Guilty Pleasures: Return of the Living Dead Part 2
If you placed a gun to my head and asked me to name the greatest zombie movie ever made, with very little hesitation I’d say Return of the Living Dead. In a recent episode of my podcast Reddit Horror Club we reviewed this very film. The fact is most of what you know about horror movies stemmed from this “parody” more than the classics like Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead.
It was Return of the Living Dead that first introduced the concept of zombies eating brains, it was also in this film that you first see zombies that can run (for better or for worse). But that’s not why I love that particular film, I love it because it’s a fun movie with some of the best looking zombies ever committed to film. If you consider yourself a zombie fan and you’ve yet to see it, this must be fixed.
Now… let’s talk about Return of the Living Dead Part 2
One can almost argue the film is a reboot more than anything. So many elements of the movie are similar (including many characters from the first ROLD returning as similar characters with similar dialogue). It’s basically a kid’s friendly zombie film, the MPAA was going to give it a PG-13 rating if not for one particular sequence involving a zombie getting cut in half. For whatever reason the director refused and decided to stick with the R (which good for him because the effect is one of the best ones in the movie).
Being that it’s a kid friendly film instead of following a group of 8 punk rockers in a grave yard we follow a young boy named Jesse Wilson. Jesse becomes friends with two bullies who take him to their club house. While there they discover a barrel of Trioxin (which turns you into a Zombie). The bullies lock him in an old mausoleum while they tamper with the barrel eventually spraying themselves (and the entire graveyard) in the deadly gas.
As expected the dead begin to rise leaving Jesse one of the only people that totally understands what happens.
The film currently holds a 0% freshness on Rotten Tomatoes. This movie is bad but it’s fair from 0% awful. The audience reviews were a 46^ which I think is at least slightly more fair.
There are elements that movie does a little incorrectly. They push the comedy heavier than before and while the original was funny is a slightly satirical way this film focuses on more slapstick humor as well as a Michael Jackson/Thriller Zombie. The silliness is just that silly. Nothing is laugh out loud funny in the film to the level that the original would make you laugh. Despite having directed a few horror films before and afterwards director Ken Wiederhorn hated horror movies which would explain his constant desire to stay away from the horror and play up the comedy. Most of the cast seems to have disliked his directing style and have negative memories on the whole experience.
Despite all the issues with silliness the movie is still extremely fun. While they play every piece of horror with their tongue firmly in their cheek they didn’t skimp on the zombie effects. Be it puppets or make up each zombie has their own unique design and personality.
I love this movie to death and I’m sure a big part of it is because it literally oozes 80’s. They will never make a movie like this again (probably not a bad thing) but despite the fact that everyone involved hated the experience it looks like they’re having fun and that definitely helps make the movie a fun experience.
Go rent this and the original, turn your brain off and enjoy one of the greatest zombie movies ever made and a film where they shamelessly kill various bullies and turn them into zombies as well.
