In Return
of the Living Dead: Part 2, the chemical Trioxin 245 turned people
into flesh eating zombies. Now the government is trying to control these
unstoppable cannibalistic killers.
The splatter-fest
starts when a young man uses the chemical to bring his girlfriend back
to life. It's a state of the art special effects show as she starts a chain
reaction on the living dead by eating the only thing that will nourish
her... human brains.
"I liked you when you were... the way you were
before."
- Curt |
On a secret military
base, Lt. Col. Sinclair arrives from Washington to oversee a new experiment
with the trioxin. The base's commander's son Curt, and his girlfriend Julie
witness a dead body being brought back to life, then turning on its captors.
When he returns home, Curt defies his reassignment orders and strikes out
on their own. Immediately after doing so, they get into an accident and
Julie is killed. Remembering the experiment they secretly watched where
a dead corpse was revived, he sneaks back onto the base and is able to
revive her with trioxin. Along with her, a zombie is released. Julie and
Curt escape, where Julie discovers a taste for flesh. With Curt's father
and the military looking for them, Curt and Julie wander around trying
to find out what she is and what she will become. When they finally find
them, Julie has turned others into zombies as well and has turned them
over to Sinclair for use in the weapons program. Another zombie escape
has them questioning whether to live or die together.
The most recognizable
part of this movie is the extremely well-done make-up effects on the zombies.
These zombies look rather hideous and disgusting, which is how we all want
our zombies to look like. The final make-up applied to Julie when she undergoes
her transformation is perhaps the most shocking part, since throughout
the movie she has a distinctly human appearance, then without warning she
has become this grotesque looking creature that is very un-human. It gives
a very chilling appearance when we first get to see her like that, as in
real life it would probably kill someone to look like she did. Even the
zombies that she created look very disturbing and for the most part scary.
The best one has to be the gang member she nearly decapitates by ripping
his head and spinal cord away from the body, yet leaving it attached, giving
the appearance of a giraffe to the zombie. Even though this isn't as action-packed
as the other entries, there are still enough big sequences to keep the
attention. The ending completely saves it, as the zombies escape from inside
the compound, so it has tons of scenes of soldiers fighting off the rampaging
zombies inter-cut with the love story that the rest of the movie has set
up. That love story is devolved throughout the movie, and is surprisingly
well done. Most horror films will have the cheesy type of romance where
"guy-saves-girl-from-menace-become-lovers-at-the-end" type of love story,
and the one found here is done differently, and quite well too.
Fans of the
series will cry serious foul as this film isn't even the slightest bit
funny. Only one line gave me a snicker: finding Julie eating a man they
were trying to save, Craig remarks "How could you eat that man?" Not really
funny, but that was as close as we came to humor in the film. No stumbling
zombies stepping on others, no goofy slapstick that is caused by the uncoordinated
zombies, nothing at all for humor. It was probably cut out for the love
story, which, while well done, may not be everyone's cup of tea, so to
speak.
If the love
story isn't your kind of thing, the film has a lot going for it to give
it a good recommendation. Fans of the movie series will want to give it
caution as the film contains absolutely no comedy or even the chances for
it.
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- Released on Halloween, 1993.
- The first zombie we see in the film was actually a homeless man
that, special effects production supervisor, Thomas C. Rainone found while
looking for someone to play the part. To this day that man still lives
in a cardboard box near the L.A. airport.
- The military rank insignia on Colonel Reynolds jacket keeps disappearing/reappearing
throughout the movie. Especially while he is in the control booth during
the experiment at the beginning of the movie.
- Filmed on $2,000,000 but only grossed $54,207 in theaters.
- The chemical used for the Trioxin effect is actually called Coculigt
47-B.
- Actor/Director Anthony Hickox makes a cameo appearance in the
lab scene.
- Entirely filmed in Los Angeles, California.
- In the store, one of the thugs is playing "Street Fighter 2 Championship
Edition", but the sounds are from a different game.
- It took 5-8 hours to apply Melinda Clarke's zombie make-up.
- When Curt is dragging his dead girlfriend through the Army facility,
he peeks through a door to see a severed arm being experimented on. This
arm was also used in the filming of Bride of Re-Animator.
