The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
When a bumbling pair of employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to re-animate as they go on a rampage through Louisville, Kentucky seeking their favorite food, brains.
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Rating:
(20,165 votes)
- Tagline:They're Back From The Grave and Ready To Party! »
- Runtime:91 minutes
- Director: Dan O'Bannon
- Country:USA
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Actors: BurtClu GulagerFrankJames KarenErnieDon CalfaFreddyThom MathewsTinaBeverly RandolphChuckJohn PhilbinCaseyJewel ShepardSpider (as Miguel Nunez)Miguel A. Núñez Jr.ScuzBrian PeckTrashLinnea Quigley
- Genres:Comedy, Horror
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Producers: John Dalyexecutive producerTom FoxproducerDerek Gibsonexecutive producerGraham Hendersonco-producer
- Plot: When a bumbling pair of employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to re-animate as they go on a rampage through Louisville, Kentucky seeking their favorite food, brains. Written by Todd A. Bobenrieth <TAB146@PSUVM.EDU>
- User's comment: by eskovan1
This is quite possibly one of the funniest movies ever made.
It succeeds not simply thru its humor but in the way that it takes the plot seriously. That is, the characters avoid doing anything cliché or 'movie-like'. They react to an amazingly unusual situation in a very logical, sensible way (even as things become more & more desperate). Consequently none of the humor is forced. It all comes from the combination of having to deal with all the insane things that are happening to them in the sanest way that they can. The contrast of these two makes for absolutely brilliant comedy.
For example:
» They have to kill an already dead guy so they put a pick axe thru his head.
» This doesn't kill him so they saw his head off.
» This still doesn't work so they decide to incinerate him in the neighbor's crematorium.
» In order to do that they make up a "rabid weasels" story to tell the neighbor.
All of these things, as hilariously ridiculous as they are, actually make sense in the context of trying to deal with the situation. In other words, if you found yourself confronted with re-animated corpses you would probably do exactly what they do to try and stop them. And even as the situation slowly progresses from bad to worse to desperate the film maintains this idea.
In fact, the film quite brilliantly maintains this idea at the very end. As over-the-top as the ending seemed I can completely picture the military wanting to do exactly that!
- Quotes: Casey: Chuck, I never did like you. Oh, but God, hold me tight.
Trash: Do you ever wonder about all the different ways of dying? You know, violently? And wonder, like, what would be the most horrible way to die?
Spider: I try not too think about dying too much.
- Also known as: El regreso de los muertos vivientes (Mexico), El regreso de los muertos vivientes (Spain - imdb display title), El regreso de los muertos vivientes (Venezuela), 'Batallion' (Japan - English title), Τα Ζόμπι Δεν Είναι Χορτοφάγα (Greece), A Volta dos Mortos Vivos (Brazil), A halál visszatér (Hungary - alternative title), Az élőhalottak visszatérnek (Hungary), Battalion (Japan - English title), El Regreso de los Muertos Vivos (Argentina - imdb display title), Elävien kuolleiden paluu (Finland - TV title), Il ritorno dei morti viventi (Italy), Le retour des morts vivants (France), Ligene er ligeglade (Denmark), O Regresso dos Mortos Vivos (Portugal - imdb display title), O Retorno dos Mortos Vivos (Brazil - cable TV title), Povratak zivih mrtvaca (Serbia - imdb display title), Return of the Living Dead (USA - video box title), Ta zombi den einai hortofaga (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title), Verdammt, die Zombies kommen (West Germany), Ze zijn terug en hebben honger (Netherlands - informal literal title),

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