They're Back From The Grave and Ready To Party!
When two bumbling employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to rise again as zombies.
Scuz
Gimly
Oct 26, 2018
So. Much. Damn. Fun. The Return of the Living Dead always takes me back to being a teenager. In a good way. Trash is taking off her clothes again. Final rating:★★★½ - I really liked it. Would strongly recommend you give it your time.
CinemaSerf
Oct 17, 2025
“Burt” (Clu Gulager) is regaling new boy “Freddy” (Thom Matthews) with spooky tales in their medical supply warehouse and that takes them to the basement where the relics of the last zombie attack were stored in hermetically sealed metal jars. Rather stupidly, they open one and release not just it’s toxic gases but also one of it’s fairly peckish occupants! Fleeing for their very lives, they call in the boss “Frank” (James Karen) who in turn drags in the local funeral director “Ernie” (Don Calfa giving Christopher Lloyd a run for his money) to dispose of their recently acquired evidence. Snag? Well the cremation process creates loads of smoke which is conveniently carried by the rain into the soil of the adjacent graveyard and next thing, yep, the ground is alive with the long dead screaming for their ultimate painkiller - brains! These are shrewd and hungry critters who soon have paramedic and police officers on their menu, but what chance for our not so intrepid group? Especially as they are now accompanied by the hysterical young “Tina” (Beverly Randolph) who was out in the graveyard with her eclectic group of friends and who ran like hell when she was grabbed by something she didn’t want to grab back. It’s end to end stuff this, marrying some quickly paced dialogue with some remarkably decent special effects creating quite a fun horror film that is fairly light on fear but full of loads of comedy antics before the military resort to their ultimate sanction, thanks to “Col. Glover” (Jonathan Terry), and almost certainly make matters even worse for what I assume will be the next instalment.
The film's tagline is: "They're Back From The Grave and Ready To Party!"
With a budget of $4.0M, the film grossed $14.2M — a profit of $10.2M (256% ROI).
The runtime is 91 minutes (1h 31m).
It was a co-production between: United Kingdom, United States of America.
The film was directed by Dan O'Bannon.
The screenplay was written by Dan O'Bannon.
The score was composed by Matt Clifford.
Cinematography was handled by Jules Brenner.
This title is listed on IMDb as tt0089907.
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Good
2,275 votes
Critic avg. 7.0 (2 reviews)
Review score distribution
The Return of the Living Dead
Released
R
English
United Kingdom, United States of America
$4,000,000
$14,241,310
