A brief explanation of the split in America's cinematic zombie mythology:
After the 1968 release of Night of the Living Dead, a dispute between co-writers John A. Russo and George A. Romero resulted in Russo retaining the rights to the "Living Dead" portion of the title. Romero, who directed the original film, went on to complete his trilogy with Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead (he later expanded the series with Land of the Dead and last year's terrible Diary of the Dead). Romero's Dead films continued with essentially the same "rules" set forth in the original film: there is no explanation for the sudden reawakening of the dead, the zombies crave human flesh, and if you destroy the brain you kill (or, re-kill) the zombie.
Meanwhile, John Russo doesn't seem to have done much of anything until around 1984, when he tapped Dan O'Bannon to write the script for Return of the Living Dead, based on Russo's own novel of the same name. When Tobe Hooper (director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist) dropped out of the project in order to direct Lifeforce (we'll get to Lifeforce later this month), O'Bannon (who wrote the screenplay for Lifeforce, along with Dark Star, Alien, and Total Recall) agreed to try his hand at directing. Confused yet? The situation gets even more confusing when you consider the proliferation of unauthorized sequels to Dawn of the Dead in Italy, but that's a story for another time.
Anyway, Return of the Living Dead came out in 1985, bringing with it a mordant sense of humor, an amazing punk-rock soundtrack featuring TSOL, the Flesh Eaters, and the Cramps, and an entirely new set of rules for the undead.
As you can see from the trailer, the whole "destroy the brain" thing doesn't work anymore, which means, in technical terms, that everyone is royally screwed. The zombies can also run and talk... although they mostly just repeat the word "brains." As you can also tell from the trailer, the movie is ruthlessly funny, employing the "deadpan" humor that also characterized so many mid-80s cult-horror classics.
For any fan of the horror-comedy genre (think Re-Animator, Dead Alive, Evil Dead 2, etc.) or for anyone looking for a great 1980s punk/new wave fix, I cannot recommend this film enough.
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