Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993)

Movie Info

Being a zombie means never having to say “I’m sorry”

Julie Walker (Melinda Clarke) and Curt Reynolds (J. Trevor Edmond) are in love.  Curt’s father (Kent McCord) is a member of the military and overseeing a secret project…and he doesn’t approve of the relationship.  When a tragedy occurs, Curt uses his father’s access to the base to try to revive Julie…and unleashes something else in her.  Julie is hungry and only brains can feed her.  Can Julie and Curt ever be together again?

Directed by Brian Yuzna, Return of the Living Dead 3 is a zombie horror movie.  Following Return of the Living Dead Part II in 1988, the movie was met with mostly negative reviews.

Love the first two Return of the Living Dead films.  They took a rather stale (or maybe “dead”) zombie genre and turned it on its side again.  Night of the Living Dead revolutionized zombies with their flesh eating ways, but Return of the Living Dead added brains and comedy to the mix…I watched Return of the Living Dead 3 and waited for the comedy, but the comedy never came.

There will be blood!

Unlike the first two films, Return of the Living Dead 3 doesn’t play up the humor or the irony of the situation.  Julie becomes a zombie, and Julie starts eating people.  The zombies spread.  It is a rather simple zombie horror track.  Losing the humor of the situation and the laughs loses what makes Return of the Living Dead special and different…and all you get left is a rather generic zombie movie which is loosely tied to the previous two films.

The cast is so-so.  Melinda Clarke and J. Trevor Edmond play the star-crossed lovers, but McCord is bland and Melina Clarke doesn’t live up to someone like Linnea Quigley from the first film.  The gang members are weak and the military and scientists are under developed.

Riverman will help you!

Julie keeps control of her hunger by essentially becoming a “cutter” which is an interesting look at why cutting is something that people fall into as a means to feel or distract.  She becomes a rather decent looking zombie full of blades and points that gives her a real horror look.  The other zombies also look decent, but the sets and locations of the film look cheap.

Return of the Living Dead 3 is a rather disappointing entry in the series.  It is forgettable, which is something you can’t really say about the other films which preceded this one.  If the goal was to make a basic zombie movie, the film succeeds, but the fans of the series come in expecting something unique…and this zombie movie isn’t the answer.  Return of the Living Dead 3 was followed by Return of the Living Dead:  Necropolis in 2004.

Related Links:

The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988)

Return of the Living Dead:  Necropolis (2005)

Return of the Living Dead:  Rave to the Grave (2005)