Return of the Living Dead III (1993)

Those pesky teenagers, eh? When they're not stinking up the place with bongs and their pop music, they're sneaking into military bases to reanimate their dead girlfriends. Probably quite handy that the teenager in question's dad was in charge of the place too.I was all up liking this one after recently rediscovering the first film, and ignoring the second one (haven't seen it for years and still remember how bad it was). However, I felt kind of let down with this one. I can understand why Brian Yuzna tried to tell the story the way it was, with a tragic romance angle and what not, but due to all the drama and brow-beating (not to mention the teenager shouting "Julie" several hundred times, I couldn't help but feel that the old zombie angle had take a bit of a back seat. I'm not out for teenage love and Romeo and Juliet styles antics - I wants hundreds of the living dead pursuing the living. For brains! The living dead themselves didn't seem to have too much of a handle of them living, breathing folk and were put down before they had a chance to spread, which was a bit of a pity. I don't know - this one wasn't to my taste. Others might like it. Maybe it was played too serious for me.

Interesting 3rd sequel. With a interesting pair of young actors, Melinda Clarke and J. Trevor Edmond playing the ill-fated pair of lovers:Julie & Curt. Not really great acting but very earnest and refreshing. Kent McCord comes off better as Curt's dad,Colonel Reynolds. But then again he's had a lot of experience especially being on the TV series "Adam-12"Sarah Douglas had a good believable role as a snooty scientist but then again she is good at playing those "witch-type"roles. She seems to be typecast in that type of roles.Two actors that were completely miscast were Mike Moroff and Sal Lopez, these two great character actors have had and done way better. But here, being cast as two good old homeboys from the barrio was not believable one minute for me. Don't get me wrong they did they're best but they were just way too old for these type of characters, especially Mike Moroff.Jamaican actor Basil Wallace, who had an excellent debut in Steven Seagal's "Marked For Death", was also miscast somewhat as the homeless Riverman.But all in all a very interesting take on the zombie franchise and lore. Different also because getting bit by Trioxin zombie in the previous two Return of the Living Dead films did not turn the individuals bit into a zombie. However in Return of the Living Dead III it does. interesting note also was that At one point in preproduction, James Karen and Don Calfa were offered roles in this sequel. Both actors declined. Director Brian Yuzna on the DVD commentary regrets not coming up with a more proper name for the film as "Return of the Living Dead III" is too long. He suggested the title "Kurt and Julie" and admits that the title "Mortal Zombie" (which it was called in some places in Europe) was a nice name. And last but least, sadly, only the R-rated version is available on DVD. Those looking for the unrated director's cut will have to hunt for the VHS version :(

The good=Mindy Clark is hot! The bad=the rest of the movie! The zombie love story did not work for me at all. Storyline in short: military brat reanimates GF after getting her killed in an motorcycle accident, brats dad is in charge of the trioxin project ( apparently the military is so sharp they have not learned to leave this stuff alone yet!) allowing brat to illicitly gain access to secret facility, GF slowly descends to full zombie status-sort of. And believe it or not its all downhill from here. More annoyingly the director/writer paid little attention to the rotld rules spelled out in the 1st two movies. Unlike the 1st 2 flicks now you can be reanimated if you are bitten whereas the original established that only trioxin gas can reanimate the dead. The film maker seems to be confused with the night of the living dead series. In addition the electrocution angle introduced in pt 2 is forgotten and the living dead are referred to as virtually indestructible? Again, the military officers in this movie are about as sharp as bowling balls. Then there's the pain/hunger contradiction which another reviewer pointed out. Why call it ROTLD 3 if you don't follow the rules of the 1st 2. Tries to go in a different direction + fails. Avoid this if you are a fan of the 1st 2 or a sci-fi fan who has seen the other 2 movies. Add all this to the above mentioned plot(?) and you have one lousy horror flick. F/X were not bad though.

Zombies, gore, romance, humor, a hobo and a redhead -- "Return of the Living Dead 3" has got it all.Tweaking the formula a bit, this third entry in the series started by the late, great Dan O'Bannon plays almost like a zombie-fied Romeo and Juliet. Curt (J. Trevor Edmund) and Julie (Melinda Clarke) are two teenagers madly in love. Although Curt's father -- a prototypical over-bearing authority figure -- doesn't approve, the two seem to have a great life together ahead of them, that is, until tragedy strikes, and the experimental toxin from the previous two films is used to bring Julie back with mixed results. In short, this girl is hungry for love and lusting for blood.In many ways, this is an improvement over the tepid sequel that preceded it. You can chalk that up to director Brian Yuzna ("Bride of Re-Animator"), whose sci-fi and horror credentials suit the film perfectly. Rather than merely re-hash or dumb down what made the original work so well, Yuzna's film takes chances and has a feeling of freshness that still lingers even today. The characters are just credible enough to sell the romance angle, and the gore, while slightly restrained in the R-rated cut currently on DVD, is as wild as ever. Sure, it has a tendency to sag in its third act, but overall, "Return of the Living Dead 3" is an enjoyable if somewhat tragic thrill-ride that is unlike anything else you'll come across. Unfortunately, the series would continue in the form of two underwhelming made-for-TV movies that failed to live up to this superior sequel.