The tagline for Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead is “A romantic comedy. With zombies.” The same can be applied to Brian Yuzna’s (Society , Beyond Re-Animator, Progeny, The Dentist) Return of the Living Dead III (ROLD III), sans the comedy. Yet, however original and intriguing the plot might sound, though ROLD III does possess its potential moments, the work as a whole crumbles under the weight of too many ideas handled all too haphazardly.
After another failed military experiment to reanimate the dead with 2-4-5 Trioxin in hopes of making zombie super soldiers for future wars, Colonel Reynolds (Kent McCord, Predator 2 ) is reassigned to an outfit in Oklahoma City. Upon being told the news of yet another move, Reynold’s son, Curt (J. Trevor Edmond, Lord of Illusions), a young teen filled with much angst, refuses, as he hops on his motorcycle with his girlfriend, Julie (Melinda Clarke). Predictably, the couple succumb to an accident and Julie passes away. Unwilling to deal with the loss, Curt snatches his father’s pass, enters the military compound, and reanimates Julie. The couple must then attempt to allude, not only the military, but also the underworld of hoods and gangsters, whom they inadvertently ticked off, as Curt tries to comfort Julie as she slowly transforms into a brain-eating zombie.
I entered the film with high hopes on two counts. One, I’d heard that the work parts ways with its successors and two, Brian Yuzna is in the director’s chair once again. Yuzna presents what the series would be known for: Variations upon a theme. As did Ken Wiederhorn before him, Yuzna lifted the military’s use of Trioxin from the original and wrote a script around it (albeit to Yuzna’s credit, a bit more imaginatively than his predecessor). Yet, ROLD III doesn’t hold together as Yuzna typically demands of his works. For example, we watch as corpse after corpse is exposed to Trioxin as the undead quickly rise again in search for brains. However, having been likewise exposed to the chemical, Julie slowly deteriorates. This is done in order to preserve the storyline yet, as any artist worth his or her creative weight knows, if the premise doesn’t hold, you shouldn’t beat a dead fetus. Furthermore, though Julie’s transformation is gradual, I could hardly tell a difference in the before and after pictures because Clarke’s acting coincidentally adhered to Julie-as-zombie, thus making it difficult to believe that a change had occurred outside of the makeup as her pre-zombie self comes across as trite and in desperate need of direction. Another qualm I have with the film is the use of the title and of Trioxin because, unlike its forerunners, the victims of ROLD III’s undead rise again (and wouldn’t in Part IV, thus making Yuzna’s version, in this respect, stand out like a sore thumb). Yet, we have very strong characterizations in this film, more so than in the previous two films combined. However, McCord’s performance blindingly outshines his peers as a precursor to Chris Cooper’s role as Colonel Frank Fitts. Lastly, the audio isn’t synched in various parts of the film, making it rather difficult to watch at times.
Yet the ROLD III did interest me in respect to the history of the genre. First, it is revealed that the undead’s urge for a specific part of the human, that is the brain in ROLD, is due to the fact that the electricity contained in the neurons in the brain is what alleviates the zombie’s pain. Interestingly, Julie thwarts her hunger via her makeshift sadomasochistic practice of piercing her entire body with most any sharp, metallic object within reach, so much so that by the climax of the film, she appears as Pinhead’s dream girl. We’re talking Grand Guignol to the nth degree here. Obviously, Yuzna and his makeup department felt that Clive Barker was onto something and saw fit to carry the British writer’s theme over into zombie territory. (Timely social criticism or cinematic blasphemy? You make the call.) Admirably, Yuzna delicately balances the character of Julie between a helpless femme fatale and dominating monster as she contends with her chaotic dilemma. Lastly, and perhaps intriguing for the sake of argument, is Yuzna’s presentation of the plight of someone who is undergoing zombie metamorphosis. Obviously Julie’s transformation has to be gradual in order to maintain the audience’s sympathies and interest in the couple, yet–mistakenly–it seems as if the director felt as if this idea couldn’t sustain an entire production without the inclusion of high action (however, focus remains on the couple throughout). I’m not aware of whether or not Andrew Parkinson got his inspiration for I, Zombie: A Chronicle of Pain from ROLD III, but of the two, the latter obviously proves that such a scenario–the zombie’s degeneration in and of itself–cannot only retain the audience’s interest (Parkinson even takes out the romantic angle and leaves his viewers with a solitary human-in-zombie-transit), but possesses the capability to produce a highly effective, empathy-inducing tale.
I do have to give credit to Yuzna for trying and, if nothing else, granting us two vastly interesting situations. One, he finally issues his audience the motivation behind the military’s interest in Trioxin. Second, I tip my hat to him for narrowing the focus of the series down to a single person, more so for turning the camera upon the subsequent deterioration of a human into a zombie (which serves as an avenue for Cronenberg-esque biological/body horror pushed to its limits). However, in lieu of the fact that Brian Yuzna minded his horror P’s and Q’s in joining an innocent with the condemned in order to create tension as the former attempts his vain flight amid nerve-severing gore and special effects that make even the most desensitized horror fan squirm, the film loses itself in all of its insanity. Perhaps another draft of the script or a more patient director could have pulled the work together. I can’t help but feel that if Yuzna would have attempted applying his ideas outside of the franchise’s constraint, he would have been more successful and had a worthwhile, if not an admirable, film to show for it instead of a disappointing failure.
-Egregious Gurnow
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- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
