The Return of the Living Dead

Middle-aged family man Frank (Jim Karen) trains teenaged Freddy (Thom Matthews) for his new job at a medical supply warehouse. In an effort to impress and frighten his young charge, practical joker Frank reveals that the warehouse basement contains a cannister full of a mysterious chemical capable ...more

Like George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, whose central premise it loosely reworks, this seemingly standard-issue gore-fest offers more than meets the eye. It's not a genre-defining masterpiece like the source of its inspiration, but it is a relatively clever popcorn flick with more gruesome imagery and self-aware humor than most such films that glutted the mid-'80s marketplace. The punk rock trappings of its young cast were years out of date by the time of release -- just like in the John ...more