“The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (1974) has one of the messiest horror-franchise continuities, with each of the co-creators trying their own narrative continuation: one in part two, one in part four. “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) could’ve suffered the same confusion, except that co-creators George Romero and John Russo smoothly planned things out.
Russo spins off his own series
Romero did the serious follow-ups, using “… of the Dead” for his titles. And Russo did the comedic spinoff series, “Return of the Living Dead.” Also known as the Russo/O’Bannon series, as “Alien” co-scribe Dan O’Bannon writes and directs the first entry, the series has gone on to comprise five films.
Parts two and three are considered decent, and parts four and five are considered garbage, but the original “The Return of the Living Dead” (1985) is hailed as a zom-com classic. One viewing was enough for me, but I appreciate its place in history, and the fact that O’Bannon knows how to direct and pace a farce.
“The Return of the Living Dead” (1985)
Director: Dan O’Bannon
Writers: Dan O’Bannon (screenplay); Rudy Ricci, John A. Russo, Russell Streiner (story)
Stars: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa
“Return” originates the idea of zombies subsisting by eating brains. I would think this is a logistical problem – biting through a skull with rotting teeth seems impossible (although the film does show it happening, somehow). Also, these zombies can talk – surprising if you’re used to the Romero films. But these concepts eventually led to a good 2010s TV show, “iZombie,” so I’ll allow it.
The film also helped to popularize Fast Zombies – although 1980’s “Nightmare City” is credited as the progenitor of that trope. And “Return” is one of the earliest zom-coms, coming out the same year as the similarly famous “Re-Animator.”
A graveyard romp
I suppose “Return” could broadly be labeled as a parody of Romero’s tropes — in “Night of the Living Dead” and “Dawn of the Dead” at this point (“Day of the Dead” came out only one month before this). But Romero’s films are so logistically deliberate and smart that they resist specific parody.
So O’Bannon delivers a romp in the vein of the theatrical “Noises Off” (1982), where a bad thing happens and things gets steadily worse, in bizarre ways. Two workers in a medical-supply warehouse unleash gas from a barrel containing a corpse from the “real” events that “inspired” “Night of the Living Dead.” (So “Return” beats “Fargo” to the false “true story” trope by 11 years.)
This gas starts the zombie plague that effects workers in this building, plus the mortuary next door, plus the teens who are picking up their friend Freddy (Thom Mathews), plus all the paramedics and cops who arrive on the scene.
The specifics – zombies rising from the nearby cemetery and people trying to escape them – are not unusual, so O’Bannon aims for comedy from everyone’s fear and mania.
A fast-burn thriller
“Return” isn’t far removed from the vibe of weak mid-Eighties “Friday the 13th” entries, except that it can openly admit it’s being stupid. The inclusion of “I’ve seen that guy before” actors Clu Gulager, James Karen and Don Calfa as the three “responsible” adults gets the film 10 percent of the way toward “Airplane!” type of fun, with its juxtaposition of seriousness amid insanity. But the film is short on funny one-liners.
Among the young people, all are annoying to some degree, but Linnea Quigley’s Trash is naked except for a pair of leg warmers for a lot of the movie, so that might keep you interested in the B-plot. Gore-hounds will appreciate the effects work. “Return” creates much grosser, decomposing zombies than the Romero series, including a partial zombie with a wriggling spinal cord who explains the beings’ craving for brains.
To think of how much worse “Return” could be, consider 1986’s “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.” “Return” is 91 minutes. I’m surprised that “Massacre 2” is only 10 minutes longer than that, but it is paced much slower.
Almost making an anti-“Alien” in terms of pacing, O’Bannon understands “Return of the Living Dead” can’t be a slow burn and also be a wacky romp. (As these zombies can only be killed by immolation, you might call the film a “fast burn”). Everything happens briskly, backed by non-charting punk-rock songs. I can’t say I was wildly entertained, but I wasn’t bored out of my skull.