed by zombies, and Chuck and Casey flee back to the warehouse.

Frank and Freddy have grown increasingly ill from their exposure to the gas and a medical test from paramedics implies that they are no longer alive. When Burt and Ernie learn of the dead rising from their graves, they quickly barricade the mortuary after Ernie is attacked and chased back to his building when he tries to use an ambulance to escape. Scuz is killed while protecting the barricade and the zombies eat the paramedics and police who arrive at the mortuary. With Frank and Freddy showing signs of becoming zombies themselves, Burt has them locked in the chapel. Tina, however, refuses to abandon Freddy and allows herself to be locked in with him.

Freddy soon attempts to eat Tina, but is stopped by Burt, Ernie, and Spider. In the ensuing struggle, Ernie manages to blind Freddy with acid and lock him back up. Frank manages to escape during the chaos, and, still having control over his mind, commits suicide by cremating himself. While Freddy breaks through the door holding him, Burt sees a police car outside with the motor still running. Along with Spider, he manages to get inside the car, but the large number of zombies forces him to abandon Ernie and Tina. Ernie brings Tina and himself up to his attic, while the blinded Freddy attempts to break in.

Burt crashes the police car outside of the warehouse, and an explosion caused by a gasoline leak destroys the remaining cars outside. Burt and Spider manage to get back inside the warehouse where they find Casey and Chuck. After incapacitating Tarman by decapitating him, the survivors enter the basement, where the building's phone is located. With the police being massacred by the zombies, Burt decides to call the number on the military drums. The call goes to Colonel Glover, an Army officer looking for the barrels. When Glover learns that "the Easter eggs have hatched," he activates a containment protocol that results in the destruction of 20 square blocks of Louisville by a nuclear artillery shell. The film ends with footage of the disaster area, along with a voiceover from Glover describing the outcome as optimal ("less than 4000 dead") while dismissing the new reports of skin irritation by saying "the rains should wash everything away" in time for the President's impending visit to the area.

Cast

• Clu Gulager as Burt
• James Karen as Frank
• Don Calfa as Ernie
• Thom Mathews as Freddy
• Beverly Randolph as Tina
• John Philbin as Chuck
• Jewel Shepard as Casey
• Miguel A. Núñez Jr. as Spider
• Brian Peck as Scuz
• Linnea Quigley as Trash
• Mark Venturini as Suicide
• Jonathan Terry as Colonel Glover

Production

The film has its roots in a novel by John Russo also called Return of the Living Dead. When Russo and George A. Romero parted ways after their 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, Russo retained the rights to any titles featuring Living Dead while Romero was free to create his own series of sequels, beginning with Dawn of the Dead. Russo and producer Tom Fox planned to bring Return of the Living Dead to the screen in 3D and directed by Tobe Hooper. Dan O'Bannon was brought in to give the script a polish and after Hooper backed out to make Lifeforce (also from a script by Dan O'Bannon), O'Bannon was offered the director's seat. He accepted on the condition he could rewrite the film radically so as to differentiate it from Romero's films. Russo retains a story writer credit on the film for developing the project, but the final film bears little to no resemblance to his original novel. He later wrote a novelization of the film which was fairly faithful to the shooting script, though without the character names as in the final film and the addition of a KGB sublot as an explanation for the plot. (Russo would, eventually, make his own 'canon' series with a 1998 revised edition of Night of the Living Dead, subtitled the 30th Anniversary Edition, and its sequel, Children of the Living Dead.)

O'Bannon's script also differed from the Romero series in that it is markedly more comedy based than Romero's films, employing "splatstick" style morbid humor and eccentric dialogue. The films also boasted significant nudity, in marked contrast to Romero's work. Russo and O'Bannon were only directly involved with the first film in the series. The rest of the films, to varying degrees, stick to their outline and "rules" established in the first film.

Although the movie is set in Louisville, Kentucky, it was filmed in California. The Louisville police uniforms and patrol cars were all period correct which means the studio had to obtain permission from the Louisville city government to use the Louisville police department emblem. Neither the Louisville police nor the city of Louisville received any acknowledgement in the end credits.

The Tarman is performed by actor and puppeteer Allan Trautman, who is best known for his work with Jim Henson and The Muppets.

The "Half-Corpse" character was an animatronic puppet created by Tony Gardner and puppeteered by Gardner, actor Brian Peck ("Scuz"), and Production Designer William Stout. This character launched Tony Gardner's career as an independent makeup effects artist.

Reception

The Return of the Living Dead was a critical and a moderate box office success. It currently holds an 89% approval rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes,^[2] and grossed $14,237,000 domestically on an estimated budget of $4,000,000.^[3] It was also nominated for four Saturn Awards, including Best Horror Film, Best Actor for James Karen, Best Director and Best Make-up, by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films.^[4]

Soundtrack

1. "Surfin' Dead" by The Cramps
2. "Partytime (Zombie Version)" by 45 Grave
3. "Nothin' for You" by T.S.O.L.
4. "Eyes Without a Face" by The Flesh Eaters
5. "Burn the Flames" by Roky Erickson
6. "Dead Beat Dance" by The Damned
7. "Take a Walk" by Tall Boys
8. "Love Under Will" by Jet Black Berries
9. "Tonight (We'll Make Love Until We Die)" by SSQ
10. "Trash's Theme" by SSQ

Home media

The film was originally released on DVD in the UK by Tartan Home Video in 2001. This is the only time it has been issued in its original form. A year later and MGM released a Special Edition DVD in the US with a new cut of the movie (with music alterations due to copyright issues) with a commentary by O'Bannon and a documentary on the making of the film. The cover of the DVD case for the 2002 release glows in the dark. On September 11, 2007, a Collector's Edition of the film was released with additional extra features involving the cast. The different home video releases have featured different soundtracks, often changing the songs used. Also, the basement zombie's ("Tar-Man") voice was altered. Originally, the zombie had a higher, raspier voice.

A 25th anniversary edition was released on September 14, 2010, exclusively for Blu-ray Disc. The Blu-ray Disc version is a 2-disc combo pack with both a Blu-ray Disc and DVD.

Pop culture

• The film was spoofed in an episode of South Park called "Pink Eye" where Kenny catches the titular infection and everyone becomes brain-eating zombies.^[5] The film's zombie cries of "Brains...more brains" were parodied in the South Park episode "Night of the Living Homeless" where the town is over run by homeless people who repeated call for "change".
• In the tenth episode of The Simpsons' eleventh season ("Little Big Mom"), Bart and Homer believe they have leprosy and begin to act like zombies. When trying to ask Ned Flanders for help, they reach through the mail slot on his front door, saying, in a zombie-like voice, "Brains. Brains." Then Homer cheerfully says, "Use your brains to help us." Then, using the zombie-like voice again, he says, "Your delicious brains."^[6]

Merchandise

Most of the merchandise based on the movie focuses primarily on the zombie, Tarman.

An action figure based on Tarman was due for release in 2010 by Amok Time Toys to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the film. However, as of 2011, it still has not been released.^[7][8]

Fright-Rags released in March 2010 a limited edition of Tarman t-shirts and posters with an autograph from William Stout.^[9]

Books

A book titled The Complete History of the Return of the Living Dead was released October 2010.^[10][11] The book covered all five movies in the series.^[12] It featured interviews from over 70 members of the cast and crew, as well as 150 never-before-published filmmakers photos, film stills and posters.^[13]

References

1. ^ The New York Times
2. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/return_of_the_living_dead/
3. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089907/business
4. ^ Awards for The Return of the Living Dead at the Internet Movie Database
5. ^ IMDb - "South Park" - Pink Eye (1997)
6. ^ http://www.snpp.com/episodes/BABF04
7. ^ Tomb of Bloke - "ROTLD Tarman Action Figure"
8. ^ "Toys: Tarman, Bub, & Dr. Tongue action figures from Amoktime". Send More Cops. http://sendmorecops.wordpress.com/2009/04/20/toys-tarman-bub-dr-tongue-action-figures-from-amoktime. 
9. ^ "Limited Edition Tarman T-Shirt & Poster from Fright-Rags". http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/36203/limited-edition-tarman-t-shirt-poster-fright-rags. 
10. ^ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0859654605
11. ^ News on 'Return of the Living Dead' Book Project in Jeopardy
12. ^ Return of the Living Dead: 'The Complete History of the Return of the Living Dead'
13. ^ The Complete History of the Return of the Living Dead (2010)

External links

• The Return of the Living Dead at the Internet Movie Database
• The Return of the Living Dead at AllRovi
• The Return of the Living Dead at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Return of the Living Dead at Box Office Mojo