This is one of the most fun, light-hearted zombie flicks ever made. Besides opening the door to all sorts of different depictions of zombies post George A. Romero's prior landmarks in the subgenre, by making the zombies talk, run, think intelligently and eat brains, I also appreciate how "The Return of the Living Dead" references Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" (1968)--even if one character mixes up its dating--while largely ignoring the template set by that first modern zombie film. Instead of the classic-horror-cinema-inspired, black-and-white straightforward gore and equally grizzly racial subtext of Romero's picture, this return is more of a punk-rock comedy. Of course, it's still gory, too, and Linnea Quigley plays one of the punks nude for most of the proceedings. Obviously, the soundtrack stands out, as well.
Besides being funny and stylish, this is a well-paced picture. There's nary a dull moment. It jumps right into the two main concurring plots of the warehouse workers and the punks, as the zombie-causing fumes are inadvertently and repeatedly released by the former and as the latter's party in a graveyard is subsequently interrupted by the resulting acid rainfall and reanimated corpses emerging from the ground. There's also the military operation that, temporarily at least, defeated the last zombie outbreak that Romero's film was supposedly based on. Thereafter, it becomes a battle of minds: the living trying to keep theirs, and the zombies trying to eat them.
Besides being funny and stylish, this is a well-paced picture. There's nary a dull moment. It jumps right into the two main concurring plots of the warehouse workers and the punks, as the zombie-causing fumes are inadvertently and repeatedly released by the former and as the latter's party in a graveyard is subsequently interrupted by the resulting acid rainfall and reanimated corpses emerging from the ground. There's also the military operation that, temporarily at least, defeated the last zombie outbreak that Romero's film was supposedly based on. Thereafter, it becomes a battle of minds: the living trying to keep theirs, and the zombies trying to eat them.