Return of the Living Dead III | October 29, 1993

 

"Return of the Living Dead 3" is a 1993 horror comedy film directed by Brian Yuzna and written by John Penney. It is the third installment in the Return of the Living Dead series, following "Return of the Living Dead Part II" (1988).

Five years after the events of the previous film, Curt Reynolds steals his father's security key card and explores the military base where his father works with his girlfriend Julie Walker. They witness Curt's father, Colonel John Reynolds, Colonel Peck, and Lieutenant Colonel Sinclair overseeing an experiment.

A corpse is exposed to 2-4-5 Trioxin gas and reanimates as a zombie. The military intends to use the zombies in combat, but they cannot be controlled due to their desire to eat human brains.

Sinclair suggests permanently attaching the zombies to exoskeletons to suppress their aggression and immobilize them when not in combat. Reynolds prefers the "paralysis injection" method, which involves injecting a chemical into the zombie's forehead to temporarily freeze the brain.

When the paralysis injection method is tested in the lab, its effects wear off much faster than expected, and the zombie attacks a scientist, biting off his fingers and smashing his head against the wall, killing him. The infected scientist reanimates and attacks another technician. The initial zombie and the reanimated scientist are shot and paralyzed, and the surviving personnel in the room are quarantined. Reynolds is removed from the project and reassigned to Oklahoma City, while Sinclair is promoted to project leader.

Reynolds informs Curt that they have to move, but Curt refuses and rides off on a motorcycle with Julie. While riding, Julie playfully grabs Curt's crotch, causing him to lose control of the motorcycle, and Julie crashes into a telephone pole and dies.

Curt takes Julie's body to the military base and uses his father's key card to expose her to Trioxin gas, bringing her back to life. After her resurrection, they flee on the motorcycle. Julie feels intense hunger, and Curt goes to a store. Inside, Curt clashes with a gang, and during the fight, the store owner is shot by a gang member. Julie bites the shooter. Curt and Julie escape in a van with the injured store owner, but Julie, driven by her desire to eat brains, attacks and eats his brain.

As the health of the bitten gang member deteriorates, the gang starts pursuing Curt and Julie. They hide in the sewers, where they meet a homeless man named Riverman. Julie discovers that extreme pain temporarily suppresses her desire to eat humans, and she self-mutilates using various items found in Riverman's hideout.

The gang tracks down Curt and Julie, and Julie seduces and kills the gang leader before killing the remaining gang members. Julie's body becomes accustomed to the pain, and she infects and kills Riverman. The gang reanimates, and the military arrives to subdue all the zombies.

As the zombies are captured, Curt realizes that Julie will be used as a weapon and, in anger, releases the zombies, who kill the soldiers. In the chaos, the base catches fire, and Curt is bitten. Curt's father tells him to leave, but Curt, realizing he is also infected, cannot abandon Julie. Curt takes Julie to the furnace, and when she asks where they are going, Curt replies, "Where we belong," and they share a final kiss before burning to death.

According to retrospective reviews of "Return of the Living Dead 3" by Den of Geek and Scream, the film has a different tone from the first film released in 1985. Nick Aldwinckle of Den of Geek wrote that "Return of the Living Dead 3" adopted a "more unsettling 90s tone" and mentioned that Julie's self-mutilation and body piercing were due to the effects of Trioxin. Kevan Farrow of Scream echoed this observation, adding that the film updated the punk rockers of 1985's "The Return of the Living Dead" to a more melancholic alternative rocker.

Producer Tom Fox wanted to create a long-term series by producing a sequel after "Return of the Living Dead Part II," but his ambitions were thwarted by the critical and commercial failure of that film. Eventually, Trimark Pictures acquired the rights to "The Return of the Living Dead" and appointed Brian Yuzna as producer and director, with Fox returning as executive producer. When Yuzna was hired by Trimark, the company did not give him specific directions, only instructing him to include Trioxin gas as a plot point to justify the Living Dead name. The script was written by John Penney, who had worked as an editor on the first "The Return of the Living Dead." Initially, both Yuzna and Penney aimed to focus on a zombie protagonist without repeating the plot of the previous films. The film was shot over 24 days from October to November 1992 at Santa Clarita Studios.

On the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 55% based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8/10. On Metacritic, "Return of the Living Dead III" has a score of 47 out of 100 based on 5 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."

Benjamin Svetkey of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B+" rating, writing, "It's filled with brain-eating zombies, campy dialogue, and gross anatomical effects, but what makes this film special is that touch of love." Brian J. Dillard of AllMovie wrote, "While this film features the same vague punk fashion sense and many plot elements as its predecessors, the third installment in the Return of the Living Dead series has lost much of the enjoyable entertainment value of the previous films." Arnold T. Blumberg, author of "Zombiemania: 80 Movies to Die For," wrote, "Clark tries to make the most of post-mortem anxiety, but this film is merely a catalog of twisted fetish images for a female zombie that horror movie fans might actually find appealing."