Return of the Living Dead III (1993)
October 26, 2022 1:20 PM - Subscribe

Julie, a teen who was killed in a motorcycle accident (Melinda Clarke, billed here as "Mindy Clarke") is revived by her boyfriend (J. Trevor Edmond) using the Army's experimental 2-4-5 Trioxin gas. Julie soon discovers she no longer feels pain and has a craving to eat human flesh... a craving which takes some extreme measures to make go away.

Go ahead and skip Return of the Living Dead 2, which is a real turd.

Directed by Brian Yuzna (Society, Bride of Re-Animator). Written by John Penney.

55% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently streaming free with ads on FreeVee. Also available for digital rental on multiple outlets. JustWatch listing.
posted by DirtyOldTown (7 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
People love to do bits on Twitter about "films you couldn't make today," but I'm legit unsure what the odds are in 2022 that you could make a movie where the cure to zombieism is aggressive and repetitive self-harm.

Julie is punk as fuck, though, and one of the more interesting characters in horror.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:21 PM on October 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


2 feels like a retread of 1 with less interesting characters and a stab at a "happy" ending but I love how 3 really zeroes in on a unique feature of the setting- the nature of a RotLD zombie and what it's like to become/be one- and just goes hard on "what would this be like?" It's a great way to do a sequel and it works really well.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:43 PM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


Mindy Clarke in RotLD III may be the hottest person who's ever been in any movie, and while that may and probably does sound objectifying, I think it is significant to any discussion of this movie, which I'm not sure would have held onto my imagination lo these many years later otherwise. I should also note that famed Chilean novelist Roberto Bolano wrote an essay that is literally just him recapping the plot of this movie, and I swear it was published in The New Yorker of all places, but I sadly cannot find a trace of it online.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:20 PM on October 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


I've only ever seen the first one, but damn, this one has some serious admirers.
posted by Naberius at 6:47 AM on October 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


I think it is significant to any discussion of this movie

When this movie came out ALL of the advertising was based around Melinda Clarke's character. I recall reading Fangoria coverage of the movie at the time (hey don't judge...) and Clarke was heavily featured. Even now anytime I hear any horror fan talking about this film it is always about Clarke's character. I'm going to go on a limb here but I suspect she was likely very formative in the early sexuality of a lot of the young people who watched this movie. Even to this day every physical release I've seen seems to rely on the same image of her character.

that famed Chilean novelist Roberto Bolano wrote an essay that is literally just him recapping the plot of this movie

My understanding was that it was for the Horror issue of Granta in 2011 and that he feels that basically the plot of RotLD 3 is basically autobiography for him. It is mentioned in the New Yorker that there was an animated short based on the story. I can't seem to find a copy of the work online (though it is in one of his collections) but via various reviews of the work it does sound pretty similar.
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:41 AM on October 27, 2022 [2 favorites]


I'm going to go on a limb here but I suspect she was likely very formative in the early sexuality of a lot of the young people who watched this movie.

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe
posted by Molesome at 11:08 AM on October 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


RotLD is my all-time absolute #1 zombie flick (sorry Romero, sorry Fulci), but RotLD 3 is riiiiiiiight up there. Zombies vs Punks and Zombie Punks, hammering nonstop on all my delight buttons. This may have also been the first Brian Yuzna film I recall seeing, fomenting a deep fandom for his wild-ass works and gruesomely fun adaptations.
posted by FatherDagon at 1:13 PM on October 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


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