‘RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD’ (1985) – A Personal Retro Review

Return of the Living Dead kind of saved my life through the safety of watching a bunch of zombies eating brains. Some senses can send you into a nostalgic fit, whether a smell, sound, song, or image. Return Of The Living Dead is that very thing for me and I still watch it twice a month or more. This is a drawn-out story, but I will try to keep it simple.

My Story…

I first saw Return of the Living Dead on a VHS tape my aunt had. My cousin Nicky and I were like twins because we spent every moment together. We were raised together. We watched this movie over and over and over. We must have gone through ten copies because we wore another one out. It was almost a challenge: how many times could we watch it and how many tapes could we burn out?

We started binging on horror. Whatever we could find. We wanted all of it right away. It was our thing. Everyone knew it and just left us alone. Probably not the best idea considering the movies we watched at an extremely young age. Welcome to the 80’s. We were feral kids before we could even walk. The world pre-9/11 was a different place. Over time we slowly started to say “Hey, maybe this isn’t something you should be watching.”

In 1994, at the age of 11, my cousin succumbed to cancer. I blew off horror movies for a good while. Years even. One day while my aunt was staying with our family, I found this movie all over again. I was still a lost kid, but I grabbed it and watched it five times to get the crying out of my system. Eventually, things got better. My love for spooky things came all over again. It was a wound that took a long time to be able to talk about, but I still find solace in this movie.

Synopsis

On the 4th of July weekend, something happened in Kentucky. While closing up shop Frank (James Karen: Poltergeist1982) lets out a secret that both he and the new guy Freddy (Thom Matthews: Return of the Living Dead 2, 1988) become nosey about some super secret military barrels that the shop had hidden. 

To test its strength Frank smacks the barrel releasing a toxic gas that makes the dead come to life as it spreads through the cemetery where Freddy’s friends are partying. The mortician Ernie (Don Calfa: Weekend At Bernie’s, 1989) blows the chemical out of a pipe after burning a re-animated corpse. It becomes a fight for the entire cast to survive. Not a lot of them do.

Everyone involved struggles to keep themselves afloat in a tsunami. The dead come back, and they are hungry, no one knows what will happen. The zombies come from everywhere. They hid in the darkness, hunting for their meal. The zombies even talk, proving they were once living, breathing souls

Here’s a look at the poster art!

The Great DVD Letdown

Return of the Living Dead was not only iconic at the time, it grew even bigger as time went on. What is there to love about this movie so much? It is a staple in our lives as kids in the 80’s and 90’s. It was a different time. Parents were too busy chasing careers that left us home to do our own bidding. Instead of getting in trouble, however, I sat with my movies day in and day out.

I lived horror, I breathed horror. Return of the Living Dead set so many boundaries, that they took Michael Jackson’s Thriller, and made it a madhouse. The movie took George Romero and flipped the idea of a virus. As much as I love George A. Romero, I Love zombies that come from the ground. To me that makes it much more creepy.

I have to admit though, no matter how many times I watched it as a kid, I was terrified of the idea. The movie left that imprint on everyone. Another plus to this movie was the soundtrack. It helped me find punk rock. Even at 5 years old we were listening to the soundtrack. It fits the mood of the movie so well.

It’s like the bands wrote every moment into music, and my only gripe is that when they formatted it to DVD, they lost and misplaced a lot of the movie, and changed zombie voices. Watching it was awkward because I was so used to knowing every moment and sound. However, it didn’t lose the charm of the moment. Also, we can’t forget the iconic moment from Trash, that maybe we shouldn’t have been watching at a young age. 

In the End

Return of the Living Dead will always be one of my favorite movies, and I will hold it close. Everyone has those memories that are always there. It is like watching reruns to revisit something you love, this is mine. It will always be in my heart. Some things are just destined to happen in life.

I hope you have favorite people, places, or things that keep you going.