RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD 3

(1993)


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


Zombie Films
Zombies Frontpage
Monsters Frontpage