Raz’s Midnight Macabre Horror Review: The Return Of The Living Dead Overview

Well folks there we have it, all 5 films of the “Return Of The Living Dead” franchise. Unfortunately 3 films out of the 5 are not just disappointing, they’re complete failures, but I’ve had enough of negative talk, let’s look at the positives.

The first film is easily the best of the lot, it had everything you’d want. It’s got gore, comedy, an amazing soundtrack and a great storyline. It’s also the film that gave us the now infamous Tarman character and we can’t forget the character of Trash played by Linnea Quigley, her dance still sends peoples hormones racing to this day.

Then there’s Part 3, the only other good film in the franchise. You almost forget all about Linnea Quigley once you see Melinda Clarke’s character Julie embracing the un-dead she’s become complete with the body modifications she’s undertaken to try and control her hunger. Linnea’s character was perfect for the 80’s. Melinda’s character was perfect for the 90’s. The 2 are so different you can’t really compare them but these are 2 characters that are still talked about in today’s Horror community.

The effects in part 1 & 3 are out of this world, as is the dialogue and characters. Like I stated in my review of Part 3 it’s like a tragic love story, just done in a great way as to not distance itself from what it’s supposed to be, a zombie film. Also Part 1 is just a pure cult classic. Both films sum up the teenage generations of it’s time and that’s a great appeal to it’s audience.

My favourite scene of the entire franchise is when they’re having the conversation with the Zombie in Part 1 and when asked why they’re eating people the corpse responds with the line – “Not people. Brains” then when questioned why brains? and she responds with “The pain” and then again questioned with what pain? she responds with “The pain of being DEAD! “. It maybe a short scene but it sums up the whole event of why the zombies are on a rampage, very well done and well thought out.

If you enjoyed the first film as much  as me then I highly recommend watching “More Brains! A Return of the Living Dead Documentary” which gives a great insight into the film, with cast and crew interviews and running just under 2 hours it tells you everything you’d want to know and more. The Horror genre embraces nostalgia and this is a great look at past and present, it’s fun to see the actors share their experiences with smiles on their faces, it shows how much fun they all had which makes watching the film even more fun to watch.

As franchise’s go it’s a weak one but we can embrace the 2 GREAT films we got out of it, Parts 2, 4 & 5 can be skipped, you’re not missing out on anyhing and it wont mess up the story for you, just saving over 4 hours of your time. You’re welcome!