HORROR BUSINESS Episode 108: Return Of The Living Dead & Return Of The Living Dead II
Greetings, and welcome back to Horror Business. We have one awesome episode in store for you guys because we’re talking 1985’s RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD and 1988’s RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD II.
First off thank you to the fine folks over at Lehigh Valley Apparel Creations, the premiere screen-printing company of the Lehigh Valley. Chris Reject and his merry band of miscreants are ready to work with you to bring to life your vision of a t-shirt for your business, band, project, or whatever else it is you need represented by a shirt, sweater, pin, or coozy. Head on over to www.xlvacx.com to check them out. Thank you also to Essex Coffee Roasters, our newest sponsor. Head to www.essexcoffeeroasters.com to check out their fine assortment of coffee and enter CINEPUNX in the promo code for ten percent off your order! And as always thank you to our Patreon subscribers. Your support means the world to us and we are eternally thankful. If you would like to become a Patron, head to patreon.com/cinepunx. Thanks in advance!
We start by talking about some of the stuff involving horror recently. Liam talks about watching the ‘80s classic The Gate for a CINE-WEEN piece, we talk about the newest Mike Flanagan series Midnight Mass and go on a brief tangent about the phenomenon of modern Christianity commodifying pop culture horror elements to try and teach scripture.(Hey friends, Liam here, during my discussion of the Vox article I didn’t enjoy I misgendered the author by mistake! I am very sorry for that, I should have paid more attention to who the author was and I skipped over that entirely. I know that with the vitriol and hate Trans folks are facing everywhere Cis folks like myself need to be that much more attentive to folks gender, and I honestly didn’t even bother to read who the author was. It was not malicious but it was insensitive and sloppy, and I apologize to them and to any trans and non-binary listeners who my ignorance may have hurt.) Liam talks about seeing the newest entry in the V/H/S series V/H/S/94. Justin talks about seeing Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
We start with Return Of The Living Dead. We briefly talk about the history of the production of the film, including the genesis of the differences between Romero’s …Of The Dead films and John Russo’s …Of The Living Dead films.
We then talk about how despite George Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead being what is popularly seen as the archetypical zombie film it is the ROTLD style zombies chanting ‘brains!’ that has seeped deepest into the zeitgeist. Liam postulates that this is possibly because of The Simpsons using brain eating zombies in one of their Treehouse Of Horror episodes early on.
We discuss the self-awareness the film has which put it above typical ‘80s horror fare, and how it has a few rather “heavy” moments, including the motivation for the zombies to consume brains and how that’s what Liam calls the “Dan O’Bannon factor”. We talk about how the film, despite having a somewhat stereotypical of punk culture, dives somewhat deep into actual punk music to create an iconic soundtrack. We discuss some of the more upsetting moments, including Linea Quigley’s initial transformation into a zombie and the actual design of her as a zombie, James Karen’s characters death, and the way the zombies are clearly aware of what they’re doing by consuming people.
Liam talks about how the film asks us both to have fun with it while letting us know it will make us uncomfortable, and Justin talks about certain scenes that have always upset him. We talk about the character of Tarman, and how despite it becoming something of a loveable mascot for the series later on their initial introduction in the first film it is extremely upsetting.
We examine the idea of how the film because it relies upon zombies that are re-animated chemically, cannot be killed by the traditional Romero way of destroying the brain and a headless body will simply keep attacking.
Up next is Return Of The Living Dead II. We begin by giving a summary of the film, with Justin giving a short list of the things he likes about it. Liam postulates that the film has two main ideas: better looking zombies than the first film and involving kids, but only actually succeeds in the first film.
We talk about how the movie really really tries to be funny but largely fails. Liam brings up the concept of a sequel just recreating the first film fails every time except for Evil Dead II.
We talk about how this is Liam’s first viewing of the film and how due to a lack of nostalgia for the film it feels very clunky and hard to watch.
Justin brings up that in a very basic sense this film doesn’t take the idea of the first film seriously at all and thus misinterprets the first film.
We talk about how the film has almost zero likeable characters that are relatable and how this film does what many people fear remakes do to the legacies of the original films.
First and foremost, thank you as always to you for listening and to everyone and anyone who donated on Patreon, checked this episode out, or shared a tweet/shared a post on FB/gave us love by recommending us to someone. We love you forever for listening and donating. Any questions, comments, suggestions for movies and guests, or if you yourself want to join us for a movie viewing or even an episode, can be sent to thehorrorbiz@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you! Thanks always to Justin Miller, Jacob Roberts, Paul Sharkey, and Doug Tilley for their technical contributions and fliers, Mike Smaczylo for the shirts and fliers (you can check more of his work out at here), and also thanks to Josh Alvarez for the theme song, Chris, Brad, and LVAC for the support and buttons (check them out at www.xlvacx.com and on Twitter), Essex Coffee Roasters (www.essexcoffeeroasters.com) and a HUGE thank you to anyone who retweeted us or shared something on Facebook that we posted. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @thehorrorbiz666, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/thehorrorbiz66, check out our Spotify account at Cinepunx, and remember to rate, review, and subscribe to us on ITunes. In fact, if you write us a review, email us with your mailing address and we’ll send you some free pins and stickers! Check out www.cinepunx.com for more info on some of our other podcasts, some ultra stylish Cinepunx related merchandise, and how you can donate to our Patreon! Until next time…thanks!
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