• Director: Ken Wiederhorn
• With: James Karen, Thom Matthews, Michael Kenworthy, Thor Van Lingen, Jason Hogan, Suzanne Snyder, Marsha Dietlein, Jonathan Terry, Dana Ashbrook, Allan Trautman
• Music by: J. Peter Robinson
• Duration: 1h29
• Studio: Warner Bros
• Rating: 6/10

Synopsis:

In this first sequel to The Return of the Living Dead, a group of kids discover one of the drums containing a rotting corpse and release the 2-4-5 Trioxen gas into the air, causing the dead to once again rise from the grave and seek out brains.

Review:

Some sequels surpass the original. This didn’t, not even a bit. It has its moments and it’s a cult classic horror movie, no doubt about that. But it just feels too ‘cringe’!

But there are a few great moments in there… the return and even recognition of a few characters from the original is one of them… James Karen and Thom Matthews are back, playing a different role but with their same stupid decision making and (overacting however) silliness. Being in the wrong time in the place. (Not sure that was a must or a plus for this movie but it had some comedic reason, I guess)

Then there’s a few of the ‘Returned’ that are just comic relief in this movie (even having Michael Jackson’s Thriller video referenced) and ‘big’ bad Billy, teenager turned zombie, starting the entire misery, repeating the original’s stupidity.

The crawling from the graves at the start of the movie might even be the best part of this movie! For the rest there’s a lot of screaming, running and no real story and a bunch of dumb characters all doing stupid things… and still, besides all that… this will always be a cult classic for true fans!

I have never watched any of the sequels (part III, Necropolis & Rave to the Grave) so I might try those if I can find them somewhere but I’m not expecting from from them… but I cannot not see them now, can I? 🤷‍♂️