The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
The Flick Comedy is tough. Horror-comedy is even tougher. And a film like “Return of the Living Dead” has the odds stacked against it before the credits even roll. Maybe that’s why writer/director Dan O’Bannon (“Alien,” “Darkstar”) lets the audience get a taste of what’s to come with a pre-credit set-up that lays down the ground rules – George Romero’s zombie films were based on a true story, which was covered up by the government. Most of the remaining “undead” were bottled up like toxic waste and shipped to a secure location, but a few were accidentally routed to the Uneeda Medical Supply Company in Louisville, Kentucky. That’s where two bumbling warehouse workers turn them loose and contaminate the graveyard next door with reanimating gas, setting the stage for a zombie apocalypse! The script sounds like total cheese, but O’Bannon molds it into a colorful tribute to E.C Comics, with equal parts gross out effects and wink-wink-nudge-nudge horror humor. Where later films like “Evil De...