Starring
Michael Kenworthy, Thor Van Lingen, Jason Hogan, James Karen
Thom Mathews, Suzanne Snyder, Marsha Dietlein, Suzan Stadner, Jonathan Terry, Dana Ashbrook, Sally Smythe, Allan Trautman, Don Maxwell Update Cast
More Trivia from Return of the Living Dead Part II
Review
Just when the world had seen enough of their share of 80’s horror flicks, the sequel to the classic horror movie "Return of the Living Dead" was released and guaranteed to bring many more nightmares to the horror genre.
The movie begins with an army truck transporting containers of a mysterious gas called Trioxen. When the truck hits a pothole, a strap supporting the containers breaks and a few of the barrels tumble out of the truck and land near an abandoned cemetery that happens to be located near a new section of housing units where our protagonist, Jesse Wilson lives.
One morning Jesse and two of his ‘not so friendly’ buddies visit the cemetery. Jesse, who isn’t so keen on going in the first place, ends up running away from them into a tunnel where he finds a barrel of the Trioxen that had fallen from the military truck.
The two boys eventually find him hidden in the cave and investigate the barrel before locking Jesse in the morgue and returning later to re-examine their find. After investigating, the two punks manage to release the gas from the barrel and the sinister looking fog begins to float around the cemetery and wake the dead. The boys leave.
Upon returning home one of the boys gets sick with an unknown disease (unknown to his mother, he is changing into a zombie) and the dead have now started to approach the housing units hungry for brains and start by chomping on a man while his wife looks on in horror.
The little town is evacuated by the army except for Jesse and his sister as well as a cable repairman who just happened to drop in at the wrong time. Later on, they are joined by a young couple and a doctor with a nice car.
After a few bloody battles and casualties the cable guy discovers the secret of how to kill a zombie... electrocution.
Verdict
I enjoyed this film when I first saw it 6 years ago. However, now I find that it rests more on the cheesier side and isn’t as enjoyable to watch as it’s predecessor. The novelty of brain eating zombies has been used over and over again and the fact that electricity is used to kill the zombies sort of spoils any hope of a real surprise ending.
Of course, the comedy is still evident as always throughtout this gorefest (gotta love the Jacko zombie!) and I managed to get more of a laugh out of this movie than the original. I would recommend to horror buffs however that it would be wiser to purchase the original movie from 1985 or even the one that started it all from 1968.
Only newbies to the genre will really get any sort of kick out of watching this movie.
-A suspenseful little gem full of surprises.
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The Movie Data
Key Crew
Director: Ken Wiederhorn
Writer: Ken Wiederhorn
Producers: Eugene C. Cashman, Tom Fox, William S. Gilmore
Locations Manager: Steven Shkolnik
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Data
Release Date: 15 Jan 1988
MPAA Rating: R
Studio: Lorimar Entertainment
Production: Greenfox
Genre: Horror / Occult
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The Movie Trailer
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