MovieChat Forums > The Return of the Living Dead (1985) Discussion > Relate the first time you saw The Return...

Relate the first time you saw The Return of the Living Dead

posted 9 years ago by !!!deleted!!! (22250229)
22 replies | jump to latest

ROTLD is my favorite horror film, period. Share your experience of the first time you saw it. When, how old you were, what you thought of it, etc.

For me, I can never forget it. It was a Sunday night, the night before 7th grade was supposed to start, to be exact. Earlier that day I was at the video store with my dad and he allowed me to rent this film, as my parents were always lenient with my movie choices. I was 12-years-old and the year was 1995. I popped the tape in, and lemme tell you, from the opening text about this film being true, I was frickin' hooked. Captivated. In awe. And scared outta my goddamn mind! The punk soundtrack, the characters, the snappy dialogue, the set design, the damn zombies that could run and talk, the unhappy ending - I'm telling you, I was floored.

Since that day Return of the Living Dead has been my favorite horror movie. No other horror film has been able to top it (lots have came close, of course, including Day of the Dead and A Nightmare on Elm Street, both of which I also saw & fell in love w/ around the same time).

Before returning that tape, I think I may have watched it at least another good 3-4 times. I don't think prior to that I had ever seen anything scarier than Tarman. And I'd seen a lot of horror films prior to that point. Ironically, I had seen the sequel first, back in the theater back when it originally came out! Dunno what the hell took me so long to finally catch up with the original. It's not like I hadn't seen the VHS cover dozens of times at the video store before.

One of the things I always find funny when I think back to those first few viewings over 20 years ago is I absolutely did NOT see the humor in any of it. I didn't find one iota of this film funny and it actually wasn't until a few years later, around '98 or '99, when I rented it again that I got how silly and hilarious it was. I'm pretty sure I had seen it in the intervening years on Monster Vision with good old Joe Bob, but still failed to find it funny!

I ended up making a copy of that rental tape with two VCRs and loaned it to a friend boasting about how awesome this movie is. He didn't find it to be anything special, so naturally out frienship just didn't last much longer, LOL.

In '99 the family finally got a computer and once I discovered eBay I bought an original Thorn/EMI clamshell case original that I kept until just a few months ago when I needed the cash. This was before DVD when all these older movies were out-of-print and for a popular film like Return of the Living Dead I believe I had to drop like some $40 on it. Crazy, huh, when nowadays you can get it brand new, in a much more convenient manner than going through a bidding war, for half that price?

Obviously I hold this film dear to my heart. So, what's your experience?

The calls are coming from inside the house.

[–] saulsx 8 years ago

I was in 2nd or 3rd grade when I first saw it. I would've been 9 or 10. Had a sleepover with a couple of friends & popped in the VHS for some reason. There were no adults around. Man, the 80s were great :)

The whole tone of the movie creeped me out. Tarman scared me, the rotted naked lady that got chopped in half & strapped to the table so they could ask her why she ate people, all the while, her severed spinal cord is wriggling around, talking about how she's in pain & knows she's dead (oof), scared me. The midget, the dog, the fact that the zombies could talk & seemed invincible was disturbing, and everybody getting effed really messed with me! Everybody. All the cops got wiped out. I distinctly remember the red-haired punk girl running up with her smooth, weird body, to a cop & chomping his head. The cute girl presumably got killed by the zombie boyfriend. The old dude cremated himself. Then the town got nuked, which caused the whole cycle to start over again on a much larger scale.

God. It was fascinating, scary, depressing, and revealing in several ways. Plus, it was one of the first times I recall seeing a fully nude woman (I didn't know at the time she was wearing a prosthetic patch).

I remember not being able to sleep at all that night, & for several nights after. Had my head under the covers. Was scared to move. For days, I couldn't approach closed doors, or solid shower curtains, without fear of there being something on the other side when I opened it.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCblhzhwdj1cKzh8s9xzVNtQ

[–] los-chupacabras 8 years ago

I remember the cover to the VHS tape, which I first saw in a video rental store not long after the movie was released. Every time I would walk through the horror section of the store I would see that cover. I never rented movies from the horror section because I was too chicken, but the covers gave me life, and this one always stood out.

Then one night in around 2003 I went to a "movie night" event at a local bar. They showed this movie on a huge screen, with an audience of around 100 people. It was one of the best nights of my life. And this is now one of my favorite movies.

[–] los-chupacabras 8 years ago

[–] brentwparks 8 years ago

I have been a fan of horror films since I was a kid. I had heard of this movie and saw the VHS at blockbuster many times over the years, but never had the desire to watch it. I had only seen "Return of the Living Dead 3" before and I think that is why I favor that one more. It has a more serious tone and I liked the "Romeo and Juliet" type of vibe the movie was going for.

I saw "Return of the Living Dead" about a month ago for the first time after a friend of mine got the Shout Factory/Scream Factory edition. I really liked this one as well. Very slapstick and overall very funny horror/comedy. The "Tar Man" zombie was awesome to see. Great practical makeup application. I also had just realized that this film was directed by Dan O'Bannon, the man responsible for writing the story for Ridley Scott's "Alien."

Overall, I really liked this one and I am looking forward to checking out part 2.

[–] kalo-wolf 8 years ago

I was 17 and saw it in the theatre when it was released in 1985 with my best friend. I was a punk rocker and loved the music and the gallows humor. The theatre was one of those little ones with two or three movies showing and the lights on the marquis on the main street of the little town we lived in (not like the megaplexes on the edge of town of today). I remember we were super amped after the movie and just walked all over town looking for something to get into but just ended up talking all night.

[–] Dan_Garten 8 years ago

Recalling some memories from back in the day:

One of the earliest meta horror movie I had seen.

I didn't find it all that scary or realize how funny it was at the time, but I did think it was really cool, weird, gross and entertaining. On repeat viewings, this grew into probably the coolest horror movie for me.

[–] mike_the_bloody 8 years ago

I saw this and Part II at a friend's house with his brother and another friend. We watched this, Part II and The Dead Pit (1989) in the same night. My friend's parents rented them from a local video store before it went out of business

"I'm just a happy camper! Rockin' and a-rollin'!" - Patrick Bateman, American Psycho

[–] CoreyHaimFan (1031) 6 years ago

October 1995. 7th grade. 12 years old. I invited the new foreign exchange student from Norway named Per for a sleepover, and my mom took us to the local video store where I picked out RTOTLD and he selected The People Under The Stairs. Turned out my new friend Per was a big horror fan as well. It was the first time both of us saw the movies.

After Donatos Pizza, and some SNES action we watched People Under the Stairs first. Good. Ok very good. B+.

But then we watched ROTLD. Now understand that while I say I thought Per was a horror fan, I was a HUGE horror fan. I had been a huge fan of horror since I was 4. Yeah super young. I have an older brother of 6 years and a mom that both love horror. They watched it. That, and I grew up watching USA Saturday Nightmares. I saw the unedited Day Of The Dead when I was 4. I loved gore. It didn't scare me. In fact, the only movie that gave me nightmares came from Fire In The Sky, when I was 10 and there were great shows about aliens like Sightings, X-Files, and sometimes Unsolved Mysteries.

But anyways, back on the original topic... we watched it in my parents basement. It was dark except for the TV. People Under The Stairs was great but mildly scary. ROFTLD was awesome from the get go. The based on a true story thing to us 12 year olds really set the tone.

We both loved the full TNA early on, and the zombies and creepy music were great. I was really engaged, and intrigued by the faster zombies. And that unlike the Day of the Dead zombies I was used to, these only liked brains instead of the whole body and they couldn't be easily killed. Where the Romero zombies were manageable these were difficult.

I loved the scary Tar Man, but my friend Per was terrified. I think it was more than he was used to. Every time there was gore, in his heavily accented voice would say "That is too sick! That is too sick!"!

[–] TimMC (9143) 5 years ago

I was in college and my roommate loved it when the black guy with soul glow threatened the torso of a zombie with these words(I THINK) "I'll buss 'im in the damn head".
He said that line over and over. It was funny but it got old fast.

Cheers.