SCORETOBER!!!! Day 9 Return of the Living Dead!!!

Day 9

Return of the Living Dead

DO YOU WANNA PARTAAAAAAY!!!

Oh baby it is party time! I love this movie. Love the music. End of review and goodnight

The Film

Awesome, fucking fantastic, dudes dicks floppin around, titties bouncing and coochies poppin. Zombies being zombies. Check it out

The Music

Abos-fucking-lutely insane 80’s punk rock, but the damn thing, kick some trash cans in public, and play this AND ONLY THIS at your friends Halloween party because their music is SHIT

The End

Not even joking I legit sat here for a full hour like. Yup. That’s the review right there. No more need be said. Seriously, I’m in a super good mood. Lots of energy and happy. But yeah. This movie is just too damn much to contain itself, including the soundtrack. But

But…

Yeah I should actually write more then that. So fine, here we go. Just be warned, I love the hell out of this movie and the soundtrack is just blissful.

It also should be worth noting that, the man who came up with this? Was the same man who came up with the film ALIEN. Let that sink in before turning it on.

The Film

Possibly the best opening to a film next to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. We open simply with a word of caution to the audience, that everything you are about to see was based off true events. The names are real, the places are real. Nothing has been changed. It all happened.

It all started with a medical supply place called UNEEDA Medical Supply “You need it---We got it”

The events of this film take place July 3rd of 1984. I was 4 years old at the time.

The time? 5:30 p.m. eastern.

Freddy is starting his first night working for Uneeda, and he’s learning the ropes from the wonderful James Karen, playing Frank. James Karen has appeared in everything and anything since the mid 70’s right up until his death in 2018. Most of my generation might recognize him as Mr. Teague in Poltergeist. But this film, it’s followup sequel and Mullholland Drive are a few of the ones I remember him for, though I did love seeing him in Congo and Apt Pupil too.

He's a very laid back take things as they come, but don’t screw around here kind of guy. A good boss to work with, and an easy guy to make friends with. So long as you don’t screw around. Well with everyone preparing for the holiday weekend the place is pretty well quiet and locked up but these two are keeping busy. Frank is enjoying showing Freddy around the various medical supplies and rarities they tend to handle. From packing skeletons for science labs and school. To shipping cut in half dogs to vet clinics. You need it, they got it. Just like the sign says.

Well it’s going to be a bit of a boring night for sure. Which is good for a starting day on any job. Means you get to learn the place a bit better, and you can play getting to know you with your coworkers. In this case Frank.

Who’s taking a liking to the new kid and finds himself wanting to impress him a bit. So he pulls out the big fun guns, asking Freddy if he’s ever seen the movie “Night of the Living Dead”, well of course Freddy has seen it. Who hasn’t? Well what Freddy doesn’t know, and Franks all too happy to share with him. Is that the events of that film? Really happened. A chemical leaked from the morgue into the soil and caused some of the bodies to get up and start moving like they were alive again.

The only changes they made were in the names and how it happened. But it DID happen. The chemical responsible for the reanimation of the living dead was called 2-4-5 Trioxin gas.

According to Frank. The military cleaned up the whole mess, packaged up the reanimated corpses and sealed them up. Shipped off to a facility god knows where and accessible to who knows. But thanks to a slip up in shipping. A few of those barreled up bodies ended up being shipped to the Uneeda, facility.

Yep. In the basement of this fine establishment, there are tightly sealed bodies from the Night of the Living Dead incident.

Freddy calls bullshit. Which Frank was hoping for, so he’d have an excuse to take him down to their basement and show it off. Which Freddy is all too happy having Frank do. So our duo heads down stairs and with a flourish, Frank pops upen the secure top from one of the barrels, allowing them access to the small viewing window within.

Which greets us to the face of a zombie, laying tucked in for its forever sleep .

Now, whether it is alive or dead? Who can say. All we can say for sure. Is that they’re safely stored and leak proof. Which Freddy ask Frank about. Wanting to make sure they’re not in any danger, even if just looking. Well Frank takes pride in showing off to Freddy that of course these containers are safe! They’re made tough. Made by the U.S. Army core of engineers! He states this while giving a hefty slap to the side of the barrel.

Which immediately begins leaking and shooting out Trioxin gas into the room. Knocking out both Freddy and Frank. Starting our main credit sequence off while playing quite possibly the best theme in punk horror ever.

MEANWHILE!!

Outside the façade of the Uneeda Medical Storage. Local punks are hanging out and bored!

This gang of misfits, lead by Suicide, played brilliantly by Mark Venturini, who also is responsible for playing the best part in the second Friday the 13th film not featuring Jason as the killer.

With him are his gang of fellow trouble making misfits. Chuck played by John Philbin, Spider played by the great Miguel A Nunez Jr(Who also played in Black Dynamite!) Freddy’s girlfriend Tina played by Beverly Randolph. Casey played by Jewel Shepard, SCUZ! Played by Brain Peck WHO coincidentally made it into three of the Return of the Living Dead sequels. And of course, the unforgettable Queen of horror, Linnea Quigley as Trash. If you need to know who she is and what she’s done. Shame on you and your ancestors. She’s royalty in 80’s horror and still is today. She’s still awesome and rockin it.

So our gang of punks are hanging outside Freddy’s work as Tina plans on picking him up for their party after. However Suicide doesn’t feel much like hanging out for 2 more hours for the end of Freddy’s shift! So he’s looking for other ideas from the gang. Which one of the better options they spit out is “we could hang out at the park” which gets answered back with “No we can’t go to the park, the cops said they’d shoot us if we ever went back there”

Well surely there is an interesting story there, but we won’t be getting it. Instead one of them mentions hanging out at, of all places. The nearby Cemetery across from Uneeda Medical Storage. Resurrection Cemetery.

Again…this places are real, as are the events.

Speaking of. Frank and Freddy are beginning to come out of their temporary chemical nap. Both coughing and feeling, well. Not so great. In fact as their coughing fit takes hold, they also begin to vomit. Discovering the body that was inside the leaking cannister is now gone. They believe melted away when it came in contact with the air.

The two make their way up stairs, assuming things will clear up once they get upstairs and some fresh air. However when they reach their office. They are greeted to the quiet whimpering of a dog. Which is odd considering they don’t HAVE any dogs. All the have is half a dog for a vet clinic. Yes. Half a dog is now wagging its tail and whimpering. Butterflies pinned to a board begin flapping their wings, and more alarmingly. We hear painful screams from a cold storage room where they have one stored cadaver. Thankfully Frank thinks to lock it up just to be safe. Frank is a responsibly guy.

It’s a funny scene these two just ham up playing off one another as they go from one horrific discovery after the next, and one of my favorite moments between them is when Freddy ask Frank who they can call or if they’re just fucked. To which Frank, even during the realization dead things are coming back to life hasn’t forgotten his place as Freddy’s senior employer, and answers back immediately with “Watch your tongue if you like this job!”

It's a great what the hell moment and always makes me laugh, reminding me instantly why I love this film so damn much. So the duo go over their options and steps for handling this situation. They could call the army. Freddy reminds Frank there WAS an 800 number posted on the barrels incase of emergencies. But Frank is having none of that. That would mean having the army there and he doesn’t want that stress. So Frank does the best thing he can in that situation. The most responsible thing an employee would do in an emergency. They call their boss.

Again, I love this movie.

Meanwhile our group of punks are chilling out at the cemetery, and gearing up for one of the more memorable moments in the film, kickstarted by Trash who ask the immortal question of Spider, “Do you ever wonder about all the different ways of dying? You know, violently? And wonder, like, what would be the most horrible way to die?”, Trash with the deep questions here. Spider admits no, no he has not as he’s more focused on trying to think about staying alive.

Well, Trash feels like sharing with the rest of the group, so she begins going into detail, rather hornily some might suggest. As she talks about how, for her. The worst way would be for a bunch of old men to get around her, and start biting her, eating her alive. Tearing her clothes off.

To which Trash begins taring her short off and we have breast. Famous breast at that!

You might think, what is her deal? Why would she suddenly rip her top off in the cemetery? Does death just get her motor going? Well apparently no not just death as we hear Chuck announce in the background “Hey, somebody get some light over here, Trash is taking off her clothes again.”

Again….

So trash lives a free lifestyle. It’s very progressive. It also leads us to a great song on the films soundtrack as well as the now famous dance of Trash stripping butt ass naked on top of a stone burial mound. Hips swayin breast bangin and pussy poppin! She is having the time of her life and so are her friends who dance and circle around her enjoying the apparently common show of Trash stripping naked and dancing seductively.

Maybe its because she feels safe exposing herself in the cemetery. After all, you can’t doodle with a dead noodle.

Thank you, thank you…anyway.

Back at the medical storage facility. Burt the boss is present and yelling at his two hapless employees. Trying to decide how best to handle the situation. Asking how they handled the zombies in the Night of the Living Dead movie, assuming that there had to be truth in that film since it actually happened. Well they remember in the film you had to destroy the brain to stop the zombies.

So Burt orders his employees to open the freezer keeping the cadaver contained. Why?? Because they need to destroy the body. It’s evidence of the mishap and they just need to destroy the evidence to make it look like nothing ever happened and then they’ll avoid a possible lawsuit and creating an incident.

So he orders Frank to jam a pick through the zombie cadavers head. But Frank isn’t exactly up for the task. But it IS his boss asking him to do his…job. Meanwhile Freddy is given the job as new hire, to open the locked door.

This can only go well.

As the locked door is now opened. The very naked, moderately endowed cadaver pushes the door back forcefully, throwing Freddy back, and it lunges straight for Burt. Whom I should’ve mentioned earlier, if you hadn’t noticed before, is played by the one and only character actor Clu Gulager. He had a very impressive portfolio of film and tv work all the way up to his death which wasn’t too long ago. He’s a terrific and fun actor.

Well our cadaver friend is a huge fan apparently as he tackles Burt to the ground and begins a cuddle struggle with poor Burt, fighting for his life, and to stop the dead mans sack from rubbing his leg.

Our band of would be employee heroes help wrangle the cadaver off their boss and hold the body down. Burt takes matters into his own hands. Taking up the large pick and driving it through the head of the writhing screaming corpse.

Only it doesn’t die! He killed the brain but the body is still moving!, so he opts for plan B. Sever the brain from the body! He grabs a saw and much to the horror of his two employees, begins to saw the head clean off.

Does this stop the body? Hell no!

Now they have a head pinned to the floor by a pick axe, and a body struggling to move freely on its own. Another great scene and setup for an absolutely quotable line as Frank and Burt discuss what happened and how they don’t understand why the corpse is still moving, They did what they did in the movie. To which Freddy cries out in deep concern, “You mean the movie lied?!”

Seriously, I love these guys, they were great choices and it’s like watching a vaudeville act. Which is practically 80% of this movie really.

As they bicker and try to figure out their next logical step. Burt gets an idea. The only one he can think of to help them dispose of this evidence. Fire. But they need a lot of heat to get rid of a body. And there’s only one place, and one man he knows of they can turn for help. His nearby buddy and local mortician, Ernie. Played by another veteran acting legend Don Calfa.

While our bumbling trio work out just how to approach Ernie, Back at the graveyard. Trash has finished her dance, but isn’t exactly ready to put clothes back on. She feels free right now and that would only harsh her buzz. Not that anyone is complaining. Well Tina is. She ask Trash why she doesn’t put some clothes on since the shows over. To which trash turns to face her and ask “Why? Does it make you nervous?” Prompting Tina to leave. Soon We have Suicide and Trash left alone. Trash is, very turned on, and has the hots for our leader Suicide it would seem. As she begins rubbing her hands up and down his legs, even honking his hog as Suicide goes off on a funny rant about how nobody in this group gets him. They all use him for his car and never contribute to gas money. They think his clothes are a fashion statement. It’s not. It’s a way of life!

Trash barely hears a word he’s saying as she throws herself at him grinding on his body. Leading to the most punk thing ever. Suicide finally notices her asking what she’s doing. Then pushes her off, “What’s wrong with you man? Show some fucking respect for the dead, will ya?!”

Again, I love this movie. These moments. Oh man.

So, you might be wondering, how are our friends doing with the body situation? Well funnily enough Casey and Scuz notice Freddy and his co-workers carrying a large bag over to the mortuary.

“Hey. Is that Freddy?”

“No, that’s not Freddy.”

“How do you know?”

“Because, why would Freddy be going into a mortuary?”

The man they were waiting for, for two hours. Walks by and they don’t think it’s him. Okay cool.

So now we meet Ernie. Who Burt is going to sweet talk into letting him use his crematorium as a small favor. This whole situation is a beautiful mess.

I also appreciate the irony of these two friends. Burt and Ernie.

So burt hustles his men into the mortuary with a stretcher full of wriggling trash bags, much to Ernies annoyance.

“Wait those bags are moving, what’s in there?”

“Rabid weasels, Ernie”

Burt. Wants Ernie. To allow him to use his Crematorium. To burn the live bodies of rabid weasels.

Ernie thankfully knows this would be cruel and Burt agrees with him. But these are special circumstances and he feels it’d be easier to just do it this way. But Ernie wont have it. He says they can use his machine. But they have to let him kill the weasels first. Obviously this will not work for them. So Burt has no choice but to ask his friend to be calm, not say a word to anyone, and just believe what he’s about to show him. With minimal freaking out.

So he opens a bag, letting out a flailing severed arm that quickly grabs and tares the pant leg of Ernies nice merlot suit.

Thankfully. Ernie is…understand about the situation, and realizes they have a rather big problem on their hands. He agrees to help Burt, but tells him he’ll owe him big for this. This is no small favor. This is a very big favor. So he’ll think of how Burt can pay him back.

Well just like that all their problems are taken care. Of They are dumping the cadaver, the half dog. Everything that was wiggling wagging and living that should’ve stopped living. All of it goes into the crematorium and burns it all into smoke and ash.

Green ominous chemical gas.

That floats up to the sky and falls back to the ground as it begins storming suddenly. And just like that, the score kicks in and we are on our way to the dead waking up.

We also are at a point where I can promise you that Trash absolutely wishes she had her clothes on now. Especially since, oddly enough. The rain is burning their skin.

Speaking of not feeling too well. Back at the mortuary, as Ernie finishes burning away all signs of the mishap. Frank and Freddy are looking a lot worse off than before. They both feel sick. They’ve got the chills, they feel weak. Both men have dark circles under their eyes and their skin is turning pale. On top of that? Their tongues are black, and they both have no pulse. Which of course Freddy and Frank are handling as best they can. Even as two EMT’s are dispatched to try and help them and basically tell the two men that they shouldn’t even be alive. Which they again handle as best they can. Which considering. Again they handle pretty well.

As for our friends escaping the toxic rain. They were able to make it to the car. However Tina went off on her own for Freddy’s work, hoping to find him.

What she finds instead, is the best visual effect from this film, and still to this day iconic zombie. The films first talking Zombie no less. The Tar Man. The corpse that was missing from the cracked barrel earlier. He’s a mass of black droopy melting skin and gore. “Brains!” he declares and lumbers over toward Tina. Who makes a run up the stairs to escape only to have the stairs fall under her. She quickly hides herself away inside a nearby storage closet and locks herself in.

This is again, where this films zombies differ from conventional zombies. Not only can they talk. They’re quick, and they can think. As Tar Man looks around and discovers a nearby pulley with a chain. He attaches it to the door and begins using the pulley to bend and try to bring down the door.

Another reason to love this film. What they do with zombies is great, even if in a comedy. They were making changes to zombies that fans later would criticize films like The Day of the Dead remake for running zombies and Land of the Dead for intelligent Zombies.

Really there is so much fun in this movie and lore building its really great revisiting and looking at this.

Speaking of looking at this. Tina’s friends made their way to the Uneeda storage and hear their friend calling for help. Suicide leads the rescue party downstairs and they discover the threat against their friend. Which rightly freaks them out, and unfortunately takes out Suicide with one of the better kills in the film as the Tar Man cronches right down on top of Suicides skull.

So the group appropriately takes off running for their lives.

Leading us to a foretold event. As the group makes their way through the cemetery once more on their way to the mortuary. Fending off zombies popping out of the ground and behind trees. Unfortunately one of them, Is about to live out her fantasy. As nearly naked Trash who borrowed a top slips in the mud, and finds herself being eaten alive by a bunch of old men.

Pour out a 40 for trash y’all.

The rest of our group though is able to escape and make it to the mortuary, and find safety.

However the same cannot be said of the paramedics. Who made it as far as their Ambulance before being pulled out and eaten by zombies.

Since none of you can tell because this is a review. I really do have to bring up, that during all of this. From the moment zombies are coming to life, and running wild. People are seeking safety and fighting off hordes of attacking brain chompers. We are getting one track after the other from some great punk rock bands. And a great zombie moment as we see the paramedics being eaten while their base is radioing them asking if they are okay. A zombie picks up the cb and tells them “Send. More. Paramedics.”

Which they do! And of course those paramedics are eaten too. It’s funny as hell and I kinda wish more zombie movies had this. It’d actually make them more interesting and honestly a bigger threat. Which zombies. Slow moving at least aren’t a threat unless in an overwhelming mass. Running zombies are terrifying enough. But zombies that can think and talk? That’s scary.

Sadly though, as we get a quick battle montage of our group trying to board up and defend themselves, we lose Scuz. However he has the honor of being dispatched by one of the films second most memorable zombies. Which there are a few really good ones in this. This one is the torso if a red haired zombie lady with rather nice breast for a rotting reanimated corpse. I’m not saying I’d smash but. I am saying I’d raise a glass.

With their friend dead and this…half a zombie, our group decide to interrogate the zombie.

Which sounds insane. But they go for it, and bless them for doing so. Ernie has the bright idea of doing so and secures the zombie torso to his table. Asking the all important question of any zombie. Why do you eat people. The zombie moans out in pain that they don’t eat people. Only brains. Why? They feel pain. The pain of being dead. They can feel themselves rotting. Eating brains makes the pain go away.

I don’t know about you, but that’s some seriously creepy shit. When you discover the years you spent watching and praising zombie movies and shows do nothing to help you stop them and defend yourself against a literal unstoppable horde. And discover the reason these things will chase you down and kill you with such ferocity is to stop the pain they’re driven by? That’s some shit man.

Speaking of some shit. We are getting a surprise zombie pop up. Straight from the acid rain and mud of the cemetery, who should pop up and return to us but the one and only. Trash! In all her nude glory.

Which is rather hilarious because well. Trust me on this one. Yes she is naked and a zombie. But! She is wearing very appropriately placed latex over parts of her body which let the film get past the MPAA and gives the illusion your seeing something you ‘think’ you are, but really aren’t. It’s a fun bit of makeup and cleverness on the part of the filmmakers while keeping them from being straight up exploitive. But yes Trash returns. Mostly for the sake of showing off her new killer look, and killing a homeless man for his delicious pain relieving brains.

Oh. And speaking of. How are our poor friends Freddy and Frank? We hadn’t checked in with them lately. Not in a while actually.

Well unfortunately for them rigor mortis has begun to set in for most of the body. They too are feeling more pain as their bodies begin to shut down on them. Neither is particularly looking like they’ll make it into work tomorrow as well. So the group has little choice but for their own safety to lock the two up in the small chapel portion of the morgue. Which, being the strong girlfriend she is to Freddy, Tina decides to stay with the two men. Well mostly for Freddy, she doesn’t know or care about Frank really. Which is sad for Frank.

Well she has very little to do in this situation she’s locked herself away in. All she really can do is comfort her boyfriend, hope his situation improves and if not. Comfort him, until he turns into a pain fueled zombie craving her advil coated brains.

Which she does!

And yes indeed poor Freddy does turn into. It’s another thing I enjoyed with the movie, was just the idea that you didn’t become a zombie just from being bitten, but exposure to the Trioxin itself would cause it in both living and dead bodies. Every movie now deals with zombies, and zombie lore in their own way, and each likes to show just how the outbreaks happened. But back in the day they just sort of happened and you didn’t have much time for explanations. So what I’m saying is, you damn kids are spoiled! Stuff like this was gold for us and we ate it up!

Speaking of we now enter the last twenty minutes of this film and things are escalating in hopelessness. Between Freddy feasting in a not so sexy way after Tina. The rest of our group watching any who come near the building being eaten and killed immediately. It’s not a good time for anyone. In fact the only one that is having a fairly okay time? Is the one having the worst time, and gains the most sympathy. Frank.

Frank is turning full on zombie. But unlike Freddy, he isn’t attempting to kill Tina. The group hearing her calling out for help crying come racing to the chapel. Immediately attacking Freddy. As they do though, Frank escapes past the group with no intention of eating any of them.

The group secures Freddy as best they can in the chapel and try to decide on a final course of action to save themselves. They’re going to try and run for one of the vehicles left running by the paramedics and cops.

Frank has his own plans though. Which brings the feels and another killer track. Frank escapes from his friends and the desire to eat them, making his way to the crematorium. Removes his wedding ring and prays one last time. Before crawling into the machine and securing himself inside to burn. It’s seriously pretty messed up when you think about it and the guy did it to save himself from becoming one of those things, and to stop from killing his friends.

Hats off to Frank.

Unlike Frank, Freddy is blind with painful rage and is breaking free. Burt decides he’s going to make a break for it with Spider to get into one of the cop cars and try to drive it up to the morgue and get Ernie and Tina out. Well Burt makes it with spider to the patrol car alright. And they are immediately set upon by hungry fast zombies. Unfortunately it proves too much for the two and they realize with this many zombies around them, They can’t save their friends without killing all of them in the process. So Frank and Spider have no choice but to drive off and seek help. As they drive off, they only discover more hordes of zombies so they don’t get far. Just far enough to return back to Uneeda storage facility. Back where we started.

Thankfully, and SOMEHOW, Casey and Chuck are still alive! Those two were able to lock Tar man up in a room and keep themselves zombie free inside the warehouse. Good for them honestly!

Well Spider and Burt are now with them as they abandon the cop car with the plan to take Burts own car and get out of there. Uuuunfortunately, the cop car explodes, which them explodes Burts car as well as Freddies car, and Ernies. So they’re kinda screwed.

Until Burt has the best idea ever of all time. The same idea that Freddy their one time promising new employee had. Contact the number on the side of the barrel and alert the army!

Which unlike calling the police, the paramedics, and anyone within range of helping distance. Has immediate AND helpful results!

Meanwhile at the Morgue Ernie and Tina are left to watch as their friends take off and Ernie assures her that he knows Burt and those two will get help and save them. But for now they have Freddy to worry about as well as any other zombie that may break through. So he takes Tina up to an attic space. We find out then that zombies apparently can also sense our brains apparently! As Freddy tracks the two to their hiding place. Doing his best, and scarily easiest to break through and get to the two. Leaving Ernie with no hope for their survival as their odds of making it drop each moment he hears Freddy nearing breaking in. So Ernie pulls out his pistol, and slowly begins to aim at the side of Tinas head. Yup. He’ll take her out first and them himself.

Dark times pal!

So what of help arriving? Well as I said. The army has been alerted and now knows the cause of all these panicked calls and police chatter about multiple units being attacked and wiped out. Burt explains to an army general the entire story. How it began, where they are now, and what waits outside. The general assures him they can help. Even tells him they expected something like this and have a solution. So Burt shares this with the group and they all ask themselves the same thing. What solution and why were they just waiting for something like this to happen?

Well both of those are oddly enough answered at the same time. As the general makes a few calls and before you know it. The approval to launch a Nuke at the city is given.

And the funniest part is poor Burt and his group hearing a cartoonish sound of a bomb falling down from the sky toward them asking if anybody hears that.

At the same moment we return to Ernie, Tina and Freddy. Just in time to see Freddy burst through the door to their hiding spot and BOOM.

The bomb drops. Obliterates everyone and everything. The army confirms the bomb dropped and the situation is under control. When asked about the ashes of the dead and everything they’ll have to cover up? They are assured it will be fine as….its beginning to rain and the rain will wash away what remains.

And just like that we begin again and the film ends with a zombie popping out from its grave again, and we kickstart the soundtrack once more.

The End!!

I am STILL hyped up as this thing comes to its end and I love it.

The whole damn film is a blast and so much damn fun. Its silly, creepy and a cinematic oddity that just entertains none stop.

Its got a little something for everyone and how something like this came about let alone got made. It’s a story I honestly encourage people to dig into because it’s also fun. I could extend this by 18 more pages going into the shit I know about this movie but I really want to get to the key reason for being here already. Because the music. Oh man. Like Star Wars for Punks, this music is the driving force behind its fun. So lets do it!

The Music

This was something that stuck with me and taught me something fun. That movies could have a score of nothing but songs. Not only songs. But songs written for a film specifically. It was a new concept for me and I loved the hell out of it. I later discovered other films that did the same and famously so. You had Queen who did the music for Highlander and released the soundtrack as their album “it’s a Kind of magix”, you had Stephen King using AC/DC to score Maximum Overdrive. Fright Night also filled their soundtrack with tons of various songs made for the film.

It's a lost art I really wish some films would bring back. The idea of how this all happened and came about. It’s just so cool.

Having movie people approach music producers and tell them, hey we have a movie we need some music for and the director has boomboxes throughout the film so we need songs for it. From there, they went to the one group they knew loved horror. Punk bands!

They approached the cream of the crop and from there one call lead to another, lead to another and before you knew it, you had some of the early names in punk adding their music to the films soundtrack.

Every song is dripping 80’s greatness, beautiful fucking music, Catchy tunes and a Kroq playlist for most of us who grew up during the time.

Each and every song was a bit of magic unleashed on our ears. They all fit the story perfectly. The movie. Every key scene. Somehow it all just fits. Perfectly. And bless them for that. They even rewrote one of the key songs for the film to fit the movie events. Which did not really make the lead singer happy, lead to some long time fighting, but eventually the 45 Grave were convinced to rewrite the song “Partytime”

Which plays through a HEEEELL of a lot of the film, because it rocks. The music not only helped sell the film, but it became a hot issue for years with any release of the film. The music was done at a time where a lot of these bands weren’t dealing with copyright. They new next to nothing about it, or it just wasn’t really something they worried about with movies back then. Because of that, for years they had to replace some music with the rereleasing of the movie, It also kept it a few times from being released. Even when it would be, it could end up missing tracks. So it became something of a holy grail for fans to find their version of an uncut release of the film. Which thanks to Shout Factory we got the closest damn thing we will ever see to that with a pretty damn near complete score.

And that’s applaudable because well. Shit. Everyone got paid!

I have a hard time picking out favorites from this because the whole thing is just one of those perfect music albums you can start, and never skip a single track because the whole thing is just that damn good.

As much as Partytime rocks, and it really does. I really find myself loving tracks like “Surfin’ Dead” by The Cramps, if I want something moody I go with “Burn the Flames” by Roky Erickson. It serves as not only one of the longer tracks on the album but one of the more emotion driven ones.  They use it at a lot of key moments and most notably during Frank’s farewell into the crematorium.

The song used for Trash’s dance in the graveyard is just so damn catchy, “Tonight(We’ll make love until we die)” by SSQ.

The album is really like a time capsule, and at the same time it’s almost an introductionary album to things like punk, psychobilly, parody metal. It’s a gateway drug and it’s worth the addiction.

Honestly just check out the entire soundtrack there’s just so much good stuff in it here, and the music that wasn’t included on the soundtrack is great. So why not give it to you all here now!

BECAUSE YOU NEED TO LOOK IT UP YOURSELVES YOU LAZY BUMS!

Every song is great, it’s something you gotta listen to, anyway you can and anywhere you can find it. Seriously go do it, it will make your life better for it.

But that’s not even all.

Oh no no no.

See the soundtrack was the best damn thing in this movie that most people remember, talk about and love today.

BUT.

There IS also a score to this film! Which ALSO is just as amazingly done! It can though get lost in the mix when you compare it to a huge blasting soundtrack of multiple bands. But it is there, and it is beautiful. It was done by Matt Clifford, Francis Haines and Robert Randles.

BUUUUUTT

BUT. The score? Good luck finding it. It’s never officially been released. The closest you ever got was an unofficial release that honestly was more of a bootleg almost. But the tracks are out there! You just gotta look for them.

Tracks like “Tarman” and “Trash is Back” are great fun, but the one track that makes the film, and everyone knows has to be the ‘Trioxin Theme’. It plays throughout at different key moments, and it’s the funnest electronic synth you can ask for in a zombie film from the 80’s. It plays during the opening of the film when the cannister begins to spew out the gas, It plays again after the gas is released into the air and rain brings it to the graves below.

But great, great music. The fact it hasn’t been released officially still? Is just sad.

To own both the full soundtrack AND the score? Pure bliss. Absolute pure bliss. But we live in a world were people live Vinegar Syndrome exist and put out 4k versions of films people felt should remain forgotten and unseen. Shout Factory keeps digging up more and more treasures and features for each release of this film and others. So I mean. It’s possible. Never say never.

For now though. You can only appreciate it the way it should be and maybe that’s by design. Just watch the movie.

Watch the movie, then watch it again to appreciate and groove on the music, then again for the score. And just buy the new 4k version coming out and just appreciate it all over again.

It’s one of the greatest scores, and soundtracks, and best zombie films. You owe it to yourself to love it and listen to it. Or get a copy from your best friend and see if they hunt you down to get it back. Which they might.

Until tomorrow, Dance naked in grave yards if you want. But don’t slap anything made by the army core engineers containing any volatile chemicals.