Fuji reviews Return of the Living Dead Part II

[Fuji Vice]

Return of the Living Dead Part II


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A military truck transporting barrels containing Trioxin zombies hits a bump on the road and a few of the barrels fall out. One lands in a storm drain just outside a small housing development and soon some foolish kids open it. Immediately the infamous Trioxin gas, capable of reanimating the dead, escapes and begins to wreak havoc on the small community. At the same time, two grave robbers find themselves in a mausoleum near to where the gas escaped, and soon realize that they’re surrounded by zombies hungry for brains.

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I’ve always loved Dan O’Bannon’s original classic, Return of the Living Dead, long considering it one of the best horror comedies of all-time. O’Bannon optioned the rights to the series soon after writing and directing the original and in 1988 a sequel was released. Amazingly, this film, while slightly less stellar than the original, is also one of the better horror comedies released in the 1980’s and certainly a worthy successor. It doesn’t take a long time to get going and once it does its just balls to the wall fun and fright rolled up together into a nice little ball. Featuring some strong performances, really great makeup effects, some extremely memorable zombies and so many laughs you’ll have trouble breathing; it’s the undead comedy that’s got just the right bite.

"It takes a lot to piss off a zombie hand."
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The film is written and directed by Ken Wiederhorn, a dude who clearly understood the horror and comedy genres, having previously filmed Shock Waves (Nazi zombies ftw) and Meatballs II. He also directed a really underrated gem called Dark Tower in 1987 which remains criminally unseen in even the most ardent horror communities. Anyhow, Widerhorn’s ability to intermingle the two genres is a great strength to the film here and a lot of his talent is on display. His direction is fairly standard, but he overcomes any flaws by focusing on as much action as he can shove onto the screen. At the same time, his script is loaded with funny little bits of dialogue, some of which directly echo the film that preceded it. I don’t consider this plagiarism in the strictest sense; more like homage to O’Bannon’s brilliant film. One thing’s for sure, Wiederhorn knew exactly how to make THIS kind of movie, exactly who he was aiming it at and for the most part he succeeds admirably. Oh yeah, you want to know what else this movie has? These guys…

"Matthews and Karen - a match made in zombie heaven."
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Yep, that’s right, Thom Matthews and James Karen are BACK BABY~! Fans of the original film will remember just how awesome these two were as they slowly but surely became infected with Trioxin gas and turned into zombies. In a master stroke, Wiederhorn managed to not only cast both, but turn them into grave robbers who bicker and argue just like they did in the original. Hell, he even threw in the “watch your tongue boy if you like this job†line and Matthews appropriate response of “LIKE THIS JOB?!?†which works really well given the context. Considering how much I loved these two in the first film, I was really happy to see them return and once again give their all in their performances. Along with these two awesome gentlemen, the film features some nice work from Dana Ashbrook (Bobby Briggs on Twin Peaks), Michael Kenworthy (The Blob), Marsha Dietlein (she comes across a lot like 80's movie icon Kerri Green but not nearly as hot) and even Mitch “Skinner†Pileggi. It’s also got a performance from Doug Benson, the man who went on to film and star in the documentary Super High Me. Here’s Benson waxing poetic as a zombie…

"No word on whether he was high here but it's a safe bet."
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Now that’s what I call a fucking awesome zombie performance! In fact, Benson was so good he was credited as “Special Zombieâ€, which obviously means he rules. Then again, there seem to be several “Special Zombies†listed in the credits, so maybe it’s not really as big of a deal as I’m making it out to be. Like Evil Dead 2, this film takes the events that occurred in the first film and doesn’t bother to reference them, thereby making it more of a remake than a sequel. This is particularly funny when Matthews actually points out that he feels they’ve “been there beforeâ€, a moment that breaks the fourth wall in a very subtle yet hilarious way. Another thing that this film does is try for a lot broader comedy, resulting in off the wall zombies like Benson up there and some hilarious voices, including one that says “get the damn screwdriver out of my head†in the most awful (yet funny) hillbilly accent I’ve ever heard. Oh and if you’re into awesome 80’s music you’ll be happy to know that the soundtrack for this film is loaded with gems by the likes of Anthrax, Leatherwolf and even Robert Palmer. So it’s got a lot of laughs, decent acting and a rocking soundtrack, which means that it kicks enough asses to check out for sure. It may not hold a candle to the original (what would?), but it’s a more than acceptable Part 2 and in this day and age that counts for a lot…of brains. 6/10

"Next time....one legend in search of another."
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[Swinny]

Nice review, I was pretty disappointed by this sequel though. I'd like to see a review of Return of the Living Dead Part III though because I actually love that one and thought it was a surprisingly great sequel.

Also, I had no idea Doug Benson played a zombie in this movie. That's awesome. :

 

[Fuji Vice]

Thanks dude, I'm glad you liked the review even if you didn't like the movie all that much. As for Part III, I'll do my best to get to it next week.