The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
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A warehouse worker's accident with toxic gas reanimates a horde of brain-hungry zombies in a nearby town.
The story
At the Uneeda Medical Supply Warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky, a foreman named Frank Johnson accidentally releases a toxic gas called Trioxin from a set of military drums. The gas reanimates several cadavers within the facility. As the situation escalates, a group of teenagers nearby are caught in the chaos when the gas is further dispersed into the atmosphere. The survivors must contend with a growing horde of unkillable, brain-hungry zombies that begin to overrun the local area, forcing the characters to navigate a deadly landscape of the undead.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After Frank Johnson accidentally releases Trioxin gas at a warehouse, several corpses are reanimated. The gas eventually reaches a nearby cemetery, raising a horde of zombies. A group of teenagers and the warehouse staff are forced to fight the undead. The zombies are revealed to eat brains to alleviate the pain of rotting. As the situation becomes dire, the survivors are overwhelmed by the undead. In a final desperate act, a military officer orders the town of Louisville to be destroyed by nuclear artillery. While the strike is intended to stop the invasion, the explosion releases more Trioxin into the atmosphere, causing more zombies to rise from their graves, signaling that the undead threat is far from over.
- First release year
- 1985
- Runtime (minutes)
- 91
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Dan O'Bannon
- Writers
- Dan O'Bannon · screenplay; Rudy Ricci · story; John Russo · story; Russell Streiner · story
- Cast and characters
- Clu Gulager; James Karen; Don Calfa; Thom Mathews; Beverly Randolph
- Genres
- satirical comedy horror; mordant punk comedy
- Themes
- survival; biological hazard
- Tone and mood
- mordant punk comedy; gleefully grotesque horror-comedy
- Setting
- Louisville, Kentucky, 1984
- Premise and plot tags
- zombie; chemical hazard; siege
- Source material / true-story basis
- novel by John Russo, simply titled Return of the Living Dead
- Franchise connections
- Return of the Living Dead (film series)
- Reception
- The film received mostly positive reviews and performed moderately well at the box office, becoming a cult classic for zombie fans.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 71% · scale: percentage · review count: 117; Metacritic · score: 66 · scale: 100 · review count: 12
- Awards and nominations
- Saturn Award · Best Horror Film · nomination; Saturn Award · Best Actor for James Karen · nomination; Saturn Award · Best Director · nomination; Saturn Award · Best Make-up · nomination
- Production trivia
- Introduced the concept of zombies specifically eating brains.; The 'Tarman' zombie was performed by actor and puppeteer Allan Trautman.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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