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Return of the Living Dead III (1993)

★ — Return of the Living Dead III (1993)

The third instalment in Dan O'Bannon's Living Dead series, this 1993 entry shares almost nothing with its predecessors beyond the franchise name and the basic conceit of military-grade reanimation chemicals. Director Brian Yuzna was by this point a familiar face in low-budget horror, having produced the original Re-Animator and directed Society (1989) and Bride of Re-Animator (1990), and he pivoted the material toward something closer to a body-horror romance than outright comedy. The production was a US-Japan co-venture, backed partly by Bandai Visual, which was an unusual arrangement for a straight-to-video horror picture of this era. Melinda Clarke, largely unknown at the time, took on the physically demanding lead role, and the film represents something of a breakthrough performance in terms of sheer commitment to prosthetic make-up and physical transformation.

This movie is not good. In fact, it’s barely a zombie movie. What we have here is a bizarre, poorly-acted, deeply uncomfortable attempt at a tragic undead love story, if the undead lover had spikes coming out of her head and screamed like a stabbed pig at irregular intervals. The plot is a guy brings his girlfriend back to life, she becomes a clawed, spike-covered nightmare, and instead of leaning into the chaos… the movie tries to make us care about their doomed romance. It’s like Romeo & Juliet meets Zombies, and neither side asked for this. There’s no fun, no gore, no real horror, and definitely no charm. Just awkward dialogue, weird body horror for no reason, and a finale that’s more laughable than tragic. An ass movie. A true waste-of-time sequel.

Rating: ★ | Year: 1993 | Watched: 2025-07-20

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