![]() ![]() The gore is cartoonish, pure splatter art. The characters are killed off in gruesome ways, but not ways that could really be taken seriously. Because the goal of punk rock isn’t to simply say “the end is here.” The goal is to say “the end is here, there’s nothing we can do about it, so we might as well have some fun with it.” The tone and the approach to humor is what makes the entire thing work. ![]() All the details are terrible, the characters aren’t particularly loving life, and yet the movie simply couldn’t be funnier. The film is often cited as one of the best horror comedies of all time. Which makes the movie’s approach to these details all the more brilliant. This is the absolute worst-case scenario. During an interrogation scene, one zombie reveals that they feel the entire process of death from rigor mortis down through every stage of decomposition. ![]() In addition to all of that, these zombies are sentient and self-aware after death. Once they’re dead, they cannot die again. The only way to take them out is to completely burn the bodies to smoke, but this smoke mixes with rain and only leads to the creation of more zombies. Long before 28 Days Later, this was the origin of fast zombies. These zombies have some degree of intelligence (as showcased by their ability to use the radio to call for more paramedics after eating all the others) and they’re fast. These zombies are much different than Romero’s–as well as pretty much any zombies before or since. At the same time, it is a total representation of the nihilism of the decade. It’s a visual representation in the characters and their costuming as well as the graffiti-covered locations. Return of the Living Dead is counter-culture to its core. Love Real Life Ghost Hunting Shows? CLICK HERE FOR MORE! This all plays into the belief of kids at the time that authority figures were not to be trusted, that they were totally inept, and if there’s anyone in the movie who has a handle on the situation and a level head about it, it’s Spider. Their attempts to cover it up and dispose of it quickly only make things much, much worse. Now, Burt and Ernie and Frank are not bad characters, they’re definitely not antagonists, but they’re responsible for some of what’s going on, they don’t want to report the incident immediately because it will be terrible for business and they have no idea how to handle the situation. These characters tap into something very common for 1980’s teens: The mistrust of authority. ![]() Leading the “adult” cast are Clu Gulager’s Burt, Don Calfa’s Ernie and James Karen’s Frank. At the very least, we don’t want them to be eaten. The untrusting Spider and death-obsessed Trash may be abrasive, but they become surprisingly easy characters to root for. This movie went all the way with its interpretation of punks and even went a step further than that by making them the main characters. These characters had that, but they also had mohawks, faux-hawkes, leather, piercings, chains and names like Trash, Spider, and Suicide. These aren’t punks in the tradition that was common for the ’80’s, where if a character was ‘punk’ they had dyed hair. Every one of these teenagers has a different personality. It’s actually impressive how much characterization there is for such a large cast. There are nice, preppy kids and totally decked-out punks. The cast of characters making up the film represent a true mix of 1980’s teenagers. ![]()
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