I can clearly remember going to see Dan O’Bannon’s zombie comedy “Return of the Living Dead” at the Mall movie theater. At the time I thought it was a sequel to George Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead,” but it turned out to be something else entirely. At this point in my life I was seriously into punk rock, heavy metal, and horror movies so after seeing the poster in the lobby of the theater I got really excited. Did someone in Hollywood make a movie with me specifically in mind? The answer to this question, of course is yes, O’Bannon really seemed to understand the youth and by blending just the right elements together created a horror classic that spoke directly to the disenfranchised horror loving miscreants of 1985.

The flick begins with Frank (James Karen) explaining to Freddy (Thom Mathews) how the Romero classic had some truth to it and a after a military cover-up a canister of 2-4-5 trioxin, the chemical that brings the dead back to life had accidentally ended up at the very warehouse they were working at. Soon after this brief story the canister opens exposing the warehouse and one of the medical cadavers to the chemical agent causing it to reanimate. In a panic they call their boss, Burt (Clu Gulager) who decides to ask the bug eyed mortician Ernie (Don Calfa) to incinerate the reanimated corpse, and in doing so the smoke containing 2-4-5 trioxin is released into the air and rains back down on a nearby cemetery.

A group of punk rockers and one normal girl decide that the best place to hang out while they wait for their buddy Freddy to get off of work is the cemetery, and it is a non stop zombie party from there on out. Also one of the hot punk chicks, Trash played by scream queen Linnea Quigley strips down to her birthday suit to give the dead a lab dance right on their graves. As a horror fan and a Linnea Quigley fan I have to say that this is one of the hottest scenes ever.

The characters in this flick are some of the most believable and memorable characters within the horror genre, and the actors picked to play them were spot on. Also Dan O’Bannon zombies are smart, fast, and they like to party!

If you’re a fan of zombies and haven’t seen “Return of the Living Dead” then pick up the DVD as soon as possible because it is definitely a killer film.