Return of the Living Dead is a series of films that was produced between 1985-93.

Table of contents
1 Return of the Living Dead
2 Return of the Living Dead Part II
3 Return of the Living Dead III

Return of the Living Dead

The first film in the series was written and directed by Dan O'Bannon, the screenwriter on Alien, and loosely based on a novel by John A. Russo, co-writer of Night of the Living Dead. In this film, it is established that Night of the Living Dead was based on a true story, and that a gas exists which re-animates corpses. The gas is first inadvertantly used to re-animate corpses at a warehouse, and after the re-animated corpses are destroyed the gas is washed into a graveyard and re-animates the people buried there.

The film was released on August 16th 1985, and in the USA made $14m, which was almost triple what was made by Day Of The Dead, made by Russo's former partner George A. Romero (though this isn't known for sure, since no accurate figures exist on Day Of The Dead's income).

IMDb info

Return of the Living Dead Part II

The second film was written and directed by Ken Wiederhorn. In it, some kids discover a barrel full of the gas used in the first film, and they accidentally release it and cause more corpses to re-animate.

The film was released on January 15th 1988, and in the USA made $9m.

IMDb info

Return of the Living Dead III

The third film was produced and directed by Brian Yuzna, noted for making several horror films, including the Re-Animator series. It is more of a "Romeo and Juliet" film, rather than the Horror-Comedy film that the first two were. It involves the son of a colonel in the US Army, who is experimenting with the re-animation gas. After his girlfriend is killed in a motorcycle accident, he tries to bring her back to life with the gas, but she gradually becomes a zombie.

The film never received a theatrical release in the USA, and went straight to video.

IMDb info

It was rumoured that a fourth and fifth movie were going to be released in 2004 and 2005 respectively, but the info has been removed from the IMDb, suggesting that either production has been cancelled, or the info was never legitimate.