It’s been quite a while since I last saw The Return of the Living Dead, a classic 1980’s comedy / horror film. Written and directed by the late, great Dan O’Bannon (Alien, Lifeforce), this is a wacky take on the zombie genre with quite a few first: Zombies that can’t be killed, zombies that run (very rare in the genre), zombies that have more than just basic motor skills (able to use tools, think strategically), and zombies that talk.
Of course, everything is played for laughs with lots of gross out humor, overacting, and comical horror situations. Some of the creature effects are top notch. In fact, a few of the zombies look a lot like Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce film from the same year. This is a totally different type of film from the Romero zombie films but it’s meta enough to reference Night of the Living Dead as part of its own plot. This is one of the best non-Romero zombie films ever.