Return of the Living Dead, The: Collector's Edition (4K UHD Review)

Reviewed by: Tim Salmons
Review Date: Oct 31, 2022
Format: Blu-ray Disc

Director

Dan O'Bannon

Release Date(s)

1985 (October 18, 2022)

Studio(s)

Orion Pictures/MGM (Shout!/Scream Factory)

Film/Program Grade: A
Video Grade: A
Audio Grade: A-
Extras Grade: A+

Review

The Return of the Living Dead is one of those ultimate Halloween party movies. It's competently made with terrific make-up and prosthetic effects, has some wonderful dramatic and comedic performances, and contains both an excellent score and a memorable punk rock soundtrack. There's also an intelligence and a logic behind the film that has hardly been rivaled in latter zombie movies, even to this day. It pushed concepts like zombies wanting to eat brains into pop culture, not to mention that it's one of, if not the only, horror film to take place in Louisville, Kentucky. And being that I'm from Kentucky, that always made it that much better.

The story involves two warehouse employees working late on a 4th of July weekend. When they go down to the basement and inspect a bunch of sealed canisters containing human corpses that were accidentally shipped to the warehouse (“typical army fuck-up”), one of the canisters is unintentionally breached. It lets out a vapor that brings everything dead within its reach to life, including the corpses of butterflies, animals, but more importantly, people. When they attempt to incinerate one of the attacking cadavers, the resulting smoke infiltrates the atmosphere, causing an acid rain that brings a local cemetery full of dead bodies to life, and setting a local band of punks who were out looking for a good time on the run.

When Dan O'Bannon was originally brought on to direct The Return of the Living Dead, he wanted to make sure that it was going to be different than what George Romero had done. Because of his insistence that it be less of a sequel to Night of the Living Dead and more of a black comedy, the film morphed into something else entirely. It became a popcorn type of horror film, with seemingly endless amounts of memorable scenes and quotes. The yellow man, the tar man, a nude dancing Linnea Quigley, an undead half-dog sculpture, “Rabid weasels,” “More brains!,” “Send more cops,” and so on and so forth.

It's actually a bit of a miracle that The Return of the Living Dead was ever made, let alone a good film. From rights conflicts between writer John Russo and George Romero to director Dan O'Bannon's overbearing direction to various behind the scenes hiccups and clashes, the film's existence is a happy accident of sorts. It was also made in an era when zombie movies were still a niche thing (Michael Jackson's Thriller music video is probably the closest zombies had gotten to mainstream audiences at the time). It’s also fun just seeing the genre turned on its head.

The Return of the Living Dead was shot by cinematographer Jules Brenner on 35 mm film with Panavision Panaflex cameras with spherical lenses, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Scream Factory's Collector's Edition of the film debuts on 4K Ultra HD with a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, graded for high dynamic range (HDR10 and Dolby Vision options are included). Scream Factory’s previous Blu-ray release was a 2K transfer of an interpositive, and while this new UHD’s finer qualities aren’t immediately obvious, they will once the film is underway. Things soften a little during transitions or shots with title overlays, but the majority of the presentation is crisp with a better grain structure and a high bit rate. The grain is still thick, but it’s better managed. The new HDR grades bring new detail out of the color palette, deepening blacks and improving overall contrast. There are few areas where the grades have made things a tad too dark, specifically in the basement of the Uneeda Medical Supply building, but the pros outweigh the cons in this area. Everything appears clean and stable outside of minor speckling and the overall appearance is filmic and true to its source. The Return of the Living Dead has always been a little rough around the edges visually, but this new 4K UHD presentation is very good at preserving it as is without any tweaks or improvements.

Audio is included in English 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio, as well English 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio. For many years, some of the songs in the film were difficult to clear in the US for home video, meaning that the sound had to be altered, which the 5.1 and 2.0 stereo tracks presented here offer. All are present on the original mono soundtrack except for The Damned's Dead Beat Dance, which is likely never to be secured, though overseas releases are able to carry the song. Go figure. As for the original mono, dialogue is clear and discernible, sound effects are strong, and the music comes through beautifully. It’s obviously a little flat by its very nature, but it's a clean track and mostly represents the film’s sound design faithfully. The 5.1 and 2.0 alternate audio tracks are fine, but the original theatrical mix is the way to go. There are also subtitle options in English SDH, as well as a couple of additional subtitle tracks: Zombie Subtitles and In Their Words: The Zombies Speak. It’s worth noting that the 2.0 mono and 2.0 stereo options are mixed up on the main menu, meaning that the option for the original audio is actually the stereo track, and vice versa. This is also true when bringing the audio options up during playback. You can really tell the difference in the line deliveries of “Send more cops.” It’s a minor mix-up, but a quick toggle with the remote can fix that issue easily.

Scream Factory’s 3-Disc Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HD release of The Return of the Living Dead comes with a Blu-ray of the film in 1080p utilizing the same new 4K scan (and same mixed up audio audio options), as well as a second Blu-ray devoted solely to additional extras. All three discs sit in a black amaray case with an insert and a slipcover featuring the original theatrical artwork. The following extras are included on each disc:

DISC ONE: FILM (UHD)

Audio Commentary with Gary Smart and Chris Griffiths
Audio Commentary with Thom Mathews, John Philbin, Tony Gardner, and Sean Clark
Audio Commentary with Dan O'Bannon and William Stout
Audio Commentary with William Stout, Don Calfa, Linnea Quigley, Brian Peck, Beverly Randolph, and Allan Trautman

DISC TWO: FILM (BD)

Audio Commentary with Gary Smart and Chris Griffiths
Audio Commentary with Thom Mathews, John Philbin, Tony Gardner, and Sean Clark
Audio Commentary with Dan O'Bannon and William Stout
Audio Commentary with William Stout, Don Calfa, Linnea Quigley, Brian Peck, Beverly Randolph, and Allan Trautman
The Decade of Darkness (SD – 23:23)
Theatrical Trailers (HD – 5 in all – 8:31)
TV Spots (Upscaled SD – 10 in all – 5:23)
Still Gallery: Posters, Lobby Cards, Movie Stills, and Behind-the-Scenes Photos (HD – 85 in all – 7:21)
Still Gallery: Behind-the-Scenes Photos from Special Make-up Effects Artist Kenny Myers' Personal Collection (HD – 48 in all – 2:06)

DISC THREE: EXTRAS (BD)

More Brains! A Return to the Living Dead (HD – 119:43)
The FX of the Living Dead (HD and Upscaled SD – 32:49)
Party Time! The Music of Return of the Living Dead (29:31)
Horror's Hallowed Grounds (HD – 10:15)
A Conversation with Dan O'Bannon: His Final Interview (HD – 28:32)
The Origins of Return of the Living Dead (HD – 15:12)
The Dead Have Risen (SD – 20:34)
Designing the Dead (SD – 13:39)
The Return of the Living Dead Workprint (SD – 148:05)

All of this material is carried over from Scream Factory’s previous Collector’s Edition Blu-ray release, meaning that none of it is new, but it’s still an all-encompassing set of bonus materials. The first audio commentary features author Gary Smart (The Complete History of The Return of the Living Dead) and filmmaker Chris Griffiths (You're So Cool, Brewster!: The Story of Fright Night); the second features actors Thom Mathews, John Philbin, make-up effects artist Tony Gardner, and moderator Sean Clark; the third features director Dan O'Bannon and production designer William Stout; and the fourth features William Stout, actors Don Calfa, Linnea Quigley, Brian Peck, Beverly Randolph, and Allan Trautman. All of these tracks are fun and informative, and well worth a listen.

The Decade of Darkness is a brief featurette on 80s horror films featuring Stuart Gordon, Joe Dante, John Landis, Tom Holland, Bill Moseley, Catherine Hicks, Dee Wallace, Elvira, Allan Trautman, John Kenneth Muir, and Tony Timpone. The still galleries contain a total of 133 stills of posters, lobby cards, promotional photos, behind-the-scenes photos, and special make-up effects photos. Bill Philputt's fantastic More Brains! A Return to the Living Dead documentary features interviews with actors Clu Gulager, James Karen, Thom Mathews, Miguel A. Nunez, Jr., Linnea Quigley, Beverly Randolph, Jewel Shepard, Don Calfa, Allan Trautman, writer John A. Russo, production designer William Stout, make-up effects artists Steve Johnson, Tony Gardner, and a number of other participants. The FX of the Living Dead features William Stout, Bill Munns, Kenny Myers, Craig Caton, Brian Peck, Tony Gardner, Gene Warrnen, Jr., and Bret Mixon. Party Time! The Music of The Return of the Living Dead talks about the film’s punk soundtrack and features Dinah Cancer of 45 Grave, Greg Hetson of The Circle Jerks, Joe Wood of T.S.O.L., Karl Moet of SSQ, Roky Erickson, Chris D. of The Flesheaters, John Sox of Straw Dogs and The F.U.’s, Mark Robertston of Tall Boys and The Meteors, and music consultants Budd Carr and Steve Pross. Horror's Halloween Grounds features Sean Clark revisiting the film's shooting locations. The Origins of Return of the Living Dead is an interview with John A. Russo. The Dead Have Risen is a DVD-era featurette and features much of the main cast and crew. Designing the Dead is also a DVD-era featurette containing interviews with Dan O'Bannon and William Stout. Finally, there’s the workprint of the film, which includes over 20 minutes of additional footage. Even though it's in standard definition and in very poor quality, it's just nice to have it represented at all.

It’s worth noting that the original More Brains! A Return to the Living Dead documentary DVD release features a number of additional extras that haven’t carried over, including They Won't Stay Dead: A Look at Return of the Living Dead Part II, Love Beyond the Grave: A Look at Return of the Living Dead Part 3, deleted scenes, the Stacey Q live music video for Tonight (We'll Make Love Until We Die), Resurrected Settings: The Filming Locations Today, the Return of the Living Dead in 3 Minutes, and a trailer for the documentary.

Scream Factory's The Return of the Living Dead: Collector's Edition in 4K Ultra HD offers a much more even-keeled presentation with the same great extras package (despite the audio mix-up). For fans new and old, this one absolutely belongs on your shelf. Highly recommended.

- Tim Salmons

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