Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993)

Plot Outline: A teenager brings his girlfriend back from the dead using the toxin gas that had previously been responsible for serious zombie incidents. But in doing so, he unleashes more zombies who have only one thing on their mind - brains!

The Review: It's nowhere near as good as the original and in my opinion, it's not as good as the first sequel either. This one more or less drops the dark humour aspect that the first one managed to incorporate and goes for a serious tone coupled with the whole love sub-plot. It's interesting to see a zombie film which finally deals with a character having to deal with the fact that a loved one is now a zombie. Usually the characters just cry and wail until the zombie takes a bite out of them. Here the film delves a lot deeper into that relationship, showing us the struggles of both characters to come to terms with their new existences. We have Curt, who has to deal with the fact that his girlfriend is now a zombie and things will never be the same again and we also have Julie, who is clearly upset at becoming a zombie and doesn't relish the idea of killing people for food. The scale of the film seems toned down as well. Whereas the other two films had armies of zombies running around munching anyone and everyone and the army and police having to deal with them, this has only a handful of zombies which are contained within a certain area. I rather enjoyed the zombie vs army plot of the previous two films and so when I found only a few zombies in this, I was immediately disappointed. There is a lot of gore as usual and some decent zombie make-up, especially with plenty of the cast being mauled and mutilated in horrible ways. The actors are competent enough to portray the necessary characters in the film, although too much time is given for characters for my liking. This is supposed to be a zombie flick, not Macbeth! Give us what we want to see and that's plenty of zombies running around munching on people, not a zombie who is into body piercing and S&M.

Final Verdict: It's a different sort of sequel than the previous flick and many will be upset at the lack of out-and-out zombie action like the previous two films. Get past that and you'll find a decent story coupled with plenty of gore which is a bit of a rarity in this genre.

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