Return of the Living Dead (1985)

After rupturing top secret bio waste drums, two bumbling clerks and the manager of a medical storehouse try to get rid of the reanimated remains only to accidentally seed the rainclouds above and have it rain on a graveyard.

God! This film hasn’t changed when I first saw it. This was a silly stupid fun film back in the day. Seeing this movie is like unearthing that toy you played with so much as a kid and you just find it in the back of the attic or basement or even pawnshop. The characters are fluid and real. The makeup effect is awesome for the time. While Russo tried to revitalize the “zombie genre” without stepping on George Romero’s toes and pulls it off with flying colors. And if you all don’t know why Linnea Quigly got famous, check out this movie and you will pretty much find out why. Mind the Barbie codpiece.

I really have nothing bad to say about the movie. Yes, the movie is cheesy, but it’s supposed to be cheesy. It’s supposed to be funny. That’s the purpose of the whole thing. For those who throw temper tantrum that Zombies don’t run, they run, work and talk. So all you getting your undies in a bunch need to sit down, shut up and watch this movie. Not only do the zombies bring a good amount of comedy as well as the element of impending doom and horror. Other then that and maybe the styles at the times which is a nitpick, this is a classic.

The DVD is cool. I love the DVD. Visuals and audio is alright. The extra include documentary on the movie with interviews with most of the cast, a look at the effects art that was used as inspiration for the special effects. Film and TV trailers and two commentaries. One by O’Bannon and will Stout and another by the cast. While I like the O’Bannon commentary, the cast commentary wasn’t my cup of tea. The reason being that they added “zombies” to the commentary. Why? I don’t know. Maybe to be hip with the kids or something. You might like it though. All this covered with a glow in the dark sleeve.

four stars.

Behemoth, The Sea Monster (1959)

While in England, a marine biologist is compelled to investigate large amounts of dead fish washing up on the coast of Cornwall. His investigations lead him to a radioactive dinosaur that was awakened from a long dormant sleep.

England’s first kaiju movie, it was to be originally an invisible monster that gave off radioactive vibes. When director Eugene Lourie couldn’t get a buyer, he gave in to an English production house demands for a tangible monster and told the scriptwriters to combine the inviso-monster with the script of a previous movie he did, The Beast of 20,000 Fathoms. Lourie also hired the talents of Will O’Brien who was well known to everyone as the man who made the King Kong model, but also the father of Stop Motion. This was O’Brien’s last film as he was struck with sickness and most of the stop motion work was done by assistants.

With that being said, this movie takes too long in building the monster up. While I don’t mind watching scientists go up the military food chain, they could have condensed it and get to the creature. The reason for this is that the effects budget was gypped and they really had to rush to make fifteen minutes of film. While the Behemoth look good at first, the editing and camera angles hid a rush job. They only had one model, so they had to be real gentle about it. In short, this was a drawn out movie because the animated footage was too short.

This DVD is part of the WB’s Cult Camp Collection: Sci-fi Thrillers collection. The audio is nice. The video is a bit natural but isn’t too bad. The extras include a trailer and commentary by Denis Muren and Phil Tippet of Equinox fame and special effects creators. While I think they would have been a great help talking about as stop motion and the work of Will O’Brien, I do think they should have gotten a third person in the fold to do commentary about the film end. Tim Lucas or someone could’ve been a good balance to Tippet and Muren. This was one of the weaker commentaries to sit through. Informative none to less.

two and a half stars.

Coming Attractions…

Horror of Party Beach (1964)

Radioactive waste dumped into the sea resurrects and mutates dead bodies. The living dead rise from the sea and feast on unsuspecting youths of a seaside community.

The Good

This movie’s got it all! Beaches, boobs, bikes, pajama parties, monsters, music. This film might not take itself seriously, but it’s an awfully lot of fun. This movie also gets right down the point during the first five minutes. Amazing!! By the time it’s to the fifteen minute mark, I’m really into it.

Very fun feature.

The Bad

Where to start….plot holes as big as Swiss cheese. Some one dimensional characters that disappear all the sudden. Audio tracks sometimes don’t sych up and is noticeably spliced in. Hokey science. Continuity problems, middle age folk acting as teens and Tina can’t act like a drunk slut even if her life depended on it.

Yes folks, it’s so bad, it’s good.

The DVD!!!

This is one half of Dark Sky’s Del Tenney Double Feature disc. The video and audio is really great. It surprised me how clear the movie looked and sounded. Extras include an interview with Del Tenney himself as well as commentary on the movie. You also get a trailer and some visual material as well.

Conclusion

This a fun little movie that is sort of a guilty pleasure of mine. Check it out if you have free time or you want to make a long day shorter. This is a good cheesy movie.

SODIUM!!!

2 and a half stars.