All notes and summary below by Chris Fischer (1998).
Notes: 97 minutes.
Julie: Mindy Clarke
Curt Reynolds: J. Trevor Edmond
Colonel John Reynolds: Kent McCord ("one-Adam-twelve!")
Colonel Sinclare: Sarah Douglas
Colonel Peck: James T. Callahan
Santos: Mike Moroff
Felipe: Sal Lopez
Mogo: Fabio Urena
Alicia: Pia Reyes
Store Owner: Dana Lee
Chief Scientist: Jill Andre
Riverman: Basil Wallice
Directed: Brian Yuzna
Produced: Gary Schmoeller, Brian Yuzna
Written: John Penny
Summary:
The story opens with Curt and his girlfriend Julie sneaking into
the army's testing facility to see what Curt's dad, Colonel John
Reynolds, does all day. What they see is Dad trying to use the
chemical that brings the dead back to life to create the ultimate
biological weapon. Curt and Julie leave the facility and later
Curt has an argument with his dad and decides to run away to Seattle
with Julie.
Unfortunately, Julie fools around too much while Curt it trying
to operate a motorcycle properly and causes them to wreck. Julie
does a nice face plant into a telephone and "bing,"
she's dead. Curt has a brainstorm and decides to sneak her into
the testing facility to bring her back to life. It works but
Curt ends up setting one of the canned zombies free, causing some
hell to break loose. Curt and Julie escape anyway.
Julie slowly turns into a flesh-eating zombie but still for some
reason doesn't eat Curt. Those two must just have a good bond
between them. Eventually Curt's dad and some of the containment
personnel from the testing facility find Curt and Julie in the
process of stopping the zombies that Julie had been creating by
snacking on them.
Julie is placed in containment but Curt just can't handle the
thought of her becoming a biological weapon. He lets her and
a bunch of zombies loose at the same time, but he gets bitten
and is now destined to become a brain-sucker himself. With that
horrible thought in his mind, Curt and Julie throw themselves
into the incinerator, ending the story.
Commentary:
This third installment of the Return of the Living Dead
series in definitely different. Instead of a bunch of corpses
rising from a cemetery, only a few zombies are produced here and
there. The real theme that sets this movie apart from the first
two is the pseudo-love-thing between Curt and Julie. I guess if
I had to point out a message in this movie, it's don't try to
bring your girlfriend back to life with nasty chemicals if she
slams face first into a telephone pole. (The doctor in The
Brain That Wouldn't Die had a similar realization.)
Beer Factor: 6