Matt Draper recently released a phenomenal video looking back at the history of the 'Return of the Living Dead' franchise. Being a massive fan of his videos, especially his retrospective videos in which he takes an in-depth look at the series and franchises he's revisiting, I gave it a watch eagerly. Coming away from the video, I was left with a want to revisit these films, specifically the first three films that were released theatrically (I will not be covering the Syfy originals). Something about the films just called to me suddenly, and over the next week, I was left with a craving to see some zombies and their....well cravings for brains.

I haven't necessarily avoided the Return of the Living Dead franchise, but I hadn't gone out of my way for them. I'm a huge fan of George Romero's 'Dead' films and I figured those were the true successors to 'Night of the Living Dead' rather than the movies that retained the namesake. I knew about the rights mixup that led to both George Romero and John Russo essentially splitting the rights to the series going forward after a mistake led to Night ending up in the public domain, but I wasn't interested in the Return franchise because of its relative lack of an impact. Not to say these films weren't influential, because they really REALLY were, but Romero's films (specifically Night, 'Dawn of the Dead' and 'Day of the Dead') were remembered more fondly and recalled more in the public consciousness today. This is all to say: I didn't give the Return films a fair shot at first. Going back to watch them now, I underestimated how good this series could be. I would even go so far as to say that the first Return of the Living Dead film might be my favorite zombie film next to the Romero-led Dawn of the Dead. So what makes these films fun and what specifically makes a Return film a Return film? Join me as we revisit the Return of the Living Dead trilogy and what I'd like to see in the 2025 revival of the series.

I'll also link Matt Draper's video above if you would like more Return of the Living Dead discussion in your life! I do recommend you check it out as it's a fantastic video!

The first, and by far the best, film in the series is aptly titled 'The Return of the Living Dead'. It's a pseudo sequel to George Romero's Night but mostly operates as its own film with its own take on the living dead, only tangentially being related to the previous film due to its name. 

Return of the Living Dead sees Thom Mathew's Freddy start a new job in a supply warehouse where they're storing zombies that have been stored "securely" in barrels, of course, they don't stay there when James Karen's Frank wants to show off. Frank accidentally releases the gas,2-4-5 Trioxin, when hitting the barrel and all hell breaks loose.

The biggest surprise of the movie for me was how "punk" everything feels. I wasn't taken aback by the music choices, as they felt appropriately 80s, but the story itself felt very punk in all the right ways. The zombies themselves as they are presented in this film are entirely unkillable. Nothing the main characters do can take them out permanently and the threat the dead possess is never undermined. The zombies are intelligent too as they speak multiple times which leads to several memorable moments of horror. "I can feel myself rot" and "Bring more paramedics" are burned into my brain now as a horrifying and funny moment respective to those scenes. These zombies will get you, there's nothing you can do. The characters are completely and utterly screwed from the moment Frank decides to take Freddy down to the basement to check out this weird and wacky zombie barrel. 

Part of the fun of the movie is seeing the scramble everyone does to try and survive, it turns from Freddy and Frank's mad rush to try and cover up the fact they released the gas and reanimated the corpses in the supply warehouse to a mad dash to try and escape to an ultimately untimely fate for everyone involved. The mood of this movie is very unique because of that always feeling tense and energetic. The soundtrack helps the film maintain this momentum, using punk rock tracks throughout to keep the energy up. The characters in the film are also delightfully dumb at times, with the punks partying in the cemetery taking the cake with stupid names like Suicide and Trash. It's cheesy in the best way, feeling like it's very much in tune with itself. The film never feels like it's taking itself too seriously, always having one foot on in cheese and the other in horror. This can best be shown through the iconic "Do you wanna party?" scene in which the dead reanimate during the punks' rave at the cemetery set to "Partytime" by 45grave in what is assuredly the best scene in the movie. The chaos, the tone, the music, the atmosphere, and the rain all culminate in making the scene feel utterly electric. It's goofy as hell but it's so much fun.

The ending of the film itself is exceptionally dark as well, which might have added to a more hopeless feel to the events of the movie if the film was as self-serious as something like Rob Jabbaz's "The Sadness". Instead, the ending where they nuke the town feels more like a joke. Of course, the government is just going to bomb the town and hope for the best, what else can they even do in this situation? The film has gone out of its way to show how devastating the dead are throughout and how many people they can kill given the opportunity, I mean isn't that what the scene of them devouring the revolving clown car-esque paramedics and cops is about? 

I can't believe I've talked about this movie so far without talking about what might be the most iconic zombie ever put to screen, the Tar Man. The effects on this character are utterly breathtaking even to this day, I found myself in awe of the Tar Man every time he was on screen. Oogling at how gross he is, his unique walk, his voice, and of course how excited he gets when he sees "more brains!". Just a terrific character design and an utterly fun presence overall.

1988's Return of the Living Dead Part II is not great, regrettably coming nowhere close to its two predecessors. There's not a lot for me to say with this film, it's safer and more family-friendly: which is an odd choice for the film considering its subject matter and how "adult" the previous film was. That edge that was present in the last film is also gone here, instead swapped out for a much more TV movie-esque approach.

Funnily enough, this movie reminded me more of reruns of old Goosebumps episodes I'd occasionally catch on TV late at night. The film feels very tame and pulls its punches a lot of the time, ultimately becoming a much nicer film. It also makes the film boring, this was the only Return film I saw where I ended up checking my phone to see how much time had passed and needed breaks in between watching due to how tedious it ended up becoming. There is some fun here, and I imagine this would be a good movie to put on as "Baby's first horror movie" but ultimately I just came away disappointed with its lack of punch.

The main character of the film is Kenworthy's Jesse Wilson, a kid who gets himself into a spot of trouble when his bullies end up releasing Trioxin into the atmosphere after stumbling upon a zombie barrel.

The suburban nature of the tale means we meet all the classic trope-y 80s horror characters, the good-natured too smart for his own good kid, the high and mighty high school girl, the cool guy, etc. While the trope-y characters in the last movie felt fun, these...just don't. I don't know why but they feel more manufactured and studio-mandated than something naturally included.

James Karen and Thom Mathews return in this film after turning into zombies in the last film, and like that film..they also get infected and turn into zombies in this one. They're a fun comedic duo that were a highlight of the last film, and their return here is also very entertaining and they provide some of the best moments of the film. One moment I particularly enjoyed was when Mathews' Joey, in a suitably meta fashion, talks about how this feels like a dream and how he feels like he's been here before. It's a cute reference to the fact that despite playing new characters, both Karen and Mathews were in the last film and fell victim to similar fates.

Part II also has the film ends on a rather positive note in comparison to the bomb that killed everyone we cared about last time. Our heroes end up finding out that electricity can kill the zombies for good and use that to their advantage, the film ends with them surviving, the cool guy ending up with the cool girl, and the smart kid getting recognition (admittedly I did chuckle when he ran over his zombie bully). The military comes in and saves the day. A very PG ending for a very PG feeling rated R movie.

After the tonal shift that was Part II, the series took a break for a while after the sequel didn't do as well as the first movie at the box office. It seems that some lessons were learned from Part II moving into the next movie as Return 3 is a...return...to the more adult and gory nature of the first film, even tuning up the sexuality and body horror elements.

The plot of this movie sees a teenager, Curt Reynolds, resurrect his dead girlfriend, Julie Walker, using Trioxin after an accident takes her life. 

This movie had probably the most gruesome moments of the trilogy for me. I think the first film's effects are great and hold up a lot, but they lack that "cringe" factor for lack of a better word. Not cringe in the sense of it being so embarrassing you can't help but recoil, but it being so disgusting or offputting you pull back in shock. Return 3 brings PLENTY of moments of that kind of cringe, as Julie self-mutilates throughout the movie trying to feel something after her turn into a conscious zombie. Julie is the star of the show here as while Curt provides for a serviceable and even good main character, the transformation Julie undergoes is really what keeps you watching. You attentively watch the movie, waiting for the inevitable moment she is going to snap and eat someone. I really can't oversell how disturbing Julie's journey is in this film to me, especially as someone deathly afraid of zombies all his life. The mental turmoil Julie goes through is horrifying, she feels each bit of the transformation more and more. As established in the first Return film, the transformation from human to zombie is an intensely painful and awful process and being a zombie in and of itself is an excruciating experience. Clarke's performance as Julie makes you feel that pain as she loses herself into this new being she feels herself becoming. The final reveal of Julie's fully mutilated form with all the improvised piercings and nudity was probably the most disturbed I felt in a Return film. Something about the visceral nature of seeing her like that was really off-putting and upsetting.

Brian Yuzna's (the director of Return 3) filmography is no stranger to me as he is also at the helm of "Bride of Re-Animator" and "Beyond Re-Animator", two sequels to one of my favorite movies of all time, the aptly named "Re-Animator". As such, his stylistic touches here are very much in line with his other work I'm familiar with. It's a very melodramatic movie, but I think it ultimately works in the film's favor as the romance takes center stage and you feel the tragedy of the situation.

I won't touch on it too much since Draper already talks about this in his video on the movie, but you can very much read into this film as an allegory for a toxic/abusive relationship and I resonated with that here. The film's bleak ending highlights this interpretation and cements their relationship as not being good for either.

All that being said, is Return 3 as good as Return? Well...kind of, kind of not. Some pacing problems make the film feel like it's being dragged out unnaturally at points, and I don't ever think Return 3 reaches the heights of its grandfather film but that's not to say it's bad by any stretch. I think it's quite good and became one of my favorites in the zombie genre by the end, just maybe not as high up as Return ended up being. 

Fortunately, the Return of the Living Dead's future as a series is not in doubt. There is a brand new Return film slated for release at the end of this year. It's set to be a sequel to the original film, ignoring Part III and 3, much like the recent Halloween films or any number of Terminator sequels that have come out in the last 20 years.

I honestly don't have much faith in this project, part of the appeal of the Return series is that unique 80s feel the movies have and the teaser that was recently released doesn't seem to carry much of that over. It may take place months after the original film, but it doesn't feel like it quite yet. Granted, the teaser wasn't that long and didn't show much, so it's a bit unfair to judge at this point. The director and writer of this upcoming release is also not encouraging, a glance at his filmography to this point will show you that he's only really worked on direct-to-DVD films and cheap horror movies. Not that there's anything wrong with that, you have to start somewhere of course but the ratings for each of his films have not broken past a 2.9 on Letterboxd. 

I'll be in attendance on day 1 when the film releases due to my newfound love for this series but I don't have huge hopes for anything other than a passable modern horror flick.

Overall, the Return franchise is a pretty great experience to go through. Its low point is Part II, as the momentum built up from the first film peters out in its sequel but they return to form with a relatively solid movie in 3. The punk sentiments of the series struck a chord with me and I enjoyed the cheesy fun the first movie provided and the dive into camp horror we eventually got with Return 3. While it may be an uneven series that never truly reaches the heights of its first film again, I think if you love zombie movies or are a fan of horror comedies like the works of Sam Raimi or other 80s horror films, you'll find a lot to love here and maybe find a few new favorites along the way.