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Lexmark3200
07-02-2005, 11:52 PM
[NOTE: The title of this thread was supposed to be in ALL CAPS like the rest of my reviews, but for some reason, the system wont let me cap it; sorry for the inconsistency]

Now THIS is good Saturday night entertainment......you know something? Out of all the legendary zombie pictures ever made, certainly by master George A Romero --- such as Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead and Day of the Dead, this campy, attempt-at-poking-fun-at-zombie-films is my absolute favorite. I think its more gory, more exciting, more HORROR than any of the other zombie films made, even with its intended humor (well, Zack Snyder's remake of Dawn of the Dead was awesome, and I havent seen Romero's new Land of the Dead).

While I never saw the sequels to Return of the Living Dead and really have no desire to, this 1985 horror gem is a must own DVD for lovers of the horror genre; there are some REALLY gory scenes in this comedy-riddled film, more gore than in even some of the other aforementioned zombie flicks --- in fact, more than MOST of them. The plot centers on Thom Matthews (Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives), a teenage punk rocker who lands a job at a medical supply warehouse where his immediate boss, who is training him in the beginning of the film (James Karen), brings him into the basement of the warehouse where he shows him cannisters loaded with zombies and tells him a story that the U.S. Army had used some kind of chemical which brought corpses back to life, and that the shipment of these "animated but frozen" corpses were supposed to go somewhere else, but landed at this medical supply warehouse they're working in. Upon slamming his hand against the side of one of the tanks housing one of the zombies, Karen's character forces the cannister to leak a horrible gas into the faces of both he and Matthews, where they both fall ill.....inside the cannister, the chemical melts and the zombie, of course, comes back to life.

Meanwhile, the gas that has escaped from the cannister has risen to the upper levels of the supply warehouse, where it begins to bring everything back to life --- cadavers in a refrigerator, "split dogs", butterflies up on the wall --- you name it, it comes to life. Finally recovering from the inhalation of the gas, Karen and Matthews manage to call their boss of the company to tell them what happened (Clu Gulager), and when he arrives, they come to the conclusion that they cant kill these cadavers that have come back to life even when they strike them in the head with sharp metal objects. And so Gulager looks to a friend of his who runs a morturary and crematorium across the street from his warehouse, and he, Matthews and Karen wind up taking a saw and cutting a live cadaver that attacked them (wanting to eat only their brains, which is what all the zombies in this film want --- live human brains) up into tiny pieces to bring over to his friend at the crematorium (Don Calfa). They cook up a story to Calfa that in these small plastic trash bags that are moving are "rabid weasels" and Gulager asks Calfa if he can burn them in his crematorium; eventually, Gulager lets Calfa in on whats going on, that somehow this chemical that escaped from the tank in his warehouse is bringing dead things back to life.

Things begin to get worse when Matthews' derelict punk rocker friends arrive, thinking he is getting off work soon, and they decide to "party" inside a local cemetery, where one of the chicks in the punk rock gang decides to rip her clothes off and dance naked on a tombstone and we get a good look at this chick's tits and shaved bush; its a really cool sequence for us horn dogs like me on this site. Anyway, once Calfa burns the animated cadaver in his crematorium, the fumes from the chemical on the cadaver travel up into the chimney and then an acid rain begins to fall, spewing the chemical gas into the soil of the graveyard, where pretty soon, fast-moving, slick-talking zombies are flying out of graves and coming back to life to eat human brains. There is a sequence where Calfa, Gulager and one of Matthews' punk rocker friends has tied down a half-torsoed rotting female corpse that has come back from the dead and has eaten the brain of one of their other punk rocker friends in a rather greusome scene with blood spurting everywhere out of this guy's head --- they talk to this corpse (this is the first zombie film in which the zombies actually communicate with the humans) and ask her why they are eating people, and she explains, as she is tied to a table with her spinal cord severed in half but still moving around on the metal slab (its pretty creepy when we see the spinal fluid come out), that they dont want to eat people ---- just brains because human brains takes away "the pain of being dead."

Barricaded in this supply warehouse, eventually, after paramedics and cops are killed who come near this cemetery, the group of survivors (Calfa, Gulager, Matthews' girlfriend and a couple of punk rocker kids --- Matthews and Karen have already turned into corpses themselves because the gas hit them in the face when the cannisters opened in the beginning; Karen burns himself in the crematorium while they barricade Matthews as a zombie inside a chapel) have no way out, as the entire area is now teeming with the living dead who want to eat their brains. When the police get involved, and eventually set up a barricade to control the situation, it turns into a bloodbath as the zombies take them over and eat their brains, as well. Finally, Gulager gets the wise idea to call a phone number written on the side of the cannister where the first zombie was originally released -- a number which puts him in direct contact with the Army, who supposedly have been looking for these missing corpses and ended up in the basement of this medical supply company. The military tell Gulager they have a "plan" to deal with the ressurection of these zombies, but their plan, as seen in the final sequence of the film, is to launch a nuclear missile at Louisville, Kentucky (where this is taking place) in order to destroy everything within a certain radius. What they didnt count on was another rainstorm which again forces the chemical back down into the soil of the graveyard, and a skelton pops up from one of the graves with its mouth gaping wide open while the punk rock song "DO YOU WANNA PARTY" comes blaring on before the end credits roll, suggesting a sequel was in the works for this film.

Like I said, Return of the Living Dead is just pure, fun, gory kick-your-feet-up-in-your- home-theater entertainment, and even though it is riddled with humor and is supposed to poke fun at some of Romero's serious zombie classics, THIS film is, to me, a far superior zombie film than some of the borefests that came before it. A great little slice of American horror that belongs on the shelf of any real horror DVD collector.

MGM has created a nice little package for this vintage title, that was unavailable on DVD for the longest time, and fans are lucky to even have it on this format for some reason. It's a single disc package in a standard "keepcase" box with a full screen version on one side and a widescreen version on the other; let me get into the specifics here for all of you great folks that take the time to read my reviews:

VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS:
STANDARD (FULL SCREEN) VERSION; WIDESCREEN 1:85:1 THEATRICAL RELEASE FORMAT VERSION ENHANCED FOR WIDESCREEN TVs

Usually, these "flipper" discs, as I like to call them, dont show much quality when you consider the fact that the studios (Warner Brothers is infamous for doing this) cram a wide and full screen version on two separate sides of a DVD disc; somehow, somewhere, something suffers quality-wise usually, even though you would think doing this would free up bitspace for audio and video quality. In the case of Return of the Living Dead, I ran the widescreen side of the disc on my 16X9 widescreen set, and the results were a mixed bag. MOST of the scenes looked good for a film done on such a small budget and considering the year it came out, but there were moments, during dark scenes, where the screen was sometimes riddled with nasty grain, and it was obvious. Then, as quickly as the grain came, it leaves in a very next scene; this went back and forth through the length of the DVD. So, MGM does not give this classic zombie tale a perfect video transfer, with some grainy scenes from time to time, but I guess this is the best this title is going to look on any format right now --- and surely better than the VHS versions that came before it.

AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS:
ENGLISH DOLBY DIGITAL MONO, SPANISH DOLBY DIGITAL MONO, ENGLISH, FRENCH & SPANISH LANGUAGE SUBTITLES

Ahhhhh.....BIG FAT MONO.....you gotta love it sometimes (well, not really). Suprising MGM did not drop at LEAST a Dolby Surround mix on this DVD, and we get a 2.0 mono track which I guess gets the job done; for a film from 1985, I would think there COULD have been some surround work done to this creepy little thriller, if only, as I said, in Dolby Surround, but unfortunately for fans, we're stuck with a mono soundtrack.

I hope MGM decides to re-visit this title down the road in some kind of Special Edition and gives the audio a re-working because it can definitely benefit instead of everything coming from the center channel on this mono mix, where my receiver automatically steers any information to when it detects a mono signal in PRO LOGIC II. There are scenes with a lot of rainstorms and thunder which could have benefitted from a surround mix, plus the groans and shrieks of the zombies; the mono mix, though, isnt the worst I have ever heard. If you turn the volume of your processor up enough, this track can pack a punch for a center-steered mono presentation, with the punk rock score and all. Its just that, like with so many other mono tracks on DVDs, it seemed like dialogue was once again competing with effects and score on this mix as they all needed to come from the center speaker (if decoded in Pro Logic II, as I did; I see no other way to listen to or watch mono DVDs than through the center speaker).

In the plus column though, and as is typical with most mono tracks, this mix gave Return of the Living Dead that "drive-in movie" feel with everything coming from the front center; perhaps this audio scheme served this film the best, as Paramount did with most of the titles in their Friday the 13th: From Crystal Lake to Manhattan box set of all the Friday films, giving them mono soundtracks as they were originally released in theaters as such. Although in the case of Return of the Living Dead, something still tells me for a film from 1985, this soundtrack should of at least received some kind of Dolby Surround track.

For a cheaply-priced title, MGM has packed Return of the Living Dead with some nice extras, which included:

-Commentary from Director/Writer Dan O' Bannon and Production Designer William Stout
-"Designing the Dead" Featurette
-Conceptual Art by William Stout
-TV Spots
-Original Theatrical Trailer

kexodusc
07-03-2005, 03:52 AM
Nice review....Land of the Dead is okay, nothing spectacular and not as good as the Dawn of the Dead remake...but if you like these kind of movies, it's worth a watch.

Lexmark3200
07-03-2005, 08:57 AM
Nice review....Land of the Dead is okay, nothing spectacular and not as good as the Dawn of the Dead remake...but if you like these kind of movies, it's worth a watch.

Thanks a million for the kind words and taking the time to read the review, Kexo! I appreciate it a lot. Yes, the remake of Dawn of the Dead, to me, was much better than the "political statement" borefest that was the original --- but that opens up a huge can of worms. I am going to re-watch the remake today and do an official review on it for all you guys. I guess I'll wait to rent Land of the Dead.

Dawn of the Dead's remake was the best, in my opinion, of all these horror remakes that have come out so far --- the UTTERLY HORRIBLE and TOTALLY INACCURATE Amityville Horror remake, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake (only worth watching for Jessica Beil's tits in her tank tops), yada yada yada.......

dean_martin
07-03-2005, 11:23 AM
Like I said, Return of the Living Dead is just pure, fun, gory kick-your-feet-up-in-your- home-theater entertainment, and even though it is riddled with humor and is supposed to poke fun at some of Romero's serious zombie classics, THIS film is, to me, a far superior zombie film than some of the borefests that came before it. A great little slice of American horror that belongs on the shelf of any real horror DVD collector.



Lex - This was a favorite rental during my first year of college (1986-87). It comes on Flix or Starz or some other movie channel once in a while. I catch it when I can. I'm glad to see it's on dvd. Thanks for the review.

Lexmark3200
07-03-2005, 11:40 AM
Lex - This was a favorite rental during my first year of college (1986-87). It comes on Flix or Starz or some other movie channel once in a while. I catch it when I can. I'm glad to see it's on dvd. Thanks for the review.

Thank you Dean for reading the review; Im glad I can be of help! You better scoop this DVD up while you can if you are a fan of this little horror classic because I dont know how much longer MGM is gonna keep this title on the market.......

Thanks again for your input!

RGA
07-03-2005, 12:06 PM
Land of the Dead IMO was better than the Dawn Remake -- the Original Dawn IMO is the best zombie film -- and the best horror film ever made. The Dawn remake is fun for scares but charactization was extremely thin. Land of the Dead is no great shakes in this regard but uses the zombies as something other than canon fodder. It has a brain.

Lexmark3200
07-03-2005, 12:14 PM
"Return of the Living Dead is a hoot and pays homage to the master George A Romero."

Absolutely agreed, and the whole theme of my review.

RGA
07-03-2005, 12:14 PM
Return of the Living Dead is a hoot and pays homage to the master George A Romero. I just got a poster of Return of the Living Dead from a girlfriend who got it when the movie came out. The 3rd entry in this series actually was fairly good as well.

Lexmark3200
07-03-2005, 12:15 PM
Land of the Dead IMO was better than the Dawn Remake -- the Original Dawn IMO is the best zombie film -- and the best horror film ever made. The Dawn remake is fun for scares but charactization was extremely thin. Land of the Dead is no great shakes in this regard but uses the zombies as something other than canon fodder. It has a brain.

Thanks for your input, RGA, as you are absolutely entitled to your opinion, but I enjoyed the remake of Dawn of the Dead much better than the original ---- and this RARELY happens --- because I just didnt enjoy the pacing Romero set for this original, nor did I care for the underlying political statement it was trying to make. I thought Zack Snyder's remake, while you are right about characterization, just added much more excitement to this concept, while being a bit of a ripoff of Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later with very fast moving zombies as opposed to the original. Plus, I just LOVED Ving Rhames in the remake:

"**** Y'ALL"

Now that we're talking about it, I am going to have to rewatch the Dawn remake and do a review on it.......:)

Lexmark3200
07-03-2005, 12:16 PM
"Return of the Living Dead is a hoot and pays homage to the master George A Romero"

Absolutely agreed and the whole theme of my review.

Lexmark3200
07-03-2005, 09:53 PM
"the Original Dawn IMO is the best zombie film -- and the best horror film ever made."

Wow.....now HERE is where we differ greatly in opinion; I feel William Friedkin's The Exorcist fits the title you betsowed upon Dawn of the Dead better than Dawn ever will. But again, these are just differences of opinion.

RGA
07-03-2005, 10:56 PM
The Exorcist is number two for me for what it's worth. In terms of a horror film I would put the Exorcist in top spot because the job of a horror film is to scare. I put Dawn of the Dead in absolute movie terms in top spot because it's one of the few horror movies that isnt a horror movie in the strictest sense. It is not about a bunch of zombies eating people (which is ALL the remake is) The remake is an us versus them story well paced very slick and enjoyable -- I bought it on DVD so I did enjoy it.

The original Dawn of the shopping mall and dawn of the zombie shopper is the ultimate in allegory and the ultimate thinking person's horror film. I found no problems with pacing, the budget and external character acting was B-movie grade no question, but virtually every section of this film is not useless fodder merely to create some artifical jump reaction and all four mainly characters were finely realized -- also something not common for a horror film. There is dry humour, slapstick humour, and lotsa gore for the horror fan to sink their teeth into. What is singularly the most impressive thing this film does beyond the allegory and satire and social commentary, and the fact that the message he preached in 1979 has largely come true, is that Romero's villain of the piece "the zombies" are hated, reviled, feared and eventually forgotten, pitied and then even rooted for. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1005339-dawn_of_the_dead/

Lexmark3200
07-03-2005, 11:58 PM
"The Exorcist is number two for me for what it's worth. In terms of a horror film I would put the Exorcist in top spot because the job of a horror film is to scare."

Well, I do believe there was A LOT more going on in William Peter Blatty's novel version of this film than just a tale of demonic possession meant to scare people out of their wits; what made The Exorcist so great went way beyond the pea soup being vomited onto a priest.....there are statements here about the battle between good and evil, right and wrong, faith in God, faith in ourselves......as the Damien Karras character loses his faith and regains it through Max Von Sydow's character at the end as he finally believes in evil.....and the fact that evil is more than just a human characteristic we all carry around inside ourselves. William Friedkin delivered the same look at this loss of faith and the belief that faith can be used to cast out evil in the motion picture version ---- I will probably discuss this in MUCH greater detail when I get around to doing a lengthy review of THE EXORCIST: THE VERSION YOU'VE NEVER SEEN because there were tremendous creative differences between the visions Blatty and Friedkin had regarding bringing this concept to the big screen. But there is A LOT more going on during THE EXORCIST --- as most people arent even aware --- than just demonic possession and raw fright.


"The original Dawn of the shopping mall and dawn of the zombie shopper is the ultimate in allegory and the ultimate thinking person's horror film. I found no problems with pacing, the budget and external character acting was B-movie grade no question, but virtually every section of this film is not useless fodder merely to create some artifical jump reaction and all four mainly characters were finely realized -- also something not common for a horror film. There is dry humour, slapstick humour, and lotsa gore for the horror fan to sink their teeth into. What is singularly the most impressive thing this film does beyond the allegory and satire and social commentary, and the fact that the message he preached in 1979 has largely come true, is that Romero's villain of the piece "the zombies" are hated, reviled, feared and eventually forgotten, pitied and then even rooted for. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1005339-dawn_of_the_dead/"

I agree with most of what you say here, and some of it is indeed fact, as some of that message that was preached has come true.....and as I said in the beginning of my review --- I DO NOT want to get slack from fans of the original just because I did not enjoy it as much as the remake because I RESPECT it for what it was; but to ME, it was not what everyone --- and every fan like yourself --- makes it out to be or believes it to be. But you ARE right in the fact that the original was not "useless fodder" used to create cheap jumps and thrills in the theaters, as these new remakes are ---- the new AMITYVILLE HORROR was a perfect example of the usage of useless scare tactics like loud stingers and flash-quick glimpses of creepy children instead of actually USING a PLOT to develop a film; this remake was utterly, utterly horrible and totally inaccurate, as I consider myself an expert on the Amityille Horror case (or fraud, whatever you want to call it); however, it was the "simple" feel of the 1979 version starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder that made the film so creepy ---- the HOUSE ITSELF became a character and gave off a radiance that something wasnt right there; the same mistake happened when they ****ed up Tobe Hooper's classic TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, sacrificing sheer terror in what the audience is NOT seeing (which is what made it so creepy) for ridiculous MTV-style editing and closeups of scantily clad teenagers; so I can understand where you are coming from with regard to the RESPECT the original Dawn needs to receive --- and thats why I have BOTH discs in my collection for comparison purposes. I just thought Zack Snyder's remake was the most exciting out of all the recent horror remakes.