Buy This DVD Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!
Stars:
James Karen, Thom Matthews, Dana Ashbrook, Marsha Dietlein, Philip Bruns,
Michael Kenworthy, Mitch Pileggi, and Thor Van Lingen
Writer:
Ken Wiederhorn
Director:
Ken Wiederhorn
Feature
length: 89 minutes
Extras:
Feature Length Audio Commentary With Writer and Director Ken Wiederhorn and
Co-Star Thor Van Lingen, Theatrical Trailer
Languages:
English Dolby Surround Sound and French Language Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 23
Sound:
Dolby Surround Sound and Monaural Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1987/DVD Release: 2004
Theatrical
Distributor: Warner Brothers
Home
Video Distributor: Warner Home Video
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Dan
O’Bannon’s “The Return Of The Living Dead” is a cult classic mix of
horror and dark comedy that has had nearly as much of an impact on contemporary
pop culture as George A. Romero’s great zombie series with the phrase
“Brains!” still being uttered in genre programs like “Buffy The Vampire
Slayer” among others. In fact people often get the “Return Of The Living
Dead” trilogy mixed up with Romero’s “Dead” series. The George A. Romero
films “Dawn Of The Dead” and “Day Of The Dead” were sequels to his
original “Night Of The Living Dead” and thus have followed their own
evolution in storytelling set in the “Zombie Universe” Romero has created,
which is distinctly different from the zombies in the “Return Of The Living
Dead” series. In fact the “Return Of The Living Dead” trilogy is actually
a spin-off of “Night Of The Living Dead,” but not a sequel. The zombies in
Romero’s films do not talk, at least not yet, and they are motivated to eat
the flesh of the living based on the most primitive brain impulses and not
because they receive some form of sustenance from their victims. Conversely the
zombies of the “Return Of The Living Dead” can talk, have more reasoning
ability, and only feed upon the brain of living humans and just about any other
kind of brain they can get their hands as a means toward numbing their constant
state of pain as one of the living dead. They also appear to move much faster
than Romero’s zombies and have a clearer recollection of their previous lives.
They also might be the first case of fast moving zombies long before films like
“28 Days Later” and the 2004 remake of “Dawn Of The Dead” made the idea
of ghouls that run fashionable if you will for zombie horror fans. Another big
difference between the O’Bannon zombies and the Romero zombies is that the
ghouls of the Romero series can be put down by destroying the brain while the
undead of O’Bannon’s series are almost indestructible in that if you sever
an appendage or bisect a zombie, both parts remain alive and possibly dangerous.
The only certain way to kill a zombie in the “Return Of The Living Dead”
series is to incinerate the creatures.
Writer
and Director Ken Wiederhorn states in the feature length audio commentary
included on this DVD, that he was looking for a way to break out of the horror
genre and go into making comedy films. He wrote a zombie comedy that he hoped
would launch his transition between genres. The screenplay was picked up and
reworked into a sequel to “The Return Of The Living Dead.” Set two years
after the events in the original film, “Return Of The Living Dead Part II”
begins with an army convoy carrying containers with the deadly Trioxin gas that
reanimates the dead and turns the living who are exposed to it into brain eating
zombies too. After one of the canisters falls out of the truck, a group of kids
discover it and two open the barrel releasing both the gas and a ghoul inside
and as a result set off another zombie plague upon an American suburb. While the
army quarantines the town that has become infested with the living dead, a group
of survivors caught inside the town struggles to find a way to destroy the
zombie menace and save themselves. James Karen and Thom Mathews return from the
first film as hapless grave robbers with a creepy feeling they have lived
through this situation before. The truth is that while they are not playing the
same characters they played in the first film, they were brought on board in
part to add some extra sense of connection between the first and second films
and replay the characterizations under a different alias with slightly different
results. Besides James Karen, the standout in the film is Philip Bruns, who
plays a nutty Doctor in the film and mugs for the camera and camps up the
dialogue as much as he can because he knows that is the best way to make his
lines work and create a humorous effect.
Presented
in the original matted (1.85:1) aspect ratio that preserves the manner in which
the film was exhibited theatrically, “Return Of The Living Dead Part II”
looks pretty good on this Warner Home Video DVD release and probably better than
it ever has looked on home video before in the States. The English Dolby
Surround Soundtrack is just fine enough to enjoy the mix of dialogue, sound
effects, and some bad 1980s music without anything becoming distorted. A French
Language Monaural Soundtrack and English Captions and Closed Captions for the
hearing impaired as well as French and Spanish Language Subtitles are encoded
onto the DVD as options too. In addition to Writer and Director Ken Wiederhorn,
Co-Star Thor Van Lingen, who played the role of Billy, the bully who becomes one
of the living dead in the film, shares thoughtful reflections on the commentary
track of his one and only big screen acting job and he even lets the listener
know he researched the film on the Internet before recording his commentary to
intrigue the fans. The theatrical trailer (1:41) is also included on this DVD
and menus are all standard interactive still frames that are easy to navigate.
Fans of the trilogy should take note that like the DVD releases of the first and
third films in the series, “Return Of The Living Dead Part II” is packaged
in a keep case and kudos to Warner Home Video for bringing in the Director and
one of the film’s Stars to do a feature length audio commentary since the
other two discs also feature commentary tracks and collectively all three films
make for a nice looking DVD set on one’s home video library shelf.
“Return
Of The Living Dead Part II” is available on DVD-Video now at retailers on and
offline courtesy of Warner Home Video.
©
Copyright 2004 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
Buy This DVD Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!