Return of the Living Dead III (1993)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Brian Yuzna

Writer (WGA):

John Penney (written by)

Release Date:

10 August 1994 (France)

Genre:

Horror | Romance | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

She's To Die For.

Plot:

Colonel Reynolds and his group of government scientists continue their work on re-animating the dead for military use...

Plot Keywords:

Gang | Zombie | Video Game | Self Mutilation | Father Son Relationship

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Kent McCord	...	Col. John Reynolds
James T. Callahan	...	Col. Peck
Sarah Douglas	...	Lt. Col. Sinclair
Melinda Clarke	...	Julie Walker (as Mindy Clarke)
Abigail Lenz	...	Mindy
J. Trevor Edmond	...	Curt Reynolds
Jill Andre	...	Dr. Beers (Chief Scientist)
Michael Decker	...	Science technician
Billy Kane	...	Waters (Sentry)
Mike Moroff	...	Santos
Julian Scott Urena	...	Mogo (as Fabio Urena)
Pía Reyes	...	Alicia
Sal Lopez	...	Felipe
Dana Lee	...	Store owner
Michael Deak	...	Cop #1

Also Known As:

Return of the Living Dead 3 (USA) (DVD box title)
Return of the Living Dead Part III

MPAA:

Rated R for horror violence and gore, and for language and sexuality.

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Germany:18 (heavily cut) | Germany:Not Rated | New Zealand:R18 | Denmark:16 | USA:R (edited version) | USA:Unrated (uncut version) | Australia:MA | UK:18 | Mexico:C | Spain:18 | Finland:K-18

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Bandai Visual Company

Trivia:

Onscreen death count: 17.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The dead cop being eaten by the shopkeeper zombie blinks when a piece of viscera drops near his eye.

Quotes:

Curt Reynolds: Julie, are you eating him? You should stop it.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis (2005)

Excellent sequel, much better than I had anticipated.

Return 3 starts off very poorly. Actors are pretending to be in the military in a very cheap looking set. As usual in many low budget horror movies, moronic teenagers decide to break into a top secret military facility for fun.... <sigh>, and naturally accidentally release whatever the base is trying to contain. I was prepared at that point for the worst and settled myself in for 90 minutes of frustration. Return of the Living Dead 2 was one of the worst sequels I had ever seen, so I really wasn't expecting much from Return 3. But then something happened, and Return 3 got better and better. There was a real story! The director actually tried for some character development! There was suddenly plenty of extremely well done gore! There were some moments of real horror!

The scenes where Julie starts cutting and impaling herself were difficult to watch, that's how well done they were. The movie moves from a cheap horror-comedy into a well put together love story with incredibly gory effects. I actually really felt for the main couple, even though she was slowly turning into a zombie! Normally, one of them would get whacked which would give the remaining person a few lame Arnold-type lines, and an excuse to obliterate whatever (or whomever) is supposed to be the bad guy. However, this movie doesn't follow that formulaic path. It takes a very weird turn halfway through and never looks back.

When Julie makes her transformed appearance in the sewer, it is truly an awe-inspiring site! They actually managed to make her look both incredibly repulsive and very sexy at the same time. This film reminded me a lot of the Ginger Snaps movies in the type of character development pursued within the confines of a horror movie. Very pleasant surprise.

8/10