Review: Return of the Living Dead (1985)

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15, January 2012Approved By NP, Reviews

“It’s party time.”

Is there a movie more 80s than Dan O’Bannon’s genre bending zombie classic Return of the Living Dead? One need only glimpse at its punky spiked-hair cover art to conclude this film is indeed as 80s as 80s can be. Every contemporary aspect of the decade is fused into the film, a decade known for being a frivolous colourful spectacle, where vapid sensibilities and consumerism ran rampant in the streets. However, there’s more to the living dead than pop music and extravagant hoop earrings. Hiding just six feet under the surface of this seemingly meaningless romp of a zombie film is a nasty moralistic warning that carries with it such bite, it could surely chomp right through your skull and into your juicy, delicious brain.

…a nasty moralistic warning that carries with it such bite, it could surely chomp right through your skull and into your juicy, delicious brain.

The film boasts a wonderfully charismatic ensemble of actors who, although individually may seem over the top, combine to create an irresistibly frenetic atmosphere that carries the madness of the story along. The soundtrack, which is littered with punk rock songs, also helps to define the tone of the movie; an impressive tight ropewalk uniquely and successfully balancing horror, humor and genuine terror. That feat alone is worth a round of applause.

Although Return of the Living Dead seems to have one clear goal in mind, to throw a scary, fun party for its audience, there’s more at work in the film than just brain chewing and blood spewing. It all comes down to one simple, haunting line: “It hurts to be dead”. Despite this film only being a second cousin twice removed from Romero’s original masterpiece Night of the Living Dead, thematically it bares a surprisingly close resemblance. Both films have major downer endings that speak to the terror of organized society run amuck, while also exploiting everyone’s fear of the inevitable end. Death. Dying. Decay. The knowledge that one day we’ll not only be dead, but be forgotten. It’s a truly deep rooted and primal fear, the fear of the unknown, the fear of meaninglessness, which brings us all the way back once again to the 80s.

…exploiting everyone’s fear of the inevitable end. Death. Dying. Decay. The knowledge that one day we’ll not only be dead, but be forgotten.

Return’s power lies in its ability to critique the contemporary times from which it was born. Unlike the zombies in Romero’s films, which are essentially walking dead things, Return’s zombies are quite lively. They’re basically people who can run, talk and think, but are addicted to eating human brains in order to make the pain of being dead go away. They can feel themselves rotting. So, they indulge in feasting on human brains, even the brains of people they once loved. The pain is just too much to endure.

However, before the dead come tumbling out of the graveyard, we spend a lot of time with the living; a group of kids looking for a party. They, like the dead, also have an addiction, one that helps make the pain of living go away. Their addiction, which was a sign of the times in the 80s, is one of distraction. When you stop to think, your mind wanders and sometimes stumbles accidentally upon troubling notions, like the fear of inevitable end. This is the pain of living, and can only be relieved by distractions like a midnight party, or shopping, or work, or whatever your poison. Anything to ward off the pain. The zombies in this film therefore serve as darkly humorous parodies of our own tragic addiction. Even in death, they remain as addicted to hiding from the truth as we are in life, slaves to their unwillingness to accept their end.

It was made from the 80s for the 80s. A warning of things to come if we continued to give into the temptation of distraction… which we did. Today’s society, especially pop culture seems void of any thought beyond the material world. Forget about existential problems, forget about expressing thoughts on life and the human condition. There’s no room for it anymore. It’s basically the 80s multiplied by twenty, which is one thousand six hundred. That’s a lot. But alas, we didn’t heed Dan O’Bannon’s warning, we just turned our backs to the pain of living, opened our bloody mouths and in unison called out: “More BRAINS!”

87/100 - The zombies in this film therefore serve as darkly humorous parodies of our own tragic addiction. Even in death, they remain as addicted to hiding from the truth as we are in life, slaves to their unwillingness to accept their end.

Craig Stewart
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Am I obsessed? Maybe. I prefer the term “passionate”; it has a less creepy stalker kind of vibe. Not that I have anything against creepy stalkers being that my genre of choice is and forever will be the depraved, demented and deranged dwelling of horror. If you're looking for films that don’t sugarcoat things, that reveal people at their ugliest, that aren’t afraid to spill a little blood and have fun doing it, then look no further!