Friday, July 4, 2025

Independence Day Traditions

 


Every July 3, I try to watch Dan O'Bannon's Return of the Living Dead.  I was up until 12:40 last night watching the 1985 zombie classic for the reason stated above.  Now Twister and Jaws are recognized as the ultimate in summer entertainment, but this one has its moments.  If you have the stomach. 

I distinctly remember Hemdale films pushing the crap out of this movie in the summer of 1985 while I was staying at my sister's house in Marshfield, Wisconsin.  That trailer got to me, even at the ripened old age of 13.  There was something disturbing about it, even though its in-your-face nature told you it was elbowing you in the gut.  Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, brudda.   

But it bugged me. 

I didn't really see it until the summer of 1986 after myself and some friends of mine in Waco, Texas ran from vandalism trouble, broke my key off in the door upon returning home, and hid in the dark making sure pursuers didn't follow us to the point that they knew where we were.  They didn't. 

After my co-horts went home, I went up to my room to watch the film.  By myself, as was often the case on Friday nights, my folks weren't home.  The movie had the same affect on me that I thought it would, watching the trailer the summer before.  Return is one of the few movies that can, with perfect balance, combine a disturbing underlying grim dread with laugh out loud dialogue and slapstick humor.  Not an easy tightrope to walk, but Dan O'Bannon manages to pull it off.   I mean, because this film is one of, if not the first zombie movie to feature the oft-hated "running zombies", our characters really seem like they're in a situation devoid of all hope as panic and numbers seem to be against them at every turn.  And then the military handles it just like one would think they would.  ]

The movie's opening feels akin to Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake in the sense that something feels off at the start.  You're uncomfortable in your settings.  And for good reason. 

Despite it's oft-comic nature and yuks, the film is really some grim shit. Yet, you're laughing. 

But that trailer in 1985, man.  It really freaked me out.  The looks of desperation on the faces of Clu Gulager and James Karen, the completely convincing utterance of Don Calfa as he chokes out "Things are getting out of hand here, Burt."  Meanwhile, punk legends 45 Grave's Partytime is blasting in the background as a complete antithesis to this grim and hopeless vibe rolling above it.  It may have captured the tone of the film it was selling, at least in my case, as well as any marketing conglomerate has in the history of filmdom. 

So, happy July 3rd, folks, and I am sorry if you can't make it to Burt's Sunday Barbecue because "the movie lied."



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