A group of kids accidentally release a mysterious gas called Trioxin which reanimates the dead in a nearby graveyard. Soon the town is filled with zombies who only wants one thing - brains.
Return of the Living Dead Part II is an worthy sequel to its precursor, Return of the Living Dead, which basically is a bit like watching the original all over again, but that is not as great this time around. Still it has somewhat of the same stuff to offer when it comes to gags and gore, even though this sequel feels a bit more over-the-top when it comes to the gags, but that still works well. When saying that watching part 2 is pretty much like watching part one, it's because of that this one has pretty much the same story and the same type of stuff going on all the way through. The third follow-up kept the basic foundation of the ROTLD concept but steared away a bit more which was a good thing. This second part is not really half as good as the first flick, but considering the brilliance of the original, this one comes out not looking too bad either.
The plot of this movie is basically the same as the one in the original film with the army loses a canister of Trioxin that later is discover by a bunch of kids that open the drum, and so releases the toxic gas. There happens to be a graveyard close by and it doesn't take long before the dead walks the earth, looking for brains to feed on. The military is called in to contain the situation but leaves a group of people trapped in the middle of the town. After that it's basically the first movie all over again, with two actors from the original that were killed, here returns in pretty much the same type of roles, but playing different characters.
 
The problem with part 2, if comparing it to part 1, is mainly that part 2 focus too much on the humour and so leaves the real horror behind. It still of course features a lot of morbid horror, brain-eating and all that, but it's all done with a huge amount of humour. This is pretty bad since the first flick delivered a perfect mix of humour and horror, and even though it had its really funny moments, it could also turn to be very horrific at times as well. This movie doesn't succeed with delivering the same type of gruesome atmosphere and feels just way too over-the-top too many times the movie throughout, much of this caused by horrible (silly) acting as well.
But acting-wise it's not all bad either. If you just look at the acting in general, it's light years away from being anything close to great, or even that good for that matter. But considering the type of film we're dealing with here, the acting actually works really well for most parts of the movie. It's supposed to be campy, goofy and cheesy, whatever you like to call it, and therefore I feel no need to really complain about the acting either. The gore is quite good and will most likely satisfy a gorehounds needs, but it sure could've used some more serious types of those scenes because now the goofiness that is always present, sometimes ends up ruining a good kill/brain-feast/death... No biggie though. The score consists of, well 80's music of course, a lot of hard rock/heavy metal and add to that some other typical 80's stuff. It works well this time too, even though the first flick had better music to offer.
If you're a fan of the original, you definitely want to see this one too. Plot-wise it's pretty much like the first movie, and actually a lot of things apart from the plot are basically the same. It's not as good as the original though, but considering that it's a sequel, this is often the case. At least it provides some good entertainment and is a pretty gruesome and cheesy ride. Well worth to take a look at if you're up for some morbid 80's fun.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Revenge of the Living Dead
MOVIE YEAR: 1988
DIRECTOR: Ken Wiederhorn
WRITING CREDITS: Ken Wiederhorn
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
CAST: Thor Van Lingen, James Karen, Suzanne Snyder
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 89 min
RATING: 6/10
Return of the Living Dead 2 Website/IMDB Click here
Return of the Living Dead 2 Trailer Click here
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