Zombie Boobs, Zombie Bullies and Zombie Brains

“That’s why you’re dead asswipe! No brains and a big mouth!”

I was in the mood for some 80s horror this weekend (Ed Note – it’s the tryptophan) and decided to go with a favorite of my editor and it’s sequel. I was never a big fan of zombies and generally avoided all movies with the words “dead” or “living dead” in the title. After watching these movies, I am honestly sorry I did. These were some of the most fun and funny movies I have seen in quite awhile. They totally transported me back to the best decade of all time.

Return of the Living Dead was released in 1985 and its sequel in 1988. Both movies star Thom Matthews who played Tommy in Friday the 13th part 6 and James Karen who has 191 acting credits including playing Mr. Teague – the boss in Poltergeist. Return of the Living Dead features a group of partying teens and two idiot employees of a medical warehouse as the main characters. When the employees kick a drum with a corpse in it they unleash a gas that makes them fatally ill and at the same time re-animates the dead in a local cemetery. The teens who are partying in said cemetery (which by the way looks like it belongs in North Philly — one of the worst neighborhoods in the City of Philadelphia_ are now in serious jeopardy. The kids and employees of the medical warehouse eventually run into each other and fight together to save themselves from the zombies.
Return of the Living Dead Part II once again stars Thom Matthews and James Karen in similar roles, this time as grave robbers. This movie was a sort of cross between Adventures in Babysitting and Night of the Living Dead. The protagonist in this film is an 11-year-old boy, Jesse, played by Michael Kenworthy. Jesse is being chased by the neighborhood bullies. These bullies find a sealed Army drum with a rotting corpse inside and proceed to open the drum releasing the same deadly gas that caused all the trouble in the original movie. The bullies and grave robbers are exposed to the deadly gas which not only re-animates the corpses in a nearby graveyard but also slowly turns them into zombies as well. The grave robbers and Jesse eventually meet up picking up a few others along the way and the whole bunch of them spend the rest of the movie trying to defeat the zombies.
These films were like a “who’s wh”o of 80s horror with Thom Matthews, James Karen, Suzanne Snyder from Night of the Creeps, Dana Ashbrook of Waxwork and Twin Peaks, Miguel A. Nunez Jr. of Friday the 13th V, Linnea Quigley of a thousand low budget 80s horror films and my personal favorite Clu Gulager who played the dad in Nightmare On Elm St 2. There was even a Michael Jackson zombie in the sequel which is what the zombies in both movies reminded me of — Thriller zombies! Since Thriller is my favorite music video of all time (Ed Note: and every other horror fan’s) this made me extremely happy. Both of these films were the perfect mix of humor, zombies, teen angst, action and for those of you who like their horror with a side of boobs — you are in luck. One female character from the first film is completely naked (Ed Note: both alive and as a zombie, but anyone who has seen any 80s horror at all already knows who was naked) for at least half of the movie. Last but not least, one of my favorite characters from both movies was Doc Mandel played hilariously by Bill Maher look-alike Philip Bruns who passed away last year with 102 acting credits.

I truly hope there are horror fans under 40 who read my blog that haven’t discovered these films yet because they are true gems.

LITTLE MISS HORROR NERD’S RATING: 5 out of 5 (for both films)

 

Return of the Living Dead Trivia:

– Return of the Living Dead was the first movie in which zombies audibly called for “brains!”

– John Russo and George Romero parted after Night of the Living Dead, splitting copyrights.  Romero was free to make his own series of sequels (Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, etc.), but Russo retained the rights to any sequels with “Living Dead” in the title, thus the Return of the Living Dead franchise was born.

– Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist) was originally set to direct the first film.

– In 2011, More Brains!, a documentary about the Return of the Living Dead franchise was released on DVD

 

 

Rent Return of the Living Dead here and Return of the Living Dead 2 here.