Return of the Living Dead: Part II * (1987, James Karen, Thom Mathews, Michael Kenworthy) – Classic Movie Review 7703

Writer-director Ken Widerhorn’s 1987 Return of the Living Dead: Part II brings back James Karen and Thom Mathews from the 1985 original The Return of the Living Dead as zombies return to feast on the living in this sequel to Dan O’Bannon’s entertaining comedy-horror film of 1985.

Plenty of guts, gore and brain-gobbling cannot disguise the wafer-thin nature of the script, the lack of acceptable performances (apart from Karen and Mathews, who are welcome back as Ed and Joey, and Philip Bruns, who scores as a mad doctor, Doc Mandel) and the poor quality of the attempted humour.

Return of the Living Dead: Part II is zombie antics for Eighties video-zombies and a big let-down from the 1985 original.

Also in the cast are Dana Ashbrook, Marsha Dietlein, Suzanne Snyder, Michael Kenworthy, Thor Van Lingen, Jonathan Terry and Jason Hogan.

Return of the Living Dead: Part II is directed by Ken Widerhorn, runs 89 minutes, is made by Greenfox and Lorimar, released by Guild, is written by Ken Weiderhorn, is shot by Robert Elswit, is produced by Tom Fox, is scored  by J Peter Robinson and Vladimir Horunzhy, and is designed by Dale Allan Pelton.

Return of the Living Dead: Part III followed in 1992.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7703

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