The Return of the Living Dead Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.0

The Return of the Living Dead Blu-ray Movie Review

The return of 'Return of the Living Dead'.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 22, 2016

If you’ve ever wondered why George A. Romero’s follow ups to his epochal Night of the Living Dead, films like Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, dropped the Living part from the title, the answer can be found in the often arcane contract clauses that attend many Hollywood deals. Romero’s erstwhile partner John A. Russo (was a middle initial “A” a requirement with this duo?) retained rights to the Living Dead title, though a cursory examination of Russo’s credits seems to indicate that he never used it again (in the film world, at least) other than in 1985’s The Return of the Living Dead, a film which ironically evidently jettisoned much of Russo’s original story as it wended its way through at least a couple of directors and other production personnel. The fact that the original Night of the Living Dead appeared in 1968 and this putative “sequel” took virtually two decades to finally arrive may well argue that this supposed “franchise” never really was—a franchise, that is. The two films both feature zombies, of course, and there are certain tonal linkages between them, but “this” Living Dead is manifestly removed from much of the original Romero film, and perhaps by default from the original’s 1990 remake. I’ve been at several screenings of the original 1968 Night of the Living Dead through the years, often surrounded by folks who have never seen the film previously (yes, there are such people), and the reactions are often surprisingly similar—increasing angst combined with at least occasional titters of laughter. The Return of the Living Dead’s writer-director Dan O’Bannon doesn’t shy away from making audience laughter an actual goal, and the film is often a cavalcade of slapstick and other goofy comedic elements. As such, it may not appeal to tried and true horror fanatics who want their fear factor divorced from humor, but for those who enjoy the sort of piquant mish mash of horror and comedy that is part and parcel of films like Evil Dead 2 may well enjoy this outing more than “just” a typical zombie film.

My colleague Casey Broadwater wrote an informative and best of all enjoyable account of the film and some its background in his The Return of the Living Dead Blu-ray review of the MGM Blu-ray edition from 2010, and I wouldn't deign to add anything too significant to Casey’s adroit analysis. The only thing I might point out to film buffs is how radically different in tone this outing is not just from Night of the Living Dead but perhaps even more saliently from the Dan O’Bannon written Lifeforce, evidently the film that kept Tobe Hooper from helming The Return of the Living Dead. It’s an at least passingly amusing thought experiment to wonder what Hooper might have done with this material and if in fact he might have asked O’Bannon to shape it differently, perhaps away from some of its more farcical elements.

The Return of the Living Dead’s chief calling card is probably its goofy humor, though. The film has its requisite guts and gore and, of course, “braaiinnns”, but it’s O’Bannon’s rather idiosyncratic comedic tendencies which make the film so memorable. As Casey notes in his review, the film is pretty resolutely tethered to its 1980s timeframe. Lovers of 80s music will have a heyday with this film’s soundtrack, and while it may seem a bit of an odd reference, some (especially younger) viewers may want to check out The Decline of Western Civilization for a little "context" in this regard. Despite this anchoring in a certain time, rather interestingly The Return of the Living Dead has aged a good deal better than a number of other 80s horror outings.

The Return of the Living Dead Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Return of the Living Dead is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. As fans of the film know, there was a previous MGM Blu-ray release, and I've tried to come close to duplicating several of the screenshots from Casey's review of that version so that those interested can do side by side comparisons. Casey "hesitated" to state that the MGM version would ever be topped, and that's a good thing, because by most yardsticks we use to measure these releases, there's little doubt that this new Scream Factory release trumps the previous MGM release. The Scream version's palette is at least incrementally warmer and the overall look a bit darker (contrast screenshot 7 between the two versions), but clarity and detail are noticeably improved in this new iteration. Shadow detail is also at least incrementally better, and best of all Shout's recurrent issues with compression are largely (almost completely in fact) absent from this release. A somewhat heterogeneous look still accosts the overall appearance, with individual scenes (and even moments) looking fuzzier and less detailed than others. There are still just a few passing moments when chunky grain almost gives way to compression issues, but by and large, and especially considering how dark and rainy so much of the latter part of the film is, things look very good and my hunch is most fans will be very pleased with this release. My score is 4.25.

The Return of the Living Dead Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scream Factory has provided three audio options on this release (not including the several commentary tracks which are detailed in the Supplements section, below). There are DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono, DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks included (I've taken the unusual step of listing a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track in the specs above, despite its 2.0 encoding on the disc in order to differentiate it from the "actual" 2.0 track.) The 2.0 mono track recreates the film's original theatrical exhibition very well, and in fact I actually preferred it to both the 5.1 track, where dialogue levels seemed a bit low and the 2.0 track, which tended to open things up in terms of the music but not enough that I was thinking "wow, what a difference!" Fidelity is generally excellent across all three tracks, and lovers of the film's many source cues will probably want to experiment with the 5.1 and 2.0 tracks. The 5.1 track does place sound effects in discrete channels, and certainly provides more low end for the music, but otherwise immersion is spotty at best.

The Return of the Living Dead Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• The Decade of Darkness (1080i; 23:23) is an older featurette focusing on 80s horror entries.


• Theatrical Trailers (1080p; 8:31)


• T.V. Spots (1080p; 5:22)


• Still Gallery (1080p; 7:22) features lobby cards, posters and the like.


• Still Gallery (1080p; 2:06) has some cool behind the scenes stills of make-up and prosthetics.


• Commentaries:

  Gary Smart, co-author of The Complete History of The Return of the Living Dead, and Chris Griffiths*

  Actors Thom Mathews, John Philbin and Make-Up Effects Artist Tony Gardner*

  Director Dan O'Bannon and Production Designer William Stout

  The Cast and Crew (William Stout, Don Calfa, Linnea Quigley, Brian Peck, Beverly Randolph, Allan Trautman)

  
  *New commentary track

Disc Two

• More Brains: A Return to the Living Dead (1080p; 1:59:43) is an extremely well done and very informative documentary that gets into a lot of the nuts and bolts of the production. A number of cogent interviews with many of the principal cast and crew help to keep this a treasure trove of information for fans.


• The FX of The Return of the Living Dead (1080p; 32:49) is another really well done piece, concentrating on the film's many effects.


• Party Time: The Music of The Return of the Living Dead (1080p; 29:31) features some fun interviews with (ostensibly?) former punk rockers.


• Horror's Hallowed Grounds (1080p; 10:15) offers a tour through some of the film's locations.


• A Conversation with Dan O'Bannon (1080i; 28:32) finds the writer-director in a wonderfully self-deprecating mood.


• The Origins of The Return of the Living Dead (1080p; 15:12) features John A. Russo.


• The Return of the Living Dead: The Dead Have Risen (1080i; 20:34) is another older piece that features some decent interviews.


• Designing the Dead (1080i; 13:39) looks at the film's production design.


• Return of the Living Dead Workprint (480i; 1:48:05) will be fun for completists, but is sourced from pretty shoddy looking video. If you've ever wondered what "macroblocking" is, just watch this and see how splotchy the video is during dark moments.

The Return of the Living Dead Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Return of the Living Dead is a funny and goofy "take" on the zombie genre, and it's notable that it actually helped foster certain genre tropes that are now considered "canon". There's no doubt that this Scream Factory release tops the MGM in video quality, and there's simply no competition when it comes to supplemental features, always one of the hallmarks of this imprint's Collector's Editions. Highly recommended.