Review: Return of the Living Dead 2 (1988)

Stars: Thom Matthews, James Karen

Director: Brian Yuzna

Budget: $6.2 Million

Yes the second installation of the RotLD series. Directed by Mr Yuzna the man behind the Reanimator series, another of my favorite movie series's.
It kind of forgets the last movie but references it in some weird ways, which i'll get to later.

So it's late at night and some army truck carrying the same trioxin barrels from the first movie is speeding along on a road.
The speeding and a pothole knocks free a barrel which goes bouncing down into a ravine. A little later some bully and his friend cajole the kid 'hero' of the film down into a water outlet.
Inside the barrel has come to rest the kids open the top hatch and get scared when the glass clears revealing the zombie face. They all run and the bullies lock hero kid in a mausoleum in a graveyard. There he escapes and runs off after being told off by non other than Frank and Freddy from the first movie. Except this time they are grave robbers stealing bodies/parts for money.

Stupid bullies go back later and break open the barrel exposing themselves and the nearby graveyard to the trioxin gas. Once again Frank and Freddy get infected with the gas and yes throughout the movie the slowly change into zombies just the first. Freddy even, maybe in some weird fourth wall breaking way says later in the film i feel like this has all happened before!

So all hell breaks lose as the undead rise and infect the living once again into nearly invulnerable zombies. This one, even though the first was a horror comedy too has a much lighter tone not so doom and gloom. This was also the first one of the series I ever saw, so yes as usual i am jaded and this is my favorite of the five films.
I also realised in this one that Freddy, Thom Matthews is also Tommy in my favorite part of the Ft13th series, part 6. Unlike the first one they also find a convoluted way of finally dispatching the undead in this one. One of my favorite scenes involving a zombie dressed like Micheal Jackson dancing like him when they all die.

Over all as i said this is one my favorite zombie film by far number one on my list even it being comedy horror. Reanimator is also one of my fave fims too, Brian Yuzna just does something i like a lot when it comes to his films. So for this this gets the THN top fives stars and the strongest please watch I could ever put on a film.