The Return of the Living Dead

Dan O'Bannon, writer of such horror films as Alien and Dead and Buried took the helm as director on this cult-classic horror comedy. In some ways it's a very loose sequel to George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, in fact one of the characters in this film explains that Romero's film was actually based on fact in that some new chemical developed by the military (of course) has the ability to reanimate the dead and somehow this chemical has accidentally made its way to Louisville, Kentucky. Now the dead are rising and only desire one thing -- to eat human brains! These zombies walk, talk, and think, and they can't be re-killed because even if they are dismembered the pieces will continue to attack -- they must be incinerated, but that could be a problem. The trapped humans include a few adults and a group of 80's punks that look like rejects from the Sex Pistols. It's surprisingly less gory than one might imagine and benefits greatly from the fact that never for a moment does it take itself seriously. Some of the animatronic zombies are fairly impressive also. This is one of the best films of its kind, take that for what you will.