ROTLD: They're Back From The Grave and Ready To Party!

The Return of the Living Dead was released in 1985. Directed by Dan O’Bannon and starring Clu Culager, James Karen, Don Calfa and co-starring Thom Matthews, Linnea Quigley, and Beverly Randolph.

The film came about out of a dispute between John Russo and George A. Romero over how to handle sequels to their 1968 film, Night of the Living Dead. Russo and Romero finally reached an agreement where Romero's sequels would be referred to as the Dead movies, and Russo's sequels would bear the suffix Living Dead. Therefore each writer was able to do what he pleased with the series, while still having one another's work distinct and be considered canon. Following this decision, Russo wrote a horror novel, Return of the Living Dead, which he planned on adapting into a film script. Although the film rights were initially sold in 1979, they were passed along by several different studios and directors before finally being obtained by Tobe Hooper, for whom Dan O'Bannon was hired to write a script. Hooper dropped out of the project instead to focus on the production of another feature.

Plot Summary:

When a bumbling pair of employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to re-animate as they go on a rampage through Louisville, Kentucky seeking their favorite food, brains.

The “Return” Zombies:

The zombies in Return of the Living Dead differ from those in Night of the Living Dead. Return's interpretation of zombies have influenced cultural interpretations of zombies, particularly with regard to their hunger for brains and their constant vocalization of this hunger.

• They are fast and can run
• They are as strong and intelligent as they were in their previous life, and they can also speak sometimes
• They can form words despite their physical degradation
• Instead of hunting humans for their flesh, they hunt for the humans' brains, stating that only their consumption eases the pain of being dead.
• It appears that injuries to their brains do not have any effect and the only way to fully destroy them is to cremate their bodies, although the ensuing smoke spreads the contagious gas.

Trivia:

Tobe Hooper was originally slated to direct and it was supposed to be filmed in 3-D.

The two heroes of the movie are names Burt and Ernie, obviously an ironic reference to the popular "Sesame Street" (1969) characters, right? Wrong. Turns out Dan O'Bannon didn't know he was using the names of the two beloved children's show's puppets (from liner notes in the Collector's Edition DVD).

The nuclear cannon at the end of the film was actually a WWII German Howitzer.

The eye-test poster (seen most clearly after Frank and Freddy run into Burt's office after hearing the first re-animated cadaver) in Burt's office actually reads "Burt is a slave driver and a cheap son of a bitch who's got you and me here" if you put the letters together.

Director Dan O'Bannon was originally supposed to play Frank and he wrote the part with himself in mind, but when James Karen came in to read for another part, O'Bannon was simply blown away and hired him on the spot.

The executive producers attempted to contact George A. Romero several times in order to offer him the choice of producing the movie, but he never answered.

John A. Russo wrote a script called "The Return of the Living Dead" at the same time that George A. Romero was doing Dawn of the Dead (1978). An independent producer, Tom Fox, bought Russo's script. He set up production and gave the script to Dan O'Bannon. O'Bannon refused to direct it as it was written. He felt that it was too much of a serious attempt at making a sequel to Night of the Living Dead (1968), and did not want to "...intrude so directly on Romero's turf." It was re-written with more humor.

Some of the zombie extras were paid more to eat real calf brains in the film.

The cemetery is called "Resurrection Cemetery".

The combination to the lock on the freezer door is 22 (right) - 4 (left) - 10 (right).

After the "Rabid Weasles" are brought into the Resurrection Funeral Home and the tarp is removed, what is actually in the bags are those motorized toy monkeys that have the cymbals. The cymbals were removed for obvious reasons.

The character Ernie (Don Calfa) is thought to be a Nazi due to him sharing his name with Ernst Kaltenbrunner among other indications in the film (such as the character listening to the German Afrika Corps march song "Panzer rollen in Afrika vor" on his Walkman while he embalms bodies, carrying a German Walther P38 and having a picture of Eva Braun in his morgue). 'Dan O'Bannon' , in the DVD commentary, mentions that Ernie was intended to be an escaped Nazi in hiding.

In the early 1990s, a longer work print version of the film surfaced that ran 24-minutes longer that the released version.

The film's German title is 'Verdammt, die Zombies kommen', which is roughly Oh Crap, the Zombies Are Coming and the Danish title is 'Ligene er ligeglade' which is roughly Corpses Doesn't Care -- playing up the comical aspect of the film.

Linnea Quigley (Trash) wore a crotch-covering, flesh-colored prosthetic during her strip scene.

When Frank and Freddy are carrying the "Rabid Weasles" into the Resurrection Funeral Home (before Burt removes the tarp), Clinton Hartley, brother of Assistant Art Director Clayton Hartley and future brother-in-law of actress Beverly Randolph, is actually under the tarp laying on the stretcher to give credibility to the weight of the body parts.

Richard P. Rubinstein of Laurel Entertainment didn't want people to think this film was part of George A. Romero's "Living Dead" series. He even got an injunction to stop them from using "Living Dead" in the title. But the MPAA arbitrators ruled in favor of the movie's producers.

Please note: All Conceptual Art and Storyboards (c)William Stout. Other ROTLD images, trailers, etc (c)MGM Home Video.