| | | | Return of the Living Dead
(1985) |
Brief History...
1969, a strange chemical accident occurred in Pittsburgh, Pa. It seems the Darrell Chemical Co., working on a chemical to spray on marihuana, accidentally leaked the chemical into the morgue of a V.A. hospital. The cadavers, according to Burt, started twitching. The Army, fearing the implications of this event, shipped the dead off to the Darrell Chemical Co. for futher testing. But, needless to say, they were delivered to the Uneeda Medical Supply Co. by mistake. Where they have waited fifteen years for a chance to rise again.
“THE EVENTS PORTRAYED IN THIS FILM ARE ALL TRUE. THE NAMES ARE REAL NAMES OF REAL PEOPLE AND REAL ORGANIZATIONS.”
Now it’s July 3rd 1984, and this is where we join a small group of degenerates who are out looking for a place to party. They’re waiting for their friend Freddy to get off of work at Uneeda, but the only place close enough to party down is a small cemetery. So while Freddy and his co-worker Burt accidentally open one of the tanks, releasing a deadly gas, his friends break into the cemetery and party their "BRAINS" out. Eventually, through a series of major blunders, the dead rise again. And they're hungry. The only thing left to do is to run for your life and just hope you survive...
If thought of this makes your skin crawl, that’s only natural. It is a Horror film.
A WORD OF WARNING:
This is a Gory, Fun, and sometimes Shocking film. It is not for the timid.
Otherwise, if the warning doesn’t apply to you, rent this film. It “totally” rocks...
Update: Michael Allred brings us news of his very worthy efforts to get this total 80's classic released as an MGM Special Edition DVD. Backed by members of the cast and one of my heroes, the writer Dan O'Bannon, Michael's website is a true labor of love worthy of all 80's fans attention.
The DVD will feature a brand new transfer remastered from the original negative, a newly created sound mix supervised by director Dan O'Bannon, an audio comentary by O'Bannon and production designer William Stout, a featurette called "Designing the Dead" featuring new interviews, a stills gallery featuring Stout's sketches and art work from the film & theatrical trailer.
Even better news, MGM has given Dan the go ahead to assemble elements to put together a director's cut of the film for a possible re-release down the line if the first DVD sells well.
Y'see: Together we did make a difference, which is the essence of the 80's dream :)))
 Don't forget that Return of the Living Dead is now available to order on Widescreen DVD using our special 80s Retro Assistant...
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There are a few Glitches I found. I'm sorry, but I don't think zombies would move as fast as they did in this film, and when your muscles have rotted away how can you move your bones, MAGIC?
Otherwise this film is sound. It had a good'n'chessy script, decent actors, and a 4 million budget. The budget really shows in the zombie effects. They almost look real.
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Do you know of any different versions or lost scenes from this movie? ...Please send details in!
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TIME WARP...Frank says in R.L.D. that the real events which inspired George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" took place in 1969. But the original "Night of the Living Dead" was released in 1968. So the question is: "How do you make a movie in '68 when the events took place in '69." Answer: "The original script reported the case as 1966. NOTLD began shooting in 1967 but didn't catch on as a cult film widely until 1969. In production, Dan (O'Bannon) felt it would be better if Frank's facts sounded more unreliable, the way people really are, not remembering dates that well. Maybe the tanks came to the warehouse years after the fact. It was merely Frank's rough recollection. " - quoted from the Official Home of Uneeda Medical Supply.  -Thanks to Mike Hearod
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James Karen also played the seedy land developer that removed the headstones but left the bodies behind in "Poltergeist". -Thanks to Tony Cross
The chemical used in the movie to bring back the dead 2,4,5 TRIOXIN is a real chemical. It's real name is just TRIOXIN and is used as a morticians restorative chemical to repair cells and maintain the corpses contours after postmortem tissue constriction. -Thanks to Fabian
In the film Frank says that all human skeletons for teaching and research come from India. This was true, but shortly after the movie came out that practice ended and real skeletons are now much harder to aquire. It is not known whether the film was directly responsible. -Thanks to J.R. Weber
The names "Ernie" and "Bert" used together in a pair is indeed synonymous with "Sesame Street". However, Jim Henson named them thusly after the policeman, "Bert" and cab driver, "Ernie", from the movie, "It's A Wonderful Life". -Thanks to intothesea13
Directed by Dan O'Bannon who also worked on "Star Wars", "Alien", "Star Wars", "Total Recall", "Lifeforce" and much much more.
John Russo who helped in the writing of the original Night of the Living Dead also helped write this film.
Thom Mathews, who played Freddy, starred in the 1986 film "Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives", as Tommy Jarvis. He also came back in 1988 for "Return of the Living Dead Part 2". -Thanks to WES
The Character Charles Cyphers plays in John Carpenters: The Fog (1979) was named Dan O'Bannon. John Carpenter worked with Dan O'Bannon on Dark Star (1974) -Thanks to David Jernigan
There is a work print of Return Of The Living Dead floating around the Internet, chiefly on eBay. The work print includes a lot of alternate shots, extensions of already established shots & an alternate ending (which makes perfect sense leading into Return Part 2). If you can, take a look at this. -Thanks to Francisco
I first saw R.O.L.D when I was about seven. It wasn't a very good copy. Something always intrigued me and that was what it said on the eye chart in Berts office. I found out a couple of months back. "BERT IS A SLAVE DRIVER"!
I love to see films making that kind of effort. -Thanks to Paul Clarke
Burt (the owner) and Ernie (crematorium guy) are best friends, like another certain Bert and Ernie on a popular kids program.
Notice how the living are trapped in places the dead are usually found whereas the zombies are free to roam around where the living usually are. -Thanks to Nickie
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Find much more great trivia in the filmmaker's commentary on the Return of the Living Dead DVD.
Rediscover your favorites! If you like
Return of the Living Dead or 80's Horror classics, then be sure to
check out this list: ..... Lost Boys ..... Near Dark ..... Fright Night ..... Hellraiser ..... Shining ..... Poltergeist ..... Scanners ..... American Werewolf In London ..... Night of the Creeps ..... Nightmare on Elm Street ..... Paperhouse ..... One Dark Night ..... Re-Animator ..... Prom Night ..... Mausoleum ..... Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama .....[More]
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In the scene when the first dead came out of their tombs you can see the wires that the film crew uses to move the zombie followed by the "Party time" song. -Thanks to Manuel
This is very visible in the DVD version, may be less noticeable in grainy old VHS copies. In the scene when Spider and Burt break through the fence driving the police car, they get into the clear and come across a flood of zombies running towards the car. Rather than running the wall of zombies over, Burt decides to slam the cop car into reverse, watch closely, as the car reverses you can spot a camera man with camera in hand filming from the back seat of the car. What's even funnier is you can even see the red light of the camera on during the whole sequence, the camera man also nearly drops the camera due to the car motion. -Thanks to Sean
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The glass in the tank breaking at the beginning of the film was actually a happy accident. You see the heat from the melting wax corpse was too much for the glass to bear and it cracked. That was in the end a good thing, it at least gave us an explaination for how a horribly rotten corpse could escape from a tank designed by the U.S. Army's core of engineers, a supposedly unbreakable tank. -Thanks to Wen C Bailey
Originally the movie was to be directed by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist) and produced by George Romero, the original creator of the Living Dead series, but Living Dead producer, John Russo, convinced them to end their involvement and even tried to sue the filmmakers for using "Living Dead" in the title. Ironically, the script is adapted from a novel by Russo. -Thanks to J.R. Weber
Linnea Quigley wore a body suit to cover her privates below the waist during her seductive dance in the graveyard.
When doing the production design before the movie, Mr. O'Bannon and co. went around to a number of funeral parlors to get ideas, but were not let in to any of them to look around. -Thanks to Dee Nineteen
Don Calfa, who plays Ernie, got annoyed with the ripped bottom of his sweatsuit flapping against his leg in one of the scenes so he cut it off with scissors, which was unscripted, yet kept in the film. -Thanks to intothesea13
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|  |  |  | | Return of the Living Dead
Locations |
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The Resurrection Cemetary is often purported to have been filmed at the Sylmar cemetary in Sylmar. In fact, it was filmed in Sylmar, but in an olive grove in someone's side yard. The tombstones, all of them were props. They hung spanish moss on all the trees as well. [Thanks to N.D. DiPirro]
I just visited Los Angeles, where I met with ROTLD's Beverly Randolph (Tina) and her husband, ROTLD Asst. Art Director Clayton Hartley. Clay took me around and showed me the building used for the exterior Uneeda Medical Supply, the exterior of the Resurrection Cemetery (which was a fake wall built in front of railroad tracks), and the Olive Grove in Sylmar used for the Resurrection Cemetery interior. The Olive Grove is posted No Trespassing, with a pending hearing on the land. I can only guess that they will be developing the land soon. [Thanks to N.D. DiPirro]
Can you help? Do you know any of the S. California (or any other) filming locations used for Return of the Living Dead? [Please send them in]
|  | | | | ![[16:9 -Widescreen Enhanced]](16_9.gif) | ![[STEREO or SURROUND]](dd2.gif) | Trailer, Commentary, Featurette |
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This is a GREAT soundtrack for you Horror nuts. There is a lot of creep rock here, *** Now re-released *** Use our search device to order a copy NOW!
The cult/punk band "The Cramps" wrote and performed the track "The Surfing Dead", which adds to the impressive resume of this classic. -Thanks to Ty W. Norris
There were 4 horror punk songs recorded for the soundtrack that were never used. They were done by a band called The Undead and all music / lyrics were written by The Undead's singer / songwriter Sid Terror. The songs were "The Undead Anthem" (for the reanimation scene in the graveyard), "My Girlfriend" (for Trash's graveyard striptease), "Everybody's Dead" (for various carnage scenes) and "Zombie Army" (for the end credits). -Thanks to Montgomery Brando
Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) was originally set to direct and when he was replaced, the producers tried to change the deals for all the bands, so that the producers would have all publishing rights to the songs and that the bands could not re-record them or perform them live. This is why The Cramps and The Damned never perform their songs that appeared on the soundtrack live. The Undead refused the new deal and their songs were pulled from the soundtrack, however the band released them as "THE UNDEAD: THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEMOS - The ORIGINAL Original Soundtrack". The only band that has performed their song live is 45 GRAVE (the song "Partytime" replaced one song by The Undead), because the song had been previously released... However they rerecorded the soundtrack "Party Time" with different lyrics for this movie, which is how they retained the rights to the original. -Thanks to Montgomery Brando
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Soundtrack Available:
On CD
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