Return of the Living Dead

There have been more than a handful of films that pay homage or been influenced one way or another by George A. Romero. The Return of the Living Dead, not only pays homage to Romero, but bases its film around Romero's masterpiece Night of the Living Dead.

Return of the Living Dead was released in 1985 without much fanfare in the zombie genre, but has steadily become a cult hit among fans of the genre. The story revolves around a medical supply warehouse and its two employees: Frank, played by character actor James Karen, and Freddy, played by Thom Matthews (grown up Tommy in the Friday the 13th series). Frank is showing Freddy the ropes at the warehouse when Frank confides in Freddy that "Night of the Living Dead" was based on a true incident.

Apparently, one of the reanimated corpses was put into a barrel and accidentally shipped to the warehouse where it is still housed.
Frank takes Freddy down to show him the barrel, but they end up releasing the corpses while at the same time breathe in the fumes from the barrel. Time passes and the two wake up and find out that some of their stock has suddenly come back to life.

One scene involves a test cadaver being reanimated. The other part of the movie focuses on a group of punks who are going to meet Freddy after he gets off work. One of the more memorable scenes from Return involves Trash, played by B-horror movie icon Linnea Quigley, as she does a strip tease while shouting her manifesto of what she fantasizes about happening to her. It's safe to say that she gets her wish.

Fast forward and the film moves into Frank calling his boss Burt, played by film veteran Clu Gulager, and telling him what happened. Burt decides to take the reanimated cadaver to the crematorium where Burt's friend Ernie, played by Don Calfa, runs the place. They turn the body into ashes, but the smoke that comes out is carried through the air and an ensuing rain washes it down to the nearby cemetery and here is where the film gets going.

Basically, the dead return to life, but only crave the brain of the living. All hell breaks loose and everyone is split up. We get the fundamentals of the zombie genre with Return of the Living Dead, but with a new twist: they crave brains instead of the rest of the body. Return is a great film because it tries to rework the whole genre without betraying its roots.