The Return of the Living Dead Movie Review

The Return of the Living Dead is a 1985 horror movie directed by Dan O'Bannon and starring Clu Gulager, James Karen and Don Calfa.

The movie begins with a man called Freddy(Thom Mathews) who is working at a warehouse with Frank(Karen). They are dealing with dead bodies. Meanwhile, a group of kids are looking for somewhere to party. They are friends of Freddy's. Frank tells Freddy about a chemical spill that was covered up. The dead bodies were shipped there. He asks Freddy if he wants to see them. Unfortunately, there is a leak in the container with the bodies in it and the toxic gas spills. This affects the dead bodies and they reanimate. Freddy and Frank are knocked out by the gas. When they wake up and see what has happened, they have to get their boss, Burt(Gulager) to come and help them. He comes and decides that the reanimated corpse needs to be destroyed immediately.

The men try and kill the thing. They cut off its head but it still runs around the place. They decide to get acid and really destroy it. They bring it over to the mortuary and ask the mortician to burn it in the crematorium. Ernie(Calfa), the mortician doesn't want to do it as it seems unusual. They show him the body and he decides to help them. He burns it and the smoke goes out of his chimney and into the air where it mixes with rain and falls on the ground. Freddy and Frank get sick. They thinks that it is because of the toxic gas. Meanwhile, the group of kids are hanging around the place and they see another reanimated corpse. It wants brains.

The paramedics arrive to help Freddy, who is very ill. He has no pulse. The dead are rising. The paramedics say that Freddy is dead, but somehow he is still alive. They get killed by the dead. Freddy is turning into one of them. Some of the kids get killed by the dead but some of them go to the mortuary to keep safe. This doesn't work though and people are getting chomped all over the place.
The cops come, but the zombies overpower hem and they are killed. Burt sees a telephone number on one of the drums that contained the bodies and he calls it. It gets him through to Colonel Glover, who has been looking for those dangerous bodies. He finds out what has happened and he gives the order to destroy the whole thing with a bomb. It blows everything up so there are no survivors. The movie ends with Glover saying that loads of people died but that there is no truth in the rumour that there is an acid rain falling. It is true, however, and the dead are coming back again...

This is a fun movie. I can see why so many people like it. It is pure zombie fun with some good scenes. I enjoyed watching it and I liked the premise. The music was good too. I have yet to watch the sequels but I am looking forward to them. If you are looking for a horror comedy which is entertaining, then this is for you. I will give it a 7/10.