Return of the Living Dead (1985)

continued...

... of...Tina (Beverly Randolf), Freddy's girlfriend; she's very virginy, complete with a neon pink telephone cord headband that matches her LA Gear high-tops. Trash (Linnea Quigley) a fuchsia haired punk with a safety pin through her nose, and also some of the best lines in the film, mostly because of Linnea's dead pan delivery.

Trash : Sometimes...I fantasize about being surrounded by old men...they rip off my clothes...then they start biting my flesh.

HELLO!!! Can anyone say FORSHADOW!!! And thankfully the foreshadow matches her neon blue eye shadow...very obvious. Back to the roll call. Suicide (Mark Venturini) the hardcore punk dude with a car, and a chain that attaches his nose to his ear. Awesome. Chuck (John Philbin) and Casey (Jewel Shepard) the new wave kids. Scuz (Brian Peck) and Spider (Miguel A. Nunez Jr.) round out the gang as another punk and the token Black guy. Yes, I said it. It's the 80's and poor Spider is the only African American they put in the film? Gimme a break. However, Spider ends up being one of the best characters in the film...at least he has attitude and lasts a bit longer than the rest. Sweet.

Now that we've met every one...Freddy and Frank wake up feeling sick from inhaling the gas that squirted out of the can. They call their boss who rushes over and helps then dispose of the reanimated corpse in the freezer. They visit the nearby mortician who lets them burn the body in his crematorium...HUGE MISTAKE! The gas from the can transforms into smoke from the burning body, it rains and infects the soil in the cemetery bringing all of the dead back to half-life.

The rest of the movie is a tubular brain eating gore fest fueled by one of the best punk rock soundtracks in a film ever! It's campy and eye-popping. Dan O'Bannon's script is very spot on when it comes to keeping our improbable plot running. One of the best undead effects in the film is the muddied corpse from the government oil drum that eventually attacks the kids. It even gets its head bunted off with a baseball bat. This movie is a must see, like totally!

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