Return of the Living Dead, The

Released by: MGM/Fox
Released on: 9/14/2010
Director: Dan O'Bannon
Cast: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Thom Matthews, Beverly Hartley
Year: 1985
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The Movie:

In 1984, Dan O'Bannon, who had previously written film such as Dark Star and Alien, made his directorial debut with 'The Return of the Living Dead,' a horror comedy hybrid with a classic 80s punk rock soundtrack, that over the years, has built up a rabid fan base and spawned two sequels.

The plot is pretty straightforward. Essentially, two guys (Frank and Freddie played by James Karen and Thom Matthews respectively) who work at a medical supply storage facility inadvertently release a toxic gas developed by the military into the air which contaminates the cemeteries and graveyards of Kentucky and cause the dead to return to life and to feast upon the brains of the living. Luckily for the freshly reanimated zombies, there is a group of partying punk rock teens hanging out in the cemetery, just waiting to be eaten. The rest of the story basically sticks to the zombie movie formula and consists of the teens and the medical supply workers trying to stay alive and find a way to defeat the legions of zombies that are now roaming the area.

Heavily influenced by the infamous EC Comics of the 50's like 'Tales From the Crypt' and 'Vault of Horror', the film never looses it's sense of humor and has some truly memorable moments that have boosted what could have been just another cheap and quick zombie movie into a cult favorite. The film successfully pokes fun at its influences while paying respect to them at the same time, a difficult task to be sure. That said, it doesn't really ease up on the gore and it allows the make-up effects team employed to bring the undead to life to really go a bit nuts with their work. The zombies in the film have more to do here than in a lot of the zombie films that came before it. While they're still shuffling masses, the script allows them to just generally do more than wander aimlessly looking for the next set of brains to chow down on (though there's a fair bit of that here too).

O'Bannon's direction is spot on, and he successfully creates a few creepy moments in between the comedic episodes, and of course then there's Linea Quigley's infamous strip scene in the cemetery that's hard to forget. A strong supporting performance from the one and only Clu Gulager also adds to the fun and his back and forth with James Karen is the source of much of the film's very effective humor. But I think what really makes the movie work is what O'Bannon does best: the script. 'The Return of the Living Dead' is a very well written film that ties together it's influences and wraps them up in one package that is distinctly 80s feeling but timeless at the same time.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Return of the Living Dead really doesn't look all that amazing on Blu-ray. The 1080p high definition 1.85.1 AVC encoded transfer is frequently on the soft side of things and detail, while better than the standard definition releases that have come and gone over the years, isn't even close to reference quality. Colors look okay - and the transfer does have the same blue tint that the last special edition had - but they don't really pop that much. There aren't any problems with compression artifacts or obvious compression issues nor is there much in the way of noise reduction or edge enhancement to complain about - but the image is just a bit soft, really.

The film gets the DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio treatment here with optional English and French Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono options provided as well, and subtitles available in English SDH, Spanish, and Zombie. Yep, zombie. The quality of the DTS-HD mix is really not much more than a pumped up 2.0 mono track. The original elements for the film just don't lend themselves to very much surround activity and aside from a bit of channel separation here and there, there's not a whole lot happening here. It's all clean and clear and perfectly audible but it doesn't have all that much punch behind it and sometimes even sounds a bit on the weak side. There's a little bit of ambient noise in the background but that's about it. It sounds fine, it just doesn't sound amazing.

Worth noting, however, is that there were some changes made to the films original soundscape for the 2002 DVD release and those changes exist on this Blu-ray as well. The voice of 'Tar Man' has been significantly altered, apparently because O'Bannon requested it (though you can still hear his original voice in the trailer on the DVD), and the segue with the Damned's 'Dead Beat Dance' has had the song replaced with some other more generic sounding music. This is likely due to a rights issue with the song.

First up is the feature length commentary with Stout and O'Bannon. The two have a lot to say about the film, and it's genuinely interesting to listen to the two of them reminisce about the film and it's cast and crew. Fans of the film will definitely find a lot of great information on this track and it's definitely worth your time to listen to it all the way through. There's also a cast and crew commentary in which O'Bannon is joined by Stout again as well as Calfa, Linnea Quigley, Brian Peck, Allan Trautman, and Beverly Randolph along with a bunch of zombies who do an amusing enough job of staying in character throughout. It's not as informative as the first track but it's amusing enough and it does give the cast a chance to tell their side of the story.

Up next is a short documentary on the film called Designing The Dead featuring interviews with Dan O'Bannon and Stout as well that details how the movie came together. It's not an epic piece by any means, clocking in at 14 minutes, but it's informative and interesting to watch, if not a bit light. The Return Of The Living Dead - The Dead Have Risen is a more substantial 21 minute piece that brings together as many of the cast members you could hope for to reminisce about making the movie and the involvement of Gulager and Karen helps make this more than just a rehash of what's covered on the commentary. There are some really fun stories in here which makes it well worth watching. The third and final featurette is The Decade Of Darkness which is really just a look back at the horror boom of the eighties than a look at the movie itself. It's interesting enough if you don't know your 80s horror but if you're as fanatical about it as many of us are, you're not going to learn anything new here. It does do an interesting job of exploring how the politics of the twenty years prior had an effect on the populace and the horror movies that came later and it features some interesting interviews with those who helped make this material as well as critical types like Tony Timpone from Fangoria.

Rounding out the extras are a pair of trailers spots for the film (the only extras in HD), animated menus and chapter stops. A second disc in the case contains the standard definition DVD release of the film with basically the same extras on it.

The Final Word\:

The Return Of The Living Dead is a great movie but the audio and video quality really don't impress all that much here. This release does carry over all of the extras from the previous SD release, which is nice, but it adds nothing new to the package. The movie holds up well though and this release does offer an improvement over the DVD release, just not a huge one.