Hooptober X #20 - country: United States, decade: 1980s

The Return of a Living Dead is a horror comedy that gets the balance right. Obviously, this isn't the only way to do it, but this movie manages to be fun and amusing while also managing to have genuine horror and stakes. It isn't exactly trying to be scary, but it features some genuinely horrific elements, albeit executed in such a way so as to not be too upsetting. And for what it is, this movie is also really well-made. It clearly isn't going for high art, but there's some really good camerawork and sound design and top-notch effects, which help to sell the horror scenes.

As for the specifics of the plot, I really enjoy how the characters make terrible decisions constantly, really selling the feeling of panic and not being able to think straight. The zombies are a fantastic interpretation of the concept, breaking away somewhat from the Romero zombies with some great new mechanics that make them much more threatening than the zombies we usually see. It's a shame that other movies didn't continue this interpretation.

As for complaints, the early scenes of the punks hanging out wore pretty thin. The comedy didn't really land and the acting frankly wasn't up to scratch. I realise that the acting is meant to be goofy, but with Don Calfa and Clu Gulager bringing a surprising level of gravitas, the acting there looked quite bad. Also, having one character spend basically all of her scenes naked felt really cheap to me. The gag was kind of funny at first, but it quickly became clear that it was just an excuse to see a naked woman. And lastly, the pacing felt a bit off towards the end. Despite being pretty short, the movie started repeating itself towards the end, which is a shame because it was so entertaining up to that point.

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