10 Zombie Movies You Must See Before You Die
4. The Return Of The Living Dead (1985)
They’re back from the grave and ready to party!
In the Return Of The Living Dead, Alien co-writer Dan O’Bannon adapts George A. Romero’s slow lumbering zombies into super zombies out for the kill and ready to make you laugh. A satire of the genre that pays its respects by being good. O’Bannon plays on movie tropes with his tongue in his cheek and knowing wink to the audience.
The zombie outbreak begins after employees at a medical supplies company accidentally set off a horde of zombies throughout their laboratory and into the town. Raving throughout the town in search of human flesh, the zombies follow a predictable pattern of destruction, subverted by O’Bannons ‘anything goes’ recklessness. It’s not the film for zombie purists as the director goes against many lived in tropes, allowing his zombies to speak and giving them more autonomy than seen before.
Like a big ‘f**k you!’ to tradition, O’Bannon makes zombies his own and has a load of fun doing so. He chucks in pilot twists, infamous scenes and loads of dark humour but never loses touch of staying scary.