Bo Gorcesky - Associated Content from Yahoo!

Monday, June 22, 2009

The top ten horror films to watch just prior to Halloween part 3: Return of the Living Dead (movie review)

Ah, alrighty - 8 weeks to go before the big holiday. And so before I can get ranting as usual, I'll give a recap of the previous films. Number 10 on the list went to Nightmare on Elm Street part 3, Number 9 was Friday the 13th part 6 (which also has a connection with my number 8 film, and for you hardcore horror fans you should be able to pick up on it before you finish reading my review.) Again to those just coming along, this list is made in tribute to the greatest horror movie critic out there - Joe Bob Briggs, and for always showing crappy movies for years on Monstervision on TNT. This list is just my own personal favorites, nothing is set in stone, and if you like to add something or make your own list - that'd be awesome. Spreading the love of film around is what it's all about. The other rule on this list is that I will only pick one film in a series of (say only one Nightmare or Friday the 13th) I want to be fair to all fans. And yes, I want many other people to bare witness to some horror films that they may have never seen or even HEARD of before. My list will provide a summary of the film, great lines, counts of gore and nudity and useless tidbits of info as this review progresses. And also this special time around, I like to be able to insert some pics in the review to break up the overflow of text. And so without further ado, I give you number 8 on my countdown....

8)Return of the Living Dead ..chtrap, Night of the Demons and Nightmare on Elm Street 4 (there she didn't have a true speaking part, but did play a soul poking out of Freddy's chest. And if you saw Linnea's chest which you do see a lot of in this movie, you can def tell she hasn't gotten a lot of roles due to her fine portrayal of being able to scream. It's screaming and running around topless which gets the jobs.

Brian Peck plays Scuz, and the only person to be in all three of the original Return of the Living Dead films. Clu Galagher, also appeared in Nightmare on Elm Street 2, and has had a very long line of films. In fact, his son, just won the last Project Greenlight Feast, which is also a horror film and he plays a bartender in it. James Karen, is also the other big name in the film and you can see him in ALOT of small lil character parts in movies. He played Frank in this movie, but will be appearing in the new Superman movie and has also been in Any Given Sunday, Nixon, The Willies (which was directed by costar Brian Peck and is a terriable horror film) Poltergeist and many many others.

Thom Matthews, if you haven't caught on yet, he is Freddy in this but played Tommy Jarvis in Friday the 13th part 6, the last film on my list, AND the only character besides a Voorhees to be in more than one Friday film. Another Friday alumni goes to Miguel Nunez Jr., who was in Friday the 13th part 5, and is remembered most by his bathroom stall death. But, not to slouch of his other fine movie roles in Leprechaun 4, Life (he's actually been in 3 movies with Eddie Murphy together), and his AWESOME role of Dee Jay in the even more AWESOME movie of Street Fighter The Movie. Also, Mark Venturri, who played Suicide inthis film - also was in Friday the 13th Part 5. He played the very very angry Vic who kills Joey with his axe just becasue Joey was bothering him about a candy bar question lol.

Unfortunatley, despite how well Dan O' Bannon did with this film - and yes he's even long line of credits behind him. He created the characters in Alien, worked on his characters from Heavy Metal (the story's Soft Landing and B-17) he wrote Total Recall, and even worked on the design and specil effects aspects of the original Star Wars. Unfortuanetly, due to Dan's health, he's only directed this film and Resurrected. But if the fans knew of his appreciation, I only hope he'd go out and do some more.

Memorable lines:

FREDDY:"Are we going crazy?"

FRANK:"No, it's that God damn crap those chemicals there all over everything."

FREDDY:"Stupid asshole!"

FRANK:"Watch your tongue boy if you like this job!"

FREDDY:"LIKE THIS JOB?!"

here's some erotic lines for you and probably one of the better pieces of dialogue in the film and followed by some gratuitious nudity:

TRASH: "Do you ever fantasizie about being killed?"

SPIDER: "Never."

TRASH: "Do you ever wonder about all the different ways of dying. You know, violently. And wonder like, what would be the most horriable way to die."

SPIDER: "I try not to think about dying too much."

TRASH: "Mmmm...(she gets up and starts rubbing herself) for me, the worst way would be for a bunch of old men to get around me and start biting and eating me alive."

SPIDER: "I see."

TRASH: "First, they would tear off my clothes" (and she rips her top off)

..http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y197/thundrshot/7.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

CHUCK (Off screen): Let's get some light over here, Trash is taking her clothes off again."

common sense from Burt:

BURT: "Well, if that is a reanimated cadaver in there, we'll just have to kill it."

to breaking that fourth wall

BURT: "I thought you said if we destroyed the brain it'd stop them."

FRANK: "Well, it worked in the movie."

BURT: "Well it ain't working now."

FREDDY: "You mean the movie lied?"

gore fest:

FREDDY: "How are we going to destroy this thing?"

BURT: "Give me the bone saw."

comedy:

ERNIE: "WHAT? What the hell are you doing with rabid weasels?"

horror iconic line:

TAR ZOMBIE: "Brainnnnnnnsss"

Zombies at their creative best to lure more flesh to their trap:

RADIO ZOMBIE 1: "Come in dispatch. Send - more - paramedicsss..."

Ernie about to unload Bronson style:

ERNIE: "What are you crazy?! Are you on PCP?"

Also Kudos to Scuzz for realizing what's going on, not the typical guy of we love you guys - we can't kill you.

SCUZ: "Your dead, your dead man - you're going to turn into one of those things!"

Signs of the end is near:

BURT: "Cops. They've got the cops. It means they're breaking out of the barricade."

Things to look for:

-Half of a dog still panting and yelping

-Spontaneous nudity to dance in the cemetary ..http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y197/thundrshot/8.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

-Pick axe in the back of the head only to make it scream at the top of it's lungs. Then, the head being slowly cut off via hacksaw to hear the vocal cords slowly seperating ..http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y197/thundrshot/11.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

-Headless and naked cadaver running around and breaking stuff...http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y197/thundrshot/12.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

-A great original synthesized song whenever the fumes are mixing with the outer environment.

-Linnea Quigley (the nudist punk known as Trash and scream Queen extraidonaire) hates the rain and has to run around naked to avoid the rain, "I wonder what's in that rain."

-Over the top violent vomiting done by Frank as he is slowly dying.

-A puppet skeleton that pops out of the ground, when it's eyes open - cue that classical 80's punkish metally music. ..http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y197/thundrshot/17.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com"> "Do you wanna party, it's party time!"

-The tar man zombie in the basement that coined that classic phrase - "braiiiiinnns."

-Suicide having a chunk of his head bitten into and then convulsing on the floor...http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y197/thundrshot/16.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

-Trash's dreams come true when she is slowly devoured by a bunch of muddy old men

-When the paramedi turns on the light for the ambulance, ..http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y197/thundrshot/19.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com"> to notice all of the zombies in front of him. Then the other zombie open up the front door and yank him out. The screams of Jerry are totally horrific! :D

-The lil midget zombie ..http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y197/thundrshot/20.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com"> eating brains only to get shot in the face and come waddling after Ernie.

-The second set of paramedics that get tricked and lured into the trap. Especially look for the second paramedic guy that gets sacked SO hard into the mud by the zombies.

-Scuz being yanked out of the window to have the effect of aerosol blood spraying out from his head when the topless female torso zombie latches onto him.

-The spinal fluid that leaks out of the female zombie torso puppet when she gives her meaning of eating brains to the guys.

-Brains slowwwwwllly oozing out of a paramedic's head.

-Freddy foaming at the mouth and then getting Sulfuric Acid splashed int he face.

-Ernie OH SO CONVENTIALLY breaking his foot while trying to secure the chapel. Becoming the cliche guy in the zombie film that not only is packing the heat, but is now unable to move around. (Think of the guy in Dawn of the Dead in his wagon shootign zombies)

-Beating down zombies with a sledge hammer.

-Car chase through the cemetary in the police car, then fighting through an army of zombies. Car eventually blows up and burns some zombies on down. Along with Frank and Burt''s cars outside.

-Frank being a real trooper and actiivating the furnace (like he said he could - cause this film is ripe with foreshadowing) and cremating himself. But not without a prayer and taking off his wedding ring.

-Ernie contemplating about putting that bitch out of her misery up in the attic.

-Tarman Zombie having his head flown off via baseball bat.

-FINALLY dialing that damn 1-800 number ont he side of the barrel.

-Overtly cheap and ridiculous cheap special effect of the tank that shoots the nuke missle at Louisville, Kentucky.

Worthless tidbits of info:

-Director Dan O' Bannon does the voice of the police officer in the helicopter.

-Tobe Hooper of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist and Life Force fame was scheduled to direct this film but left at the last minute giving it over to Dan O' Bannon.

-George Romero was to be initially involved with the project, but his producer Richard Rubinstein suggested it would be bad that people would confuse Romero's "Dead" films with this film.

-The legality issues behind this film: John Russo, who initially co-wrote Night of the Living Dead with George Romero, got into a scuffle over who got the proper rights to the films and sequels. The judge eventually ordered that Romero would get the rights to the word "Dead" and Russo would get the right of "Living Dead". Thus is why Romero went on to make Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead whereas Russo began the Night of the Living Dead series, which is just about to simulataneously release parts 4 and 5 in a few weeks.

-After the split, Russo wrote a book that is the basis of this film. But when O' Bannon took over the reigns on the project, he felt that the book and script, stepped on the toes of Romero too much. So he added comedy into the fold much more.

-The original concept is taken from Romero's idea of the Army utilizing the dead, which he features prominatnely in Day of the Dead. So the Living Dead series went on using a small sliver of an idea that Day had. In fact, Day of the Dead came out and flopped. It came out shortly not too long after this film did (Living dead should have came out a year earlier except due to legal troubles). Most people think that Day wasn't taken seriousily after a lot of people saw Living Dead - which did do fairly well at the box office.

-The sequel to this was Return of the Living Dead Part II - a total piece of crap and a very bad comedy if antying. It utilizes a lot fo the original cast, and merely suggests that part I was a dream. Part III is pretty good, and is directed by Brian Yuzna of Reanimator fame. It's def a horror film worth to watch especially if you enjoy part I.

-Fantasy II Film Effects did the special effects on this movie along with the Terminator movies. So for a film with a 4 million budget, they did a pretty damn good job.

-Not only is Dan O'Bannon a great artist and a draftsman, his heavy inspiration of the old creepy EC Comics (like Tales from the Crypt and such) poured there way into the graphic tellin gof this film.

Final rundown of the film:

Pairs of boobs seen: 2, also Linnea Quigley dancing topless AND bottomless in the cemtary.

Body count: I count 36 on victim death, plus you also gotta account for the fact that all of Louisville Kentucky gets nuked at the end.

Gore factor: 7 out of 10 buckets of blood. We get to see cow brains chewed on, heads being crunched open and some cool blood gushing out of Suicide and blood spraying from Scuz. Not necessarily a film full of blood, but some very very awesome special effects. And in my opinion, up there with some of the great zombie special effects in a film.

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