return of the living dead

A 1985 Horror comedy zombie movie created by John A. Russo, one of the script writers of Night of the Living Dead and directed by Dan O'Bannon.

In the film's universe, the 1968 Night of the Living Dead movie was based on an actual event when the US Military's new toxic gas, Trioxin, causes corpses to become zombies but unlike the movie where the zombies were killed off, the zombies along with Trioxin were sealed in military drums and kept in secret military locations. The film is set in Louisville, Kentucky in 1984 where a medical supply warehouse got sent barrels of Trioxin and zombies due to a clerical error. When two incompetent workers accidentally break one of drums, releasing Trioxin and a zombie, these series of events would lead to a zombie outbreak where the warehouse survivors along with some young punks trying to survive.

Unlike the zombies of Night of the Living Dead where they are slow, mindless monsters who eat human flesh, the zombies in Return of the Living Dead are smarter, can talk, run and eat human brains to deal with the pain of becoming a corpse. Furthermore, these zombies cannot be killed by normal means like a bullet to the brain, only by cremation and in the sequel, electrocution.

The movie was a moderate success and well received by critics. However, the movie got confused by consumers with George's Romero's Day of the Dead movie, which also released that same year. Return of the Living Dead would later have four sequel movies.