Return of the Living Dead: Collector’s Edition

It takes a very special film to impinge upon a classic canon of a genre and wind up as beloved as Return of the Living Dead. In 1985, just as George Romero was concluding his initial zombie trilogy with Day of the Dead, any old upstart that not only sends up the series but trods upon some of its core mythology might have been outright disdained by horror fans everywhere. But Dan O’Bannon’s lovingly gory parody is damned fun, and sick to boot, and this week it gets a brand-new special edition that improves on the previous release.

The co-creator of Alien, O’Bannon had been circling the script for years until finally securing it as his directorial debut; taking place on sleepy suburban night, it begins with braggart medical supply manager Frank (the superb James Karen) showing off to his new employee (Thom Matthews) about the canned corpse – a remnant of a government experiment gone wrong, and you know they based that Night of the Living Dead movie on this thing! – in the company basement. In rapid succession, the canister busts and releases the toxic fumes that make for good zombie action; nearby, the young upstart’s rowdy punker friends are partying in the conveniently located graveyard next door, and before you know it it’s a veritable fiesta of the undead. The conceit that destroying the reanimates’ brains can’t kill them results in some unique and hilarious living/dead interaction, particularly with the OG canned zombie who looks like he walked right out of O’Bannon’s animated contribution to Heavy Metal. And for those who keep track of such things: horror/T&A queen Linnea Quigley gets her clothes off at the 20 minute mark and never really puts ‘em back on.

Bonuses new to this DVD package include a cast, crew and “undead” commentary (hee), and brand spankin’ new featurettes including the promisingly titled “From The Underground: The Rise of Horror in the 80s. ” Excellent.

Also recommended this week: The Addams Family, Vol. 3; Face/Off: Collector’s Edition; Fraggle Rock: Season 3; From Beyond: Unrated Director’s Cut; The Graduate: Special Edition; Witchfinder General

— Nicole Campos

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 11:29 pm by nic campos and is filed under DVD New Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.