The Return of the Living Dead | August 16, 1985
《The Return of the Living Dead》 is a 1985 American comedy horror film, marking the directorial debut of Dan O'Bannon, who also wrote the screenplay based on a story by Rudy Ricci, John Russo, and Russell Streiner. The film stars Clu Gulager, James Karen, Tom Matthews, and Don Calfa. The story follows two warehouse workers, a mortician friend, and a group of teenage punks who accidentally unleash a zombie outbreak in their town.
The film is described as a "satirical punk comedy" and is famous for introducing several popular zombie genre concepts, including the idea that zombies eat brains instead of flesh and that zombies are invulnerable to headshots. The soundtrack, featuring death rock and punk rock bands from Los Angeles, also garnered attention.
Released on August 16, 1985, by Orion Pictures in the U.S., the film was highly praised by critics and performed reasonably well at the box office. It led to a total of four sequels.
The plot unfolds as follows: On July 3, 1984, at the Uneeda Medical Supply Warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky, supervisor Frank shows new employee Freddy a military drum containing Trioxin, a toxic gas, which had been stored in the building's basement due to a delivery error years earlier. Frank accidentally releases the gas, causing the corpses in the building to dissolve and the flesh-storage room corpses to reanimate. Together with their boss Burt, the three attempt to destroy the zombies by stabbing their brains, only to find that all parts of the corpses can remain alive independently. Burt contacts his friend Ernie at a nearby funeral home to incinerate the zombies, but this results in toxic fumes contaminating the air and reanimating corpses in the local cemetery.
Meanwhile, Freddy’s girlfriend Tina and his friends (Spider, Trash, Chuck, Casey, Scuzz, Sure-Side) arrive at the cemetery to wait for Freddy to finish his shift. While Trash dances on a tombstone, Tina goes to the warehouse and discovers the horribly mutilated corpses in the basement. The rest of the group arrives to rescue Tina, but Sure-Side dies. After seeing Freddy enter the funeral home, the group attempts to reach him through the cemetery but is attacked by zombies. Trash dies, and Chuck and Casey flee to the warehouse, while Spider, Tina, and Scuzz reach the funeral home. They find that Frank and Freddy have been affected by the gas and call for medical help. The paramedics find that the two men are conscious but no longer alive. Trash transforms into a zombie in the chemical-filled mud and begins hunting. Burt and Ernie barricade the funeral home as the dead rise from their graves, but the paramedics and police are overrun and eaten by zombies. The zombies tie up one of the paramedics to a table, explaining that eating the brains of the living alleviates their deathly pain caused by decay.
As Frank and Freddy show signs of turning into zombies, Burt locks them in a chapel and, with Tina not abandoning Freddy, Tina is also locked inside. Freddy soon attempts to eat Tina, and Burt, Ernie, and Spider manage to open the chapel and blind Freddy with a strong light, rescuing Tina. Frank escapes and commits suicide amid the chaos. Burt and Spider escape the funeral home in a police car but leave Ernie and Tina behind due to the overwhelming number of zombies led by Trash. Ernie and Tina hide in the attic of the funeral home while blind Freddy attempts to break in.
Burt and Spider return to the warehouse and find Casey and Chuck. After Spider neutralizes the zombie known as "Tarman," Burt tries to call the police, discovering that the zombies have overwhelmed and slaughtered them. Burt decides to call the military drum’s number, reaching Colonel Glover. Glover plans to destroy the town with a nuclear strike on the morning of July 4, effectively killing Burt and the other survivors. After the nuclear attack, Glover reports that everything went according to plan, and the result could not have been more positive. He mentions that only a small area was destroyed, and casualties were limited. However, toxic rain starts falling again, and the zombies scream from their graves, hinting that the invasion will resume.
The film is based on John Russo's novel 《Return of the Living Dead》, which is a follow-up to 《Night of the Living Dead》 (1968) co-written by Russo and George A. Romero. Russo and Romero parted ways after 《Night of the Living Dead》, with Russo retaining the rights to all works featuring the "Living Dead" while Romero was free to produce his own sequels starting with 《Dawn of the Dead》 (1978). Russo and producer Tom Fox had planned to release 《Return of the Living Dead》 in 3D with Tobe Hooper directing, but this plan did not come to fruition.
