 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 1988 film return of the living dead 2 now Upfront I have to apologize. My voice sounds different and if I end up coughing a little bit here or there or needing to clear my throat Apologies, I'm trying to get over something right now It's been a rough few days so physically speaking because man Terrible stuff, but during that time when I was feeling terrible I watched return of the living dead 2 and it made me feel better now the reason I'm reviewing this one right now and putting it out is because in Actually that lay a little bit later this month actually by the time I put this up Most likely it'll already be out and I'll put this up after it or a little bit before it But shutter is putting up return of the living dead 3 which I know a lot of people love love love in that series And so I hadn't seen the second one I just saw the first one last year and did a review for it which you can find on my channel so go check that out So I figured hey the third one's coming up. I'll want to watch that when it's on shutter So let me get number two give that a go and then I can put that that one out as a review as well And then do number three. So here's for number two watch for number three to hit my channel as well So how is it? Excuse me There you go, but it didn't take long. So It by all accounts this film and and tell me if you think I'm right or not in the comments if you've already seen this movie Because sorry, this will be a spoiler review because it's an older film But tell me if you think I'm right by all counts This film is the first film basically just with some things changed like the formula is almost exactly the same a lot of The things that happen are the same They just took like the same story structure the same ideas And we're just like let's just change it up a little bit And the idea was kind of like if it worked so well the first time and people really liked it How about we just do the same thing again? And people should love it and they weren't wrong like I Mean it did fine in the box office. I'll talk a little bit about that in a minute But for my opinion I felt like yeah, I was watching I'm like this is the same film But then I was like but I feel like that works like that's totally fine somehow It's still fun and that's the big thing is it's fun and they put comedy into it Which I think was another key thing that kind of made it more Forgivable that they kind of did the same film again So, you know, this one was written and directed by Ken Wiedermann or I'm sorry not Wiedermann Wiederhorn So Joe Russo didn't have anything to do with this one. I know Joe Russo. I'm sorry, John Russo Joe Russo's his son who works on Postmortem podcast with Mike Harris John Russo John Russo not involved with this one. I believe the first one It was based off a book that he did and I think he was Producer on that one or something but not involved in this one. So anyway So Wiedermann, Ken Wiedermann had done the film shockwaves eyes of a stranger and Meatballs part two which I have not seen I've seen the original meatballs and I love it If for no other reason than the quote of it just doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. I break that out every time Something kind of makes me mad at work. I just start chanting that, you know, it and it catches on it's good It's good to see Dana Ashbrook in this film in my opinion for people who don't know Dana Ashbrook He played the role of Bobby in the original Twin Peaks and he actually came back for the newer season that came out a few years ago I think two Two or three years ago now About three years actually at this point, but yeah, I just like Dana Ashbrook I think he did a great job as Bobby in Twin Peaks and I just love Twin Peaks So when I saw him in this I was like, I'm in that's cool So the film had a six point two million dollar budget and it ended up making nine point two million at the box office So it made three million dollars. So it you know, it was kind of successful. It wasn't like a gigantic success Even though it did actually did okay in the theaters. It was met with poor actual reviews Apparently it still has very very low percentages on like rotten tomatoes and stuff like that Especially from critics critics put it super super super low Audiences a little more forgiving, but since then it's obviously picked up kind of a cult following like a lot of these 80s horror films have nowadays that were terrible then By a lot of accounts and now people are rediscovering them and saying oh man Look how awesome. This is because it's terrible because it's so 80s The soundtrack was it's pretty good soundtrack Had two songs from anthrax on it. So, you know, it's got to be good Some good heavy metal anthrax there and I really like the cover art for the film But one of the things that occurs to me like immediately is that it looks just like the cover for Fright Night the original Fright Night and I was like wait, which one came up first, but this is 88 and I believe Fright Night was 85. So They may have just copied it from Fright Night because that's what it looks like, but it still looks good like, you know, it's okay The voiceover in the beginning of this film kind of giving all the backstory on trioxyn and everything I felt like was crazy corny The other thing is I really don't like when they have kind of like narrated introductions like that if you're not gonna keep with it At all and and incorporate it properly to just like do it real quick and then just leave it It seems like why even do it at all just have like a screen come up with just you know words on it That gives you the backstory so you can read it in whatever voices in your head I don't know the drug usage in the in the 80s in movies was kind of synonymous with people being aloof Slackers Idiots, you know some it was a clear signal many many times of either this person's going nowhere They're gonna get killed or something's gonna go wrong And that's definitely a play here early on when the government employee is Smoking a J and driving that truck and then whoop there goes the barrel and then you have part two of the equation to another zombie Apocalypse which is dumb children showing up and being like what's this? Let's break it. Let's push buttons on it Let's open it up. Yeah, it will end in the worst part of it, too It's like when they open it up. They've already seen that it's like a zombie basically I guess this goes back to the whole want to see a dead body thing These kids did see a dead body and then they want to see it closer up So they're like, let's let this dead body out of here. It just it doesn't really make sense But you know when I watched I was just like, okay First portion of this problem Idiot government employee check second part of this problem idiot children check Sounds about right to me could see that happening in real life. Just saying By the way, those barrels look awesome I know is like the same thing in the first film But I just really you know watching this it really occurred to me like how cool the design of the barrels are The fact that they're just not like just straight up barrels how they have like the little window in there And they have like the buttons on it and it's kind of like that flap where you have to remove the flap in order to Like see to the window It's just really cool and then when all that green smoke starts coming out of it that effect is super awesome and I wonder if that was even safe to have on Set and people like breathing all that in because it seemed really really really thick and What is coloring it green? Is that okay to breathe in? I don't know It was the 80s so people didn't care about their lungs all good Then we get to the grave robbing portion of it where that gets introduced And I just the first thing that occurred to me when that was happening is is it actually a good idea to Be grave robbing in daylight I mean I understand that it looked like it was kind of like this back road that didn't look like there were any people around but it just seems Way more risky than doing it at night and then at night you if someone does show up You might be able to hide or just not move and they won't see you in the dark So it was just like let's not you know rob graves in the daylight But I mean I guess they ended up getting what they deserve because they did that A combination of careless government already talked about that the careless government employees and the kids I like how the start of the plague is just like it happened in the first one pretty much and by that I mean like once the smoke gets out of the container. It's all It kind of like evolves the same way. It shows the smoke going out Over like graveyard and then like going up into the air and then coming down in the rain like that whole sequence is like exactly the same and I kind of That was the first moment that it seemed That it was gonna be the same film basically and I and I liked that because I felt like keeping it consistent of how it happens Is a good thing in my opinion. I don't know. Maybe I have different opinions on that You can say something down there Maybe some people just want to see something new but I thought it was cool that they did it the exact same way I liked it So while the first zombie looks good and he does the first zombie looks good And for that matter all the zombies in here look good the practical effects are good the costuming all that I Would have liked something a little closer design wise to tarman because tarman was the original in the first one And who doesn't love tarman like everyone loves tarman. He's iconic now I know that's probably more of a thing that's happened since it's become a cult following type film But the design of tarman was so cool It just would have been really awesome to see the original zombie or the zombie to kick it all off in the second one Also look like tarman. I just really wanted that I was hoping for it the whole time and I just didn't get it. So that kind of sucked but The the face punch scene with Brenda This is another situation of the practical effects looking really good when Brenda punches that zombie right in the face And it just like sinks in and there's just like all that like yellowish greenish goo that comes out That looked awesome. The caving in face part looked awesome and then like all the goo looked nice and Disgusting so I was very happy with that And then I also put it's really really fun. This occurred to me It's super fun if you take your time with this film watching to see how all these different actors portray zombies and like their movements like how they walk Because they don't all do it the exact same and it's very very interesting to watch So there are plenty of scenes in this where there's like a horde You know not like a gigantic horde but like a mini horde of zombies So if you just kind of like take your time and like look around like look at who's in the front Look at who's in the back and they're all kind of Some of them are a little bit similar but a lot of them are kind of doing their own thing So I just think it's cool to see like what's this person's interpretation of a zombie walk and what about this person and I don't know I just had fun doing that You always have those people who end up focusing on the wrong things in bad situations and Doc Mandel Was that dude? He was the guy with the car where the first the fact that like these people show up in his Garage who he doesn't know and he's just like oh, what are you doing in my garage? He's just very conversational about it. He's not like what the hell are you doing in my garage get out? He's just like oh, what are you what are you doing here? And then the and then the fact like all the zombies are happening And then he's just like oh that's my neighbor and he's just so calm and the things He's concerned about are such trivial things But you kind of always have those people who are just kind of like it seems they're a little bit dense and in Doc Mandel's situation. He's one of those people who's just like I Guess like I don't want to say like Idiot savant types, but almost a little bit like that You know those people are just super super book smart, but street smarts are just like out the window It's like they're the most clumsy idiotic people when it comes to common sense stuff But like book smarts are like amazing like that's Doc Mandel And that's one of the reasons I really like him as a character in this also the fact that the dude who played him I thought did an excellent job with that role He was really really fun to watch and it seemed like he had fun with the role And that's one of the best things is that comes through in the way the characters done Really like the comedic moment when James Karen and Tom Matthews characters Say that they feel like they've been there before I thought that was a very great nod to the fact that those two were used in the first film and then here They are being reused in the second film and they're not the same people So I feel like that was the proper way to address it because some people would be like wait a minute This is the same universe. This is a continuation of the first one those guys We're in the first one. Why are they different people in this one? So the fact that they put that little comedic moment in there It just diffuses the issue and that's one of the things that I think Horror films in general should kind of pick up on if you have issues like that Just put in a little comedic something to explain it away and one of the biggest ordeals lately that I was just going back and forth with someone about in in comments on my Review for the movie the invitation was that it's very hard nowadays with cell phones in horror movies to Explain why someone can't get to a cell phone or why they don't have a cell phone or why they don't have reception So they can like get help immediately So maybe horror or horror writers need to kind of keep in mind if you just throw something kind of funny in there to explain it Away, it'll make it better refer to Return of the living dead to and in that spirit. I Like the setup that even though Lucy is a super prissy girl She's also an extreme badass the fact that she's going for the guns and they're just like Oh, do you even know how to use this? She's like and that I think her brother her younger brother was just like she was like state shooting champ and I was just like It's about to be fun. It's about to be great And I kind of like that twist because you you assume based off the way She had been acting that she's not that type of person and then all of a sudden she's going for the gun and you're like Time to kick it into badass mode, which you didn't even know she had My favorite part is when Joey tells Brenda her brain smells so rich and spicy It's been a few days since I actually watched the film and then now I'm doing the review, but I Can't remember exactly how he said it, but it was something like it's so rich and Spicy something like that. It was so over the top. I just love the way it was done and for me like So when people see like bad acting like that and over the top acting some people just like roll their eyes at it and be like Oh my god, I can't stand it Me if it's done a certain way where it's like interesting bad acting like that line is I think I love it. I think it's just like fun and attention grabbing and so that's It's kind of dumb, but that's my favorite part of the film I thought it was really funny and I loved it. I know it was probably not intentional would be funny But well, maybe it was because there is comedy baked under this Awesome to see Mitch Pelleggi as one of the soldiers in this It wasn't a very long shot that you could see him in but he's there I think he was like manning the gun on top of like one of those jeeps military jeeps So cool to see him if people don't know who Mitch Pelleggi is he was Agent Skinner in the X-Files and after I saw him in this It made kind of made me want to go back and watch the West Craven movie shocker Which I did a review for on this channel so you can go and check that one that movie's not good And I actually probably don't want well, maybe I do want to rewatch it He's he's something else in it like Mitch Pelleggi does an outstanding job in shocker because it's so over-the-top and ridiculous and dumb and Yeah, it's worth seeing once definitely definitely The joke about the thriller music video I thought was pretty funny with all the zombies convulsing when they were being Electrocuted and then they had the one kind of jump into the frame and he's dressed like Michael Jackson in thriller and they're all like doing that I thought that was that was a funny joke And that's a great thing is like all the funny things that were supposed to be in this were funny and and that's one of the problems with a lot of Comedy that ends up getting injected into horror here and there is that like it's supposed to be funny But it ends up not being funny. So when it's done properly I'm all about it and they did a good job So in the end you actually really see in this how a zombie apocalypse can really bring people together you know people from all walks of life coming together to Live to survive they have to come together. They have to work together and they're yeah I mean, I think this film showcases very very well How not only does it bring people together? But it makes people more creative because you have to figure out how to get out of these terrible situations, especially Being showcased in how they take care of things at the end The score for this is a really good mix of upbeat and fun mixed with some creepy elements I kind of like that that goes along with the fact that it's not just a straight-up horror film It's kind of funny. So it wants you to have fun as well So I think the music matches very appropriately What matters most about a movie like this is the gore and how the zombies look Check and check on this one. That's the thing They delivered where they needed to deliver it, especially when you have the situation like I was talking about where they didn't do anything new It's the same story being done again with a few changes here and there So it's important that things look good zombies looked really good. The gore was really good practical effects great All right, and the acting was good, too. I mean like we talked about there's some bad stuff, but it's like fun bad Much like the first first film this plays on the fears of government incompetence as well as biological agent fears Which is something that's kind of I don't know that that's gone through through the decades Actually, I feel like every single decade, especially with horror films has at least some level of fear of either like government control or government incompetence and then Tied into like weaponry again, like we went through some about like nuclear fears and then there was the biological issues So this one showcases the incompetence and biological agent fears Honestly, I already said that that it's the same film in the first one they kept the scope of what was shown pretty limited That was just like at the graveyard Basically, and in that little morgue So in this one, it's actually really really nice to see a lot more like they they took you way Further into a town and I really like the kind of adventurous escape aspect of it in comparison to the first one Because I mean while it is cool when you use like limited sets because it can make it feel like more Clostrophobic and like it's harder to get away from the evil There's also something cool about seeing more settings and seeing how something like a zombie apocalypse Has impacted more of the town and it also is Interesting to see like how far does the issue spread and can these people actually get away from it in the first one It was just kind of a situation of they were just focusing on getting out of you know the cemetery area and You're just like who knows if they'll even be okay if they get out of there with this one They had already escaped like a house and you know like they escape numerous things But then the problem is still so following them So you're seeing how much larger it's growing how much more of an issue it actually is as opposed to the first one Where you don't get that it's kind of a I wonder what's going on outside of these gates So I kind of like that aspect of the second one So that's actually all I have to really say about the film on have to give it a rating now So out of five stars with half stars in play. I'm gonna give it a Can't go like super high cuz it's not super original or anything I don't remember what I gave the first one, but I feel like I want to give this like a Three and a half No, no, I don't think it I don't think it deserves a three and a half. It doesn't quite get to the three and a half I think it's more around a three point two five, but I don't do that. So I'm gonna go three I'm gonna go three. That's a good one. It's solid. Nothing wrong with that. So anyway, I enjoyed this Did you put some comments down there? Also, are you interested in when I drop the return of the living dead three and then should I keep going? I think there's like five total or something. Let me know that as well Obviously, I haven't seen these past when I'm doing them for the reviews. So You know put some comments down there. What do you what do you want to see? What are your thoughts on this film as well do me a quick favor and hit that subscribe if you like anything I do the way to repay me is to hit that subscribe and if you've already done that Thank you and just put a thumbs up Just do a thumbs up to give me keep me with the encouragement Keep me going with encouragement and let me know you're still watching. So thank you everyone for checking this out And until next time keep it brutal